Today I finished work on a mini-motor made using a copper wire armature, a 9V-battery, two rubber bands, and two paper clips. The motor looked like this: a battery with two paper clips bent into stands on either side (attached with rubber bands) and a magnet on top. The current running through the armature made the motor work.
Here's how: we know that current is equal to I=V/R. Therefore, we must have a source of voltage for the current to run through the system. The battery provides the current's voltage. The paper clips conduct the current and as a result of the current's movement, the armature spins.
In order for the current to flow through the armature, I scraped the tops of the wire on either side of the loop while the loop was perpendicular to the table. I did it this way so that the force of the magnet's magnetic field, when acting on the armature, would cause a torque. The force would have been felt, but not have caused a torque had I scraped the armature while the loop was parallel to the table.
The armature spins because of the torque when it is connected to both sides of the battery, completing the circuit. If I added fan blades to the motor, it could keep me cool as the quickly warming days indicate summer's approach. Additionally, adding sharp blades would make me a blender and adding wheels would make me a car.
This is a video of my motor in action!
Friday, April 24, 2015
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Wednesday, March 4, 2015
Mousetrap(ped) Car!
This past week in Physics, we, in pairs, built cars that were powered by mousetraps! The purpose of the project was see how all of the concepts we learned over the course of the year could be applied to achieve our goal of building a car that would go at least 5 meters. The group with the fastest car would win a milkshake and a question omitted from the final exam.
So... How does physics apply to this project?
Newton's 1st Law
The car in motion will continue to be in motion unless a force pushes it backwards. In the case of the mousetrap car, this force could come from friction between the axles and the frame, friction on the mousetrap spring or friction between the wheels and the ground.
The only friction on the car that is actually helpful is the friction between the wheels and the ground. As you'll see explained below, the larger the force between the wheels and the ground are, the more the car will be propelled. In order to create more friction there, we added electrical tape to the wheels. The tape had the same gripping effect on the ground that rubber tires have on roads. Contrarily, too much friction between the axles and the frame would cause the wheels to stop turning entirely.
Newton's 2nd Law
Acceleration is equal to force over mass. The force causes the car's acceleration but if there is too much mass, the car will not be able to accelerate as much as it would be able to with a smaller mass. Therefore, we wanted our frame to be as light as possible.
Newton's 3rd Law
In this situation the action-reaction pairs are: car pushes ground back and ground pushes car forward. This causes a reaction from the axle torque which causes wheel torque. Therefore, the bigger the wheels are, the bigger the lever arm must be and the bigger the torque will be. It is important to remember that torque is what causes rotation. Since we wanted our car to follow a straight course, we wanted our car to have the smallest torque possible.
My partner and I built our car using:
Remember:
Originally, we intended to use wooden discs (larger than CDs) for our back wheels because we knew that they would have a high rotational velocity. However, the wheels were so big that their rotational inertia was high enough to make them ineffective. We also increased the length of our lever arm to compensate for the rotational inertia of our CD wheels. Since the wheels were large, our lever arm needed to apply more force to the axle in order make sure that the car would travel 5m. Additionally, our original design had axles underneath the body of the car, attached with hooks. This was not as efficient because the hooks were much larger than the axles, which allowed them to wobble around within the hooks. We fixed this by drilling holes into our new frame that were marginally wider than the axles. The use of the frame also made the car's body more narrow and less subject to air resistance.
My partner and I ended up restarting our project about three times. Initially, I thought that this would be easy-peasy because I made a mousetrap car for another science class about 4 years ago. However, that time I had my science/math geek dad to help me. This time, my partner and I were on our own. Almost all of the issues we encountered resulted from our lack of true preparation. Unlike some of our classmates, we didn't have a specific set of instructions that we were following. Essentially, we were just putting parts together and hoping for the best. The first major goal we had was for our car to go to the finish line after we pushed it. This took until the day before it was due because we didn't think through our entire plan before beginning to build. Since we didn't have a concrete idea of how our car would work and how we would execute its construction, we ran into a lot of issues like gluing things on before considering what that would keep us from being able to do. Another issue we had was that once we got our car running off of the mousetrap, it would stop just before the 5m mark. We didn't stop to think about the physics as much as we should have. I think that had we considered that a little more during each step of the process, we would have realized that our lever arm needed to be about six inches longer than it originally was in order to have a greater force on our axle. The most frustrating mistakes, however, were just results of us rushing through the process. We were each frustrated, stressed and tired of burning ourselves with the glue gun and it was easy to stop ourselves from taking the time to do things correctly. One vivid memory of an example of this is when, after starting our frame over for the second time, the wood cracked. It was the afternoon before the car was due and I felt like the world had come to an end. I had been confident that finishing the frame would mean success for us. Unfortunately, we were back to square one. Again. After that, my partner and I measured everything meticulously and devised a methodical plan for drilling holes for the axles. As a team, we moved up drill-bit size by drill-bit size until we reached our goal. That experience helped me realize that doing things carefully would keep us from having to do things more than once.
