As I have learned from participating in CYO basketball over the years, maintaining control of the ball is dang hard and nobody on my team ever has been good at it. But when attempting to dribble, I cannot help but wonder what sort of physics are behind what would seem such a simple motion. To begin, why does it seem to work that the ball almost always bounces lower in respect to its original height that it had been dropped from? This is because of a rule discovered by many a physicist that e
As David may have already informed you all with his post basketball season is quickly approaching, and analyzing the physics of the game will hopefully allow our team to not be absolutely horrible so we can have fun and actually win for a change as we dribble and twerk down the court. But as everyone may not realize, the physics starts much sooner than simply when the basketball is released. Lets divide the game into individuals sections and take it from there to figure out how to be a total b
Many common materials like wood, water, plants, animals, diamonds, fingers etc. are considered not to be magnetic but are in fact very slightly diamagnetic. Diamagnets repel, and are repelled by a strong magnetic field, and two of the strongest known diamagnetic materials are bismuth and graphite. Compared to the forces created by traditional magnets, diamagnetic forces are exponentially weak, however when arranged and prepared properly, can produce startling effects, levitation in this case.
Carbon Nanotubes are obviously tube shaped materials, made of carbon, having a radius measuring on the nanometer scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or a bout one ten thousandth of the thickness of human air.
The nanotubes have a variety of different structures, differing in length, thickness and the type of helicity and number of layers. However, most of the carbon nanotubes are formed from the same graphite sheet essentially. The differences listed above are what lead to di
Black holes are quite legitimate and in fact very boss indeed. A black hole is formed when a big 'ol star in space undergoes a process called gravitational collapse, in which most or all of its mass is compressed into a very, very small area of space, causing infinite spacetime curvature!!! :worked_till_5am:
This means that nothing, not even light can escape from the border. And although we apparently know so much about them, nobody has ever actually observed a black hole. The theory of bl
This blog will, as many of you may have expected, examine yet another sports related topic. In this case we will look at another very impressive athletic feat, this being the serve of tennis legend Andy Roddick. Like Chara's slap shot, the serve is composed of multiple different phases, each incorporating a multitude of physics concepts in every small motion. These include the wind-up the toss and the strike, respectively.
As the toss goes up, players press their feet against the court, us
