Walking may be one of the most underestimated phenomenons in the modern world as the simple act is done effortlessly by nearly every able human alive. When walking, the foot is planted into place since the force of friction between the foot or the shoe and the ground stops the foots velocity in the x-direction. Once the front foot is planted, the back foot is able to push off the ground, causing the normal force to push back against the foot and allow you to keep walking forward. While running,
Playing sports in high school, you start to look forward to any opportunities to leave the swampy grass for the fresh turf field. Since Pinegrove fields are uneven, rocky and often have large spots of grass missing, the turf is always a better option. However, playing on turf does not always end well for a variety of reasons.
The good: traction. Turf provides excellent traction as it increases the coefficient of friction between the ground and cleats, enabling for sharp movements. On grass,
A trampoline is a great example of spring potential energy and a restoring force, but it also brings up another question: why is there a 'maximum' height and why can you "double bounce" someone to make them fly higher than that maximum height. As a person begins jumping on a trampoline, their kinetic energy is converted to spring potential energy when they contact the trampoline, and then converted back to kinetic and gravitational potential energy as the person leaves the trampoline towards the
Growing up, my best friend had a tire swing in his backyard. While it provided trivial entertainment, looking back, a tire swing involves quite a bit of physics. First of all, there is the connection to the tree. The swing needs to be far enough away from the base of the tree in order to prevent accidental collisions, but it also needs to be sturdy enough to withstand human weight. The further out from the base of the tree you put the swing, the more torque that is applied to the branch as the l
In honor of my Ovechkin's 500th goal (my favorite player on my favorite team), I decided to look into the physics behind the infamous slapshot in hockey.
The basic physics of the slapshot include the windup that produces torque applied to the puck and the transfer of energy to the puck, but there is a lot more physics involved that launches the puck with such a high velocity. First of all, the collision with the puck is mostly elastic, but considering the huge noise produced during a shot,
The B-2 bomber, commonly known as the Stealth Bomber, is an extremely expensive military aircraft capable over flying undetected across the globe. First of all, the bomber can travel over 6,000 miles without refueling due to its aerodynamic shape. The entire aircraft acts as a singular wing, due to its "flat" shape, which allows the resistance from air to hit the slightly angled bottom and push the aircraft up against the force of gravity. Since the aircraft can almost travel at the speed of sou
As I may have mentioned before, I have an obsession with cars and specifically expensive cars. Growing up, the aesthetic appeal drew my attention, but as I now have my license it is a mixture of the ride as well as the beauty of the car (Yes, I still enjoy driving even in my minivan). Anyway, fast cars usually have an extreme look to them which serves two purposes. First, it makes sure people know you spent a ton of money on the car, but also it functions as a way for the car to generate downfor
Fast and Furious, in my opinion, is one of the greatest film series of all time. This weekend, I decided to re-watch the 6th movie for probably the 4th time. Although the movie is highly entertaining, a lot of the stunts in the movie are clearly not possible in real life due to some basic physics concepts.
For example, one of the biggest scenes in the movie is when Dom jumps from his car (moving at over 60 mph) and dives across the air to catch Letty in midair, and then the two of them lan
In the winter, my favorite outdoor activity is snowboarding and sometimes, I get a little too reckless. However, this post will go through the physics of a simple 360 in the air on a snowboard, which can be applied to skis as well.
The first important part in landing a 360 is making sure you can hit the jump with the perfect speed to clear the "table" part and land on the actual landing. This is critical because if you under/undershoot the landing, you will most likely fall due to the phys
All my life I have skied and snowboarded in the winter, frequently hanging around the terrain parks at Bristol. Early on I would watch in awe as people went off the biggest jump at Bristol called the "booter", and eventually I started to hit the jump as well. It is quite scary as it propels you tens of feet in the air and keeps you flying for multiple seconds, but it is completely safe all because of the landing. It is common knowledge that bending your knees can help reduce the impact of a fall
Since we learn that objects consistently gain velocity in free fall motion due to the acceleration of gravity at 10 m/s^2, why doesn't rain and snow wreck havoc since it is falling from an insanely high distance? One reason for this lack of speed, especially with snowfall, is because of air resistance and drag forces. The net force on a snowflake would be the weight (mg) minus the drag forces acting on that object. Since snowflakes are relatively porous and non-aerodynamically shaped, the drag f
It is not surprising that shape has a lot to do with the movement and speed of objects, but it may be surprising that dolphins pose such a question to researchers when it comes to their advanced swimming techniques. The shape of an object can determine numerous factors of an object that are integral to its performance. For example, race-cars are built with a specific shape in order to produce high amounts of downforce while airplaines are built with their wings in order to create lift when pierc
Have you ever dropped a ball and had it bounce once normally before taking a crazy second bounce? I'm always watching out for this phenomenon when I have a lacrosse ball on a hard surface, but I've never really understood what was going in. The main factor causing the crazy second bounce is actually the spin on the ball acquired during the first bounce. As the ball falls, it usually has a small amount of spin or is traveling at an angle that isn't 90 degrees. As the ball hits the ground, the ide
In the past few years, Madden NFL video games have adopted real time physics, an extremely complicated technology that allows the players in the game to react according the actual physics. In previous Maddens, a spin move would result in one of four tackles, and there were only about 10 different types of tackles, making the end of plays appear too staged. However, real time physics enables the characters in the video game to react to a force from an opposing player as they would in real life, c
Since Brandon McManus and the Denver defense just rescued the aging Manning's playoff hopes, I thought I'd celebrate the victory with a blog post about the physics of the NFL field goal.