In the future, I would follow clear instructions and take my time. I truly believe that my partner, Annie, and I would have finished much sooner had we been methodical from the start. I think that taking the time to make sure that everything was perfectly measured and even may have increased our speed. Additionally, I would have used CDs for the front wheels as well and made the frame a little bit smaller. I hope that the next time we have a building project, I will make sure that I have laid out all of my steps and measurements before I actually begin to build.
 |
| Final mousetrap car design made by me and Annie. |
Newton's 1st Law
The car in motion will continue to be in motion unless a force pushes it backwards. In the case of the mousetrap car, this force could come from friction between the axles and the frame, friction on the mousetrap spring or friction between the wheels and the ground.
The only friction on the car that is actually helpful is the friction between the wheels and the ground. As you'll see explained below, the larger the force between the wheels and the ground are, the more the car will be propelled. In order to create more friction there, we added electrical tape to the wheels. The tape had the same gripping effect on the ground that rubber tires have on roads. Contrarily, too much friction between the axles and the frame would cause the wheels to stop turning entirely.
Newton's 2nd Law
Acceleration is equal to force over mass. The force causes the car's acceleration but if there is too much mass, the car will not be able to accelerate as much as it would be able to with a smaller mass. Therefore, we wanted our frame to be as light as possible.
Newton's 3rd Law
In this situation the action-reaction pairs are: car pushes ground back and ground pushes car forward. This causes a reaction from the axle torque which causes wheel torque. Therefore, the bigger the wheels are, the bigger the lever arm must be and the bigger the torque will be. It is important to remember that torque is what causes rotation. Since we wanted our car to follow a straight course, we wanted our car to have the smallest torque possible.
My partner and I built our car using:
- Small wooden discs for front wheels-- The size of the front wheels is not as important as the size of the back wheels. They mostly serve the purpose of keeping the car moving in a straight line.
- Wooden dowels for axles-- We used a narrow Poplar dowel for the front axle and a thicker Oak axle for the back axle.
- Balsa wood for the frame-- We drilled holes with circumferences a little larger than those of our dowels to allow for easy rotation. Balsa wood worked well for our frame because it is light, so the wheels don't have to support very much weight.
- CDs for back wheels-- CDs are pretty commonly used for wheels on mousetrap cars because they are thin, light and easy to find. However, we needed to wrap our wheels with electrical tape in order to create friction between the ground and our wheels.
- Poplar dowel for the lever arm-- We attached a 2-foot long Poplar wood dowel to the arm of the mousetrap to act as our lever arm. Our car was powered by our back wheels, so we attached a string to the top of our lever with a glue gun and wound it around the back axle. Therefore, when the trap was released, the string would cause the back wheels to turn. This works because the Elastic Potential Energy stored in the spring is converted to Kinetic Energy when it is attached to the spinning axle. In reality, the lever of the mousetrap doesn't actually do work on the car, it just applies force to the axle. We used the torque of the spring to cause the force. We also increased the length of our lever arm from 1.5 feet to 2 feet because we knew that it would increase the distance and time that the force would act on the axle, not actually increasing the force at all.
- Rubber bands and hot glue-- We made sure that our wheels were stable by putting rubber bands on either side of the wheels and gluing the rubber bands down.
Remember:
- We can't calculate the amount of work the spring does on the car because the force of the spring isn't parallel to the axle and we know that work = force multiplied by parallel distance.
- We also can't calculate the amount of PE stored in the spring and the amount of KE the car used because we can only find the average velocity, not the instantaneous speed of the car, because it accelerates at different intervals over the course. Additionally, PE depends on vertical position, and the car only covered a horizontal distance.
