Physics Question

Overview

For this homework assignment, you will demonstrate your understanding of momentum. This is where you can get creative.

Here are some idea to get you started. You can use these or develop your own. As always, when doing the experiments, do ones that are safe.

• Sports physics
  • Basketball passes to other players.
    • how do different passing speeds feel to your teammate?
    • Record the receivers perception to how fast the ball was passed.
    • Use different passers and receivers.
  • The difference between hitting a tennis ball vs. a baseball with a bat.
    • make sure the bat always moves at the same velocity or acceleration each time.
    • make repeated measurements to give confidence in your answer.
• Walking
  • Walking uphill and perceived effort
  • Walking downhill and perceived effort
  • What forces are acting on you that changes the perceived effort?
• Bicycling
  • Move at a constant speed and then record how long it takes to stop when:
    • applying light pressure to brakes.
    • applying heavy pressure to brakes.
  • Change speeds and repeat breaking test.
  • How does the speed and braking pressure change for a bicyclist of constant mass?

These are just some ideas, but there are many real life examples of motenum.

For this assignment, you can record your experiment (experiment design, observation, and discussion). You can use a video recording, or written description of your work.

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Here is an example of a written answer. This example is a little long, but I wanted to provide enough information here so you can see what I'm attempting to do.

My experiment was to roll different sized skateboarders down a short hill (using the same skateboard) to see how far they would go. I have two skateboarders, a child weighing about 60 lbs, and an adult weighing about 180 lbs.

I allowed gravity to pull each skateboarder down the hill 3 times each. The skateboarders should be moving about the same speed when they get to the bottom of the short hill as noted by Galileo's wooden slope test we learned about in the first few modules.

Here are the results of each experiment.

Skateboarder 1, 60 lbs, moved:

1. 15 feet
2. 18 feet
3. 14 feet

Skateboarder 2, 180 lbs, move:

1. 36 feet
2. 33 feet
3. 42 feet

From these results, it is clear that the heavier skateboarder has much more momentum (momentum = mass * velocity). It takes more force to slow down the larger skateboarder. In this case, the force acting on the skateboarder is mainly friction and gravity