3.20 Physics Uniform Circular Motion
Storyboard Text
- One day, I was finishing up football practice and the track coach came up to me and asked if I would ever be interested in shot put or throwing the discus or hammer throw. Not knowing anything about it, except what I have seen on the olympics, I said yes.
- It was a little daunting trying something new, so I watched a little. And realized all three of the sports he wanted me to try involved angles and spinning. But I was no dancer and worried about getting dizzy.
- So, the next morning I went to the gym and thought I would try spinning and seeing if I could stay in the center of the circle. And I didn't crash.
- So I decided to try with one of the practice hammers, it has a smaller line and lighter weight to get the hang of it. I started spinning, and found a constant rhythm, or uniform circular motion, I was doing it! I was moving at a constant speed in a circle!
- Then, I tried outside...that was a bust! The hammer started spinning faster than me! My science teacher came up and helped me up and told me to think about what we studied last semester.
- I thought about what my teacher had told me, and went to try again...using the training hammer, I started spinning. I realized why the line was shorter on the training one is because you have more control over it when it has a smaller circumference while spinning...the regulation ones have longer lines for a larger circumference.
- After much practice, I started realizing that I needed to accelerate with each rotation I did, essentially centripetal acceleration, to increase the velocity of the hammer as it was going in its circular motion.
- I grew more interested and watched hammer throwing at the Scottish games! I realized that when they let go it was at the same angle and peak tangential velocity during their spins.
- I am still no Olympian, but I have a greater appreciation for the sport along with a much deeper appreciation for Newtonian Physics!
Image Attributions
- https://www.flickr.com/photos/wandrus/6134567845/ - andrusdevelopment - (License Attribution )
- Hammer Throw Statue - walknboston - (License Attribution )
Over 30 Million Storyboards Created