The field goal post is 10 feet high, so the necessary vertical displacement is around 3 meters. The width of the field goal posts is about 5.6 meters. For an average NFL field goal, lets assume the kicker kicks the ball at a 45 degree angle. (Angle is greater for shorter field goals, but smaller for longer
After reading Zach's blog post on a phone cracking, I started thinking about the one thing I have been doing since I got my first cell phone to prevent it from cracking: kicking it.
I usually try to catch the phone on my foot or at least slow its fall, but it is interesting to actually think about the advantage of doing so due to the physics behind the phone's fall and impact with any surface. First of all, the best way to prevent a falling phone from cracking is by trying to catch it with
Since I'm sure everybody is watching the Denver Broncos vs. New England Patriots game right now (its currently halftime), I'm sure many of you are thinking how could the Patriots miss an extra point. Well, if you are curious, visit my previous blog on field goal kicking. More importantly, I'm sure some of you are like me, nervous due to Peyton Manning's lack of throwing ability in his old age. After his neck surgery, and since he is approaching 40, his arm strength is decreasing, requiring him t
This past weekend, I saw a giant game of Jenga at MIT. Literally. The blocks were nearly 2x4s, and the structure was taller than I am. While I did not stay to watch, it is interesting to think about a few of the different strategies that I remember from my childhood days. First of all, I used to believe that the faster you pulled the object out, the less chance a collapse would occur. While I'm not sure of my logic behind this reasoning, I most likely imagined that hopefully the structure just w
I'm not sure if I "blogged" this in the right spot, but this is the opening blog post for physics c, approximately 1 of 40. I had homeroom in the physics room in 9th grade before the school rightfully realized how useless homeroom was (I had to walk from 3rd floor of IHS to far side of Dake for french 1st period). Anyway, I enjoy hanging out with my friends, camping, playing sports (soccer, lacrosse and CYO basketball) and snapchatting in my free time and one could describe my snapchat game as "
Cars, especially sports cars, often have their horsepower compared as a somewhat ignorant method to determining the faster car. However, this is not the most accurate way of making judgement because there are other variables, some much more important, in determining a cars acceleration or top speed. While an engine's horsepower provides the force, accelerating the car, it is important to remember the basic fact that F=ma. Therefore, a 4000 lb car with twice as much horsepower as a 2000 lb car wi
In the great game the Denver Broncos happened to win, there was a critical personal foul called in which a Denver player blasted the New England receiver shortly after the receiver caught the ball, incidentally hitting the receiver helmet to helmet. Considering that the average NFL player can run 15-20 mph and weighs around 200 pounds (90 kg), that is a lot of linear momentum that the receiver is being hit with. When the player is hit, a lot of the energy is dissipated as the players come to res
The simple art of Kan Jam or any other frisbee related game seems skills based, but it may help to have knowledge on the physics of the flight as well. The first aspect of a frisbee is the design. Most frisbees are relatively thin with curved edges, which make it more aerodynamic, creating lift while in flight. Similarly to cars, the curved shape at the front of the frisbee allows for air to pass over the frisbee faster than air passing under it, making the air above the frisbee at a lower press
People have started to worry about the roads in Rochester as a thin coating of snow, or ice, can cause cars to start sliding due to the lower coefficient of friction between rubber and ice rather than rubber and asphalt. This sensation, although scary for most drivers, is often sought after by drifting. Drifting is the process of purposefully kicking out the back-end of a car around a turn, for the thrill and awesomeness, an then corralling the car as the driver comes out of the turn. Although o
Last fall, some friends and I got obsessed with playing darts (Nate and ZZ). Although we were all relatively the same in terms of level, we each had distinct styles. I preferred to throw the dart with a lower velocity and angle the toss so it would land where I wanted it to. Nate on the other hand would throw the darts with a much higher velocity, but shoot the dart relatively straight at his target. Zach, well, he just threw the dart at the board and hoped it would stick. Anyway, although Nate'
As the upcoming CYO basketball season is nearly upon us, I have been pondering the physics behind the three point shot in basketball. Perhaps not the most proficient three point shooter (I'm more of a drive in the paint player), I am trying to expand my game to become a threat from all parts of the floor. First of all, one of the simplest concepts in basketball is that the closer you are to the basket, the higher the launch angle you have to use, so when shooting three pointers, this launch angl
