Sunday, September 7, 2008

Physics on my Bike


Today is a lovely day for biking.  I road around my neighborhood on my bike until I came to the end of the road.  I decided to turn left around the corner and ride down another street.  I approached the turn with negative acceleration even though I was moving forward because my rate of change in velocity was increasing as I slowed down.  As I was turning, I was still accelerating even though I was moving at a constant speed because I was changing directions.  Acceleration is change in velocity over change in time.  My change in direction was changing my velocity because velocity is displacement over elapsed time.  As a result, I was still accelerating as was rounding the corner.  After I turned  with constant speed and positive acceleration, my acceleration increased as I sped up out of the turn in a forward direction.  After I circled around the block I had a negative acceleration coming to a stop in front of my house.  My acceleration was negative because my change in rate velocity was decreasing as I came to a stop.  Whenever I ride my bike I will always remember the day I realized I was accelerating as I turned down that street today.

7 comments:

kohara said...

Is that Hawaii Kai?

"I approached the turn with negative acceleration even though I was moving forward because my rate of change in velocity was increasing as I slowed down."

That seems awkward... Negative acceleration if you are going forward means you are slowing down. These are good concepts to master. I was there today (at China Walls)

Erika said...

hah..ya that's hawaii kai..not exactly by the rich china walls section though..and i spelled rode wrong and don't know how to edit my blog fyi..

brandon said...

sweet bike.

maxx said...

i wish i had a bike :[

Erin N. said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jcarlile09 said...

Feezeeks

jcarlile09 said...

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/PHO/AAGU160-No288~Rey-Mysterio-Posters.jpg 619!!!!