- We can't calculate the force of the spring exerted on the car to accelerate it because we don't have a constant acceleration of the car.
- Rotational inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in spin. Rotational velocity is the amount of rotations made over a certain amount of time. Tangential velocity is the linear speed of something moving along a circular path. This means that we needed to find wheels that had a low rotational inertia but a high tangential velocity in order to have wheels that would spin quickly and easily. Our first wheels had a rotational inertia that was too high, so we downsized to CDs to maintain a higher tangential velocity than our small front wheels and with a low rotational inertia.
- The Law of Conservation of Energy states that the input amount of energy is equal to the output. Therefore, the amount of potential energy stored in the spring to be converted to kinetic energy when it started to move was the maximum amount of energy that the car could have. In order to maximize the amount of energy stored in the spring, we pulled the lever to its tightest position and wound the string attached to the lever arm completely taut. Therefore, we were able to house the most potential energy in the spring's release as possible.
Originally, we intended to use wooden discs (larger than CDs) for our back wheels because we knew that they would have a high rotational velocity. However, the wheels were so big that their rotational inertia was high enough to make them ineffective. We also increased the length of our lever arm to compensate for the rotational inertia of our CD wheels. Since the wheels were large, our lever arm needed to apply more force to the axle in order make sure that the car would travel 5m. Additionally, our original design had axles underneath the body of the car, attached with hooks. This was not as efficient because the hooks were much larger than the axles, which allowed them to wobble around within the hooks. We fixed this by drilling holes into our new frame that were marginally wider than the axles. The use of the frame also made the car's body more narrow and less subject to air resistance.
My partner and I ended up restarting our project about three times. Initially, I thought that this would be easy-peasy because I made a mousetrap car for another science class about 4 years ago. However, that time I had my science/math geek dad to help me. This time, my partner and I were on our own. Almost all of the issues we encountered resulted from our lack of true preparation. Unlike some of our classmates, we didn't have a specific set of instructions that we were following. Essentially, we were just putting parts together and hoping for the best. The first major goal we had was for our car to go to the finish line after we pushed it. This took until the day before it was due because we didn't think through our entire plan before beginning to build. Since we didn't have a concrete idea of how our car would work and how we would execute its construction, we ran into a lot of issues like gluing things on before considering what that would keep us from being able to do. Another issue we had was that once we got our car running off of the mousetrap, it would stop just before the 5m mark. We didn't stop to think about the physics as much as we should have. I think that had we considered that a little more during each step of the process, we would have realized that our lever arm needed to be about six inches longer than it originally was in order to have a greater force on our axle. The most frustrating mistakes, however, were just results of us rushing through the process. We were each frustrated, stressed and tired of burning ourselves with the glue gun and it was easy to stop ourselves from taking the time to do things correctly. One vivid memory of an example of this is when, after starting our frame over for the second time, the wood cracked. It was the afternoon before the car was due and I felt like the world had come to an end. I had been confident that finishing the frame would mean success for us. Unfortunately, we were back to square one. Again. After that, my partner and I measured everything meticulously and devised a methodical plan for drilling holes for the axles. As a team, we moved up drill-bit size by drill-bit size until we reached our goal. That experience helped me realize that doing things carefully would keep us from having to do things more than once.
In the future, I would follow clear instructions and take my time. I truly believe that my partner, Annie, and I would have finished much sooner had we been methodical from the start. I think that taking the time to make sure that everything was perfectly measured and even may have increased our speed. Additionally, I would have used CDs for the front wheels as well and made the frame a little bit smaller. I hope that the next time we have a building project, I will make sure that I have laid out all of my steps and measurements before I actually begin to build.
Monday, February 23, 2015
Chapter Five is Going Live!
This past unit we covered work, power, kinetic and potential energy, machines and the conservation of energy.
Work
Work can be easily defined as the force exerted on an object over a certain distance. Work is calculated by multiplying force by distance and is measure in Joules (J).
In order to do work on an object, the force and distance must be parallel to each other. For that reason, a server carrying a tray through a dining room is not doing work, but that same server climbing a flight of stairs is doing work.
Work cannot be done if no distance is covered. Anything multiplied by zero is zero, so if you were to push against a wall with no result, no work would be done because the distance covered would be 0m.
Additionally, in questions where a person is climbing the stairs, riding an escalator or an elevator, only the vertical height is relevant.
