newton's second law
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R2 flying at a constant speed
Posted by Rhett Allain on January 22, 2010 Since my previous post on R2-D2 flying was so popular, I thought I would follow it up. I was going to add these two points in the comments, but a separate post seems to make more sense. Point 1 – R2 flies at a constant speed Well, he obviously doesn’t always have to fly at…
Flying R2-D2, you are doing it wrong
Posted by Rhett Allain on January 21, 2010 You know I can’t help but like Star Wars. Even with the new stuff, I watch it. Recently, I was watching the Clone Wars cartoon and noticed something odd about the way R2-D2 flies. I know what you are saying….”the odd thing is that he flies at all. Why didn’t he fly in episodes 4-6?”…
Some Tips for Punkin Chunkin
Posted by Rhett Allain on November 4, 2009 I already attacked the 2008 Punkin Chunkin Show. So, now I going to give the chunkers some tips. In case you aren’t familiar, the Punkin Chunkin contest has teams create devices to launch a pumpkin. They have different categories, but I am going to focus on the air-powered devices. The basic idea is to make…
MythBusters and the physics of knock your socks off
Posted by Rhett Allain on October 11, 2009 The other myth the MythBusters looked at last week was the phrase “knock your socks off” (along with the dropping and shooting a bullet myth). But before that, let me complain. Maybe it is just me, but I totally cringe when these guys use the word ‘force’. Force probably isn’t the best term to use…
I have never been happy with Newton’s first law
Posted by Rhett Allain on October 6, 2009 Many textbooks are pumped up about Newton’s 3 laws of motion. For me, not so much. First, (as many other’s point out) these are really Newton’s ideas about force. Second, the first law is pretty much a special case of the second law. Here are the first two laws (in my words): Newton’s First Law:…
Fake Forces – sometimes they are Fantastic
Posted by Rhett Allain on March 31, 2009 What is a fake force? A fake force is one of those forces that introductory texts tell you aren’t real – like centrifugal force. They aren’t real in the sense that they are due to one of the fundamental interactions. Basically, introductory texts (and even blogs like this one – not a bad summary of…
Colbert gets an A in physics.
Posted by Rhett Allain on November 19, 2008 Rarely am I up late enough to watch the Colbert Report, but by chance I saw it last night. I know Stephen Colbert is a big fan of Dot Physics, and so this is a message to him. Stevie, good job. Here is what he said during his show on the “The Word” segment. Just…