Jump to content

mitchbertch

Members
  • Posts

    9
  • Joined

  • Last visited

Blog Entries posted by mitchbertch

  1. mitchbertch
    Although it may not seem like much, there are a lot of physics involved with eating a donut. First, you have to apply a force on the donut when you pick it up and raise it to your mouth. Since the average donut weighs in at about .04 kg, it takes about .4 newtons to lift a donut. it also takes roughly .4 Joules to lift a donut from the table to your head. lastly, if you bite really hard into the donut, you will exert anywhere from 500-700 newtons. that means the donut bites back with the same amount of force. So next time somebody makes fun of you for eating a donut, just tell them how much work it takes.
  2. mitchbertch
    about a month ago, me and a friend decided we wanted to blow some stuff up, so, as any normal person would do, we built a potato gun. after about an hours work, we finished and decided to test it out. there is actually an enormous amount of physics in firing that thing. first of all, when the explosion occurs, the gas expands which exerts a force on the potato causing it to fly out of the potato gun. this can relate to newtons 3rd law because the potato exerts the same amount of force on the gas as the gas exerts on the potato. of course, i couldve figured out how far it shoots using the distance formula, but i dont know the initial velocity.
  3. mitchbertch
    as everyone probably knows, there is a ton of physics involved in snowboarding. when one rides a snowboard down a hill, you can get going pretty fast. this is because of the very low coefficient of friction between a waxed board and snow (right around .05). the coefficient of friction is determined by 2 things: the nature of the surfaces, and the force of gravity aka your weight. since the 2 surfaces are very smooth, there aren't a lot of bumps to cause friction which can really allow for a lot of speed. another way physics is involved with snowboarding is when you go down a steeper hill, you go alot faster because the force of gravity is more direct.
  4. mitchbertch
    when you go skydiving, of course there are physics involved. upon jumping out of the plane, gravity starts pulling you down with an acceleration of 9m/s^2. if you are smart and want to survive this event then you would most likely have a parachute with you. when you pull the cord, the parachute opens which causes you to slow down. the reason it does this is because it increases your surface area which creates alot more drag/air resistance. so if you are going to go skydiving, make sure you have your parachute because physics says so.
  5. mitchbertch
    the catapult that my group built was somewhat of a success, thanks to physics. when we pulled the trigger, our weights were pulled towards the earth at a rate of 9m/s^2. when this happened, it exerted a force on the arm of the catapult which rotated around the pipe. the force of the weights on the arm was exactly the same as the force of the arm on the weights as newtons 3rd law states. when the other end of the arm reaches about 45 degrees, it lets go of the softball which was traveling at around 7m/s. the project was really fun but it also taught me about how much physics is involved with everyday life.
×
×
  • Create New...