Here are two examples of work practice problems:
Power is defined as how quickly work is done.
It is calculated using: power= work/time. It can be measured using two different units. If you literally translate the units used to measure work/time the unit is J/s (Joules per second). However, power is most commonly measured using Watts (W). Joules per second and Watts are equivalent.
It is likely that you have heard them term Watt before, likely when looking at a light bulb. The amount of power light bulbs generate is measured in Watts. Does 60W sound familiar?
Horsepower is another term that should sound familiar. One horsepower = 746 W.
Now that we know how to calculate both work and power, let's revisit one of our previous problems and add a time component to it.
Well, from our calculations above, we already know that she did 1100J of work. We also know that power is equal to work over time. Therefore we can set up our calculations to look like this:
Work = 1100J
Power = work/time
Power = 1100J/10s
Power = 110W
Yes, she did generate enough power the light a 60W light bulb.
Kinetic and Potential Energy
Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. In other terms, it is mass and speed's ability to do work.
It is measured using the formula KE = (1/2)mv^2. It is also measured in Joules.
An object must be in motion to have kinetic energy.
Change in kinetic energy is equal to work. Therefore in the problem we did earlier with the Academy Award winner for Best Director, she did 1100J of work and has 1100J of kinetic energy.
We can use our knowledge of work and energy to tell us why airbags keep us safe.
Potential energy (PE) is the energy of position, and determines the maximum possible kinetic energy an object can have. Consider a pendulum that is about to be released from the highest point of its path. Let's say that it has 200J of potential energy and 0J of kinetic energy here. As soon as it is dropped, the pendulum's potential energy will begin to convert to kinetic energy. When it is halfway between its highest possible and lowest possible points, the pendulum's PE will be equal to 100J and its KE will be equal to 100J. At the lowest possible point on its path, the pendulum will have a PE of 0J and a KE of 200J. Then again, at the highest possible point on the other side, it will have 0J KE and 200J PE.
As shown by this example, an object can be moving and still have potential energy. However, this is only true for PE. An object at rest will never have KE.
PE and KE are why a rollercoaster can complete the track after having been released only once. This is also why no hill on a roller coaster is taller than the first one. The physics reasoning behind this is that the PE that the cars have at the top of the first, tallest hill is the maximum amount of potential energy that the cars can have. Therefore, if no hills are any taller than that first hill, there will always be enough energy to get up and over each one.
Machines
The purpose of a simple machine is to decrease the amount of force you have to use while doing work by increasing the distance you cover. Thus, work in = work out. You can never get more work out of a machine than the amount of work you put in.
For example, if you are moving to a new home and are loading a moving truck-- you can use the amount of work you would do without a ramp to find out how much work you would do with a ramp as long as you know the length of the ramp or the amount of force it would take you with the ramp.
Machines' effectiveness can also be measured. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy will always be conserved and that the energy you get out a machine will never be more or less than what you put in. However, a machine can never actually be 100% effective because some of the energy produced must be turned into heat, light or sound. However, the effectiveness of a machine can easily be calculated by setting up a proportion with the amount of Joules of work produced (which will always be the smaller number) over the amount of work you put in.
Here are two helpful videos that talk about machines and include some practice problems.
Work
Work can be easily defined as the force exerted on an object over a certain distance. Work is calculated by multiplying force by distance and is measure in Joules (J).
In order to do work on an object, the force and distance must be parallel to each other. For that reason, a server carrying a tray through a dining room is not doing work, but that same server climbing a flight of stairs is doing work.
Work cannot be done if no distance is covered. Anything multiplied by zero is zero, so if you were to push against a wall with no result, no work would be done because the distance covered would be 0m.
Additionally, in questions where a person is climbing the stairs, riding an escalator or an elevator, only the vertical height is relevant.
Here are two examples of work practice problems:
- An actress carries her Oscar across the stage after winning the Academy Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. The statue weighs 4N and the distance from the stairs to the podium is 4m, how much work does she do?
- A woman walks up the stairs to the stage to accept the Academy Award for Best Director. She weighs 550N and the stairs are 2m high. How much work does she do?
- A server lifts a tray and then carries it to a table. Does he do work when he lifts the tray, when he walks to the table, or both times? Explain.
- The actress does not do any work because the force of the statue and the distance she travels are not parallel, therefore no work can be done.
- work = force*distance; work = 550N*2m; work = 1100J The Academy Award winner for Best Director does 1100 Joules of work.
- The server only does work when he lifts the tray. In this situation, the weight of the tray and the distance it is being lifted are parallel. Therefore, work is being done. Contrarily, when the server carries his tray to the table, the weight of the tray is perpendicular to the distance the server is walking. Therefore, work cannot be done.
Power is defined as how quickly work is done.
It is calculated using: power= work/time. It can be measured using two different units. If you literally translate the units used to measure work/time the unit is J/s (Joules per second). However, power is most commonly measured using Watts (W). Joules per second and Watts are equivalent.
It is likely that you have heard them term Watt before, likely when looking at a light bulb. The amount of power light bulbs generate is measured in Watts. Does 60W sound familiar?
Horsepower is another term that should sound familiar. One horsepower = 746 W.
Now that we know how to calculate both work and power, let's revisit one of our previous problems and add a time component to it.
A woman walks up the stairs to the stage to accept the Academy Award for Best Director. She weighs 550N and the stairs are 2m high. It takes her 10 seconds. How much work does she do? How much power does she generate? Is it enough to power a standard 60W light bulb?
Well, from our calculations above, we already know that she did 1100J of work. We also know that power is equal to work over time. Therefore we can set up our calculations to look like this:
Work = 1100J
Power = work/time
Power = 1100J/10s
Power = 110W
Yes, she did generate enough power the light a 60W light bulb.
Kinetic and Potential Energy
Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. In other terms, it is mass and speed's ability to do work.
It is measured using the formula KE = (1/2)mv^2. It is also measured in Joules.
An object must be in motion to have kinetic energy.
Change in kinetic energy is equal to work. Therefore in the problem we did earlier with the Academy Award winner for Best Director, she did 1100J of work and has 1100J of kinetic energy.
We can use our knowledge of work and energy to tell us why airbags keep us safe.
- You go from moving to not moving regardless of how you stop. Therefore the change in kinetic energy is the same with or without the airbag. Change in kinetic energy is equal to work and work can also be written as distance times force. Therefore, if the distance between you and the force that causes you to stop increases, that force must decrease in order for work to remain constant. The smaller the force of impact is, the less injury will be caused.
- work = F*d or work = F*d
- This is why work remains constant.
- Change in kinetic energy = KE final - KE initial
- work = change in kinetic energy
Potential energy (PE) is the energy of position, and determines the maximum possible kinetic energy an object can have. Consider a pendulum that is about to be released from the highest point of its path. Let's say that it has 200J of potential energy and 0J of kinetic energy here. As soon as it is dropped, the pendulum's potential energy will begin to convert to kinetic energy. When it is halfway between its highest possible and lowest possible points, the pendulum's PE will be equal to 100J and its KE will be equal to 100J. At the lowest possible point on its path, the pendulum will have a PE of 0J and a KE of 200J. Then again, at the highest possible point on the other side, it will have 0J KE and 200J PE.
As shown by this example, an object can be moving and still have potential energy. However, this is only true for PE. An object at rest will never have KE.
PE and KE are why a rollercoaster can complete the track after having been released only once. This is also why no hill on a roller coaster is taller than the first one. The physics reasoning behind this is that the PE that the cars have at the top of the first, tallest hill is the maximum amount of potential energy that the cars can have. Therefore, if no hills are any taller than that first hill, there will always be enough energy to get up and over each one.
Machines
The purpose of a simple machine is to decrease the amount of force you have to use while doing work by increasing the distance you cover. Thus, work in = work out. You can never get more work out of a machine than the amount of work you put in.
For example, if you are moving to a new home and are loading a moving truck-- you can use the amount of work you would do without a ramp to find out how much work you would do with a ramp as long as you know the length of the ramp or the amount of force it would take you with the ramp.
Machines' effectiveness can also be measured. The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy will always be conserved and that the energy you get out a machine will never be more or less than what you put in. However, a machine can never actually be 100% effective because some of the energy produced must be turned into heat, light or sound. However, the effectiveness of a machine can easily be calculated by setting up a proportion with the amount of Joules of work produced (which will always be the smaller number) over the amount of work you put in.
Here are two helpful videos that talk about machines and include some practice problems.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Done with Unit Four and Ready for More!
Unit 4 was all about circular motion (rotation), including: center of mass, rotational and tangential velocity, torque, rotational inertia, centripetal force and conservation of angular momentum.
Center of Mass
The center of mass of an object is the average position of its mass and the center of gravity is the specific point upon which gravity acts. These two points are not always the same. The center of mass and center of gravity are pertinent to the topic of rotation because their location can affect how easily an object can rotate.
Whether or not an object will fall over or not can be determined by the location of its center of gravity over its base of support. If the center of gravity falls inside of an object's base of support, it is stable. However, if the center of gravity falls outside of the base of support, the object is unstable.
For example, look at these images of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
At the end of this video by some classmates, this concept is illustrated by some members of the wrestling team.
Rotational and Tangential Velocity
Tangential speed is the same linear speed we've talked about in past units. In terms of circular motion, tangential speed is the linear speed of something moving along a circular path. The direction of the linear motion is tangent to the circumference of the circle. Just like usual, this is measured in meters per second (m/s) or kilometers per hour (km/h).
Rotational speed is the speed at which an object rotates over an amount of time. This is measure in rotations per minute (rpm).
Watch this video of kids on a merry go round, if the girl in the orange shirt and the boy in the striped shirt have the same rotational velocity, what does this mean about their tangential velocities?
The girl in the orange shirt has a faster tangential velocity than the boy in the striped shirt because she must cover a farther linear distance than he does in the same amount of time.
Conversely, gears in a system work by having the same tangential velocity and a different rotational velocity. This can be observed in the video below:
Torque
Torque is what causes rotation. It is calculated using the formula force x lever arm. Lever arm can be defined as the distance between the axis of rotation and where the force is applied. It is perpendicular to the force. If a large rotation occurs, it is because there is a large torque. Large torque can be caused by a large force, a large lever arm or both.
When an object is balanced, there are two torques: clockwise and counter-clockwise. The two are equidistant from the center of gravity.
An example of how torque affects daily life is when you try to open a door with a push handle. If you push on the door closer to the hinges, the axis of rotation, you need more force to open the door because the lever arm is small. However, pushing at the opposite end of the door makes it easy to open because of the distance between where your hands are pushing on the door and the hinges--thus giving you a larger torque.
This video gives a good explanation of torque and calculations.
Rotational Inertia
Rotational inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in spin. Since we know that with inertia more mass means more inertia, we also know that the distribution of mass is important when it comes to what makes an object inclined to spin or remain still. A great example of distribution of mass and rotational inertia is in figure skating when the skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster. Watch as this skater's speed increases when she tucks her arms and legs in.
Conservation of Angular Momentum
This is a concept that goes hand in hand with rotational inertia and is similar to concepts we've discussed in the past. Just like the conservation of linear momentum, this means that momentum before = momentum after. Angular momentum is calculated by multiplying rotational inertia x rotational velocity.
Angular momentum before = angular momentum after.
RI x RV before = RI x RV after.
Let's put this in terms of the video we just watched. Before she tucks in her arms and legs her rotational inertia is very large, but her rotational velocity is much smaller. Therefore, to conserve her angular momentum after she tucks in her arms and legs, her rotational inertia must be very small and her rotational velocity must be much larger.
That looks like this:
RI x RV = RI x RV
If you're still having trouble with the concept, this video has a quick explanation and lots of good (and easy to re-create!) demonstrations.
Centripetal Force
Centripetal force is the force that makes an object curve. Centripetal force is the reason you stay inside of a roller coaster that goes in loop-di-loops and the reason clothes stay inside a top-loading washing machine during the spin cycle.
Here's an explanation of why water leaves the barrel of a washing machine, but clothes stay in:
Centripetal force is the center-seeking force hat causes an object to curve. The water droplets are acted upon by the centripetal force and the water droplets are not being acted upon by any force. They just continue to move straight forward, straight through the holes, which we know happens because of the property of inertia.
Centrifugal force does not exist and is not the reason that you hit the car door when you round corners or why the water droplets come out of the basin. Those simply happen because as a person/object in motion without an outside for acting upon you/it forward motion continues until an outside force is met.
These are some cool experiment done to show centripetal force.
Center of Mass
The center of mass of an object is the average position of its mass and the center of gravity is the specific point upon which gravity acts. These two points are not always the same. The center of mass and center of gravity are pertinent to the topic of rotation because their location can affect how easily an object can rotate.
Whether or not an object will fall over or not can be determined by the location of its center of gravity over its base of support. If the center of gravity falls inside of an object's base of support, it is stable. However, if the center of gravity falls outside of the base of support, the object is unstable.
For example, look at these images of the leaning Tower of Pisa.
The base of support of an object is its base. For the leaning Tower of Pisa, the base of support is the circumference of the bottom of the tower. However, for people, our base of support is based (pun semi-intended) on how wide apart we have our feet planted. The wider our base of support, the harder it is to push us over. This is why coaches often tell players to stand with their legs bent, shoulder width apart. The reason we bend our legs is because the closer our center of gravity is to our base of support, the farther we will have to rotate to get the center our center of gravity outside of our base of support.
At the end of this video by some classmates, this concept is illustrated by some members of the wrestling team.
Rotational and Tangential Velocity
Tangential speed is the same linear speed we've talked about in past units. In terms of circular motion, tangential speed is the linear speed of something moving along a circular path. The direction of the linear motion is tangent to the circumference of the circle. Just like usual, this is measured in meters per second (m/s) or kilometers per hour (km/h).
Rotational speed is the speed at which an object rotates over an amount of time. This is measure in rotations per minute (rpm).
Watch this video of kids on a merry go round, if the girl in the orange shirt and the boy in the striped shirt have the same rotational velocity, what does this mean about their tangential velocities?
The girl in the orange shirt has a faster tangential velocity than the boy in the striped shirt because she must cover a farther linear distance than he does in the same amount of time.
Conversely, gears in a system work by having the same tangential velocity and a different rotational velocity. This can be observed in the video below:
Torque
Torque is what causes rotation. It is calculated using the formula force x lever arm. Lever arm can be defined as the distance between the axis of rotation and where the force is applied. It is perpendicular to the force. If a large rotation occurs, it is because there is a large torque. Large torque can be caused by a large force, a large lever arm or both.
When an object is balanced, there are two torques: clockwise and counter-clockwise. The two are equidistant from the center of gravity.
An example of how torque affects daily life is when you try to open a door with a push handle. If you push on the door closer to the hinges, the axis of rotation, you need more force to open the door because the lever arm is small. However, pushing at the opposite end of the door makes it easy to open because of the distance between where your hands are pushing on the door and the hinges--thus giving you a larger torque.
This video gives a good explanation of torque and calculations.
Rotational Inertia
Rotational inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in spin. Since we know that with inertia more mass means more inertia, we also know that the distribution of mass is important when it comes to what makes an object inclined to spin or remain still. A great example of distribution of mass and rotational inertia is in figure skating when the skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster. Watch as this skater's speed increases when she tucks her arms and legs in.
Conservation of Angular Momentum
This is a concept that goes hand in hand with rotational inertia and is similar to concepts we've discussed in the past. Just like the conservation of linear momentum, this means that momentum before = momentum after. Angular momentum is calculated by multiplying rotational inertia x rotational velocity.
Angular momentum before = angular momentum after.
RI x RV before = RI x RV after.
Let's put this in terms of the video we just watched. Before she tucks in her arms and legs her rotational inertia is very large, but her rotational velocity is much smaller. Therefore, to conserve her angular momentum after she tucks in her arms and legs, her rotational inertia must be very small and her rotational velocity must be much larger.
That looks like this:
RI x RV = RI x RV
If you're still having trouble with the concept, this video has a quick explanation and lots of good (and easy to re-create!) demonstrations.
Centripetal Force
Centripetal force is the force that makes an object curve. Centripetal force is the reason you stay inside of a roller coaster that goes in loop-di-loops and the reason clothes stay inside a top-loading washing machine during the spin cycle.
Here's an explanation of why water leaves the barrel of a washing machine, but clothes stay in:
Centripetal force is the center-seeking force hat causes an object to curve. The water droplets are acted upon by the centripetal force and the water droplets are not being acted upon by any force. They just continue to move straight forward, straight through the holes, which we know happens because of the property of inertia.
Centrifugal force does not exist and is not the reason that you hit the car door when you round corners or why the water droplets come out of the basin. Those simply happen because as a person/object in motion without an outside for acting upon you/it forward motion continues until an outside force is met.
These are some cool experiment done to show centripetal force.
We found the mass of a meter stick without using a scale!
The goal of this lab was to find the mass of a meter stick with our new knowledge of torque, a meter stick and a 100g lead weight.
First we did a demo with a meter stick unbalanced on the edge of a table with a torque. In order to make sure that we understood how to label the parts of torque (force and lever arm) we made diagrams.
The first diagram just showed the unbalanced meter stick.
The next diagram had a meter stick balanced, showing the relationship between center of gravity and the edge of the table. The center of gravity can never be over the base of support so there is only one lever arm in this situation. It is important to remember that the lever arm only stretches between the axis of rotation and where the force is applied.
When the 100g mass is added to the meter stick, the lever arm in the counterclockwise torque extends from the axis of rotation to the end of the meter stick only because that is where the force from the 100g lead mass is applied. However, on the clockwise side, the lever arm stretches from the axis of rotation to the center of gravity of the entire meter stick because that is where the force of gravity is applied. On the meter stick, the center of gravity is the 50cm mark and will always be the 50cm mark.
Plan:
Our plan to use our knowledge from unit 4 was as follows.
First we did a demo with a meter stick unbalanced on the edge of a table with a torque. In order to make sure that we understood how to label the parts of torque (force and lever arm) we made diagrams.
The first diagram just showed the unbalanced meter stick.
The next diagram had a meter stick balanced, showing the relationship between center of gravity and the edge of the table. The center of gravity can never be over the base of support so there is only one lever arm in this situation. It is important to remember that the lever arm only stretches between the axis of rotation and where the force is applied.
Our plan to use our knowledge from unit 4 was as follows.
- Find the center of gravity of the counter-clockwise side (with the mass) by finding the centimeter mark on which it is balanced on the edge of the table.
- Measure the lever arms on each side.
- Use the lever arms and the force of gravity (9.8N) to find the clockwise and counter-clockwise torques.
- Use w=mg to find the mass.
- Counter-clockwise lever arm: the distance from the center of gravity to the 100g lead weight
- 24.8cm
- Clockwise lever arm: center of gravity - the counter-clockwise lever arm
- 25.2cm
- Force on the counter-clockwise side: force of gravity / 100g
- 0.98N
- Force on the clockwise side: unknown
Then we multiplied it out to find:
We then divided each side by 25.2 in order to isolate the force and found that:
We know that force is equal to mass x gravity so we divided by the force of gravity to find the mass:
However since we were looking for the mass of the meter stick in grams, we had to divide the mass in kilograms by 1000 and found that:
Wednesday, January 21, 2015
Torque and Center of Mass and Center of Gravity, Oh My!
Torque is force multiplied by the perpendicular distance from the axis of rotation (also called a lever arm.) Torque causes rotation and the size of the torque is directly proportional to the size of the lever arm, meaning that a long lever arm means a big torque. In the video below, I find that Ultimate Physics Tutor does a great job of reinforcing the basics while still expanding on the concept in his second explanation using vectors.
Rotational inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in spin. Since we know that with inertia more mass means more inertia, we also know that the distribution of mass is important when it comes to what makes an object inclined to spin or remain still. A great example of distribution of mass and rotational inertia is in figure skating when the skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster.
Just like linear momentum, angular momentum is conserved. This means that the skater's angular momentum before she tucked in her arms and legs is the same as her angular momentum after. Angular momentum is calculated by multiplying rotational inertia by rotational velocity. Since we know her angular momentum is conserved, we also know that before she tucked her rotational inertia must have been significantly larger than her rotational velocity and that after she tucked her rotational inertia must have been significantly smaller than her rotational velocity.
This quick video has nice explanations and good examples of ways this concept can be demonstrated at home.
Rotational inertia is the property of an object to resist changes in spin. Since we know that with inertia more mass means more inertia, we also know that the distribution of mass is important when it comes to what makes an object inclined to spin or remain still. A great example of distribution of mass and rotational inertia is in figure skating when the skaters tuck in their arms to spin faster.
Just like linear momentum, angular momentum is conserved. This means that the skater's angular momentum before she tucked in her arms and legs is the same as her angular momentum after. Angular momentum is calculated by multiplying rotational inertia by rotational velocity. Since we know her angular momentum is conserved, we also know that before she tucked her rotational inertia must have been significantly larger than her rotational velocity and that after she tucked her rotational inertia must have been significantly smaller than her rotational velocity.
This quick video has nice explanations and good examples of ways this concept can be demonstrated at home.
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