20 results found for

A few (surprising?) thoughts on how the wheels on a longboard or skateboard actually move.

Jonathan describes his adventures with a longboard and some different methods of making a speedometer for it.

Inertia and restoring forces can, with low friction or damping, lead to oscillations and resonance. We analyse the mechanics of vibrations.

The inverse square law explains planetary motion - and apples falling. Newton's law, measuring G, calculating orbits.

Torques produce angular acceleration, moment of inertia 'resists' it. Rotational kinetic energy and angular momentum.

p=mv. If external forces are zero, momentum is conserved. In collisions, energy may be conserved (elastic) or not (inelastic).

In finite objects, the total external force equals the total mass times the acceleration of a point called the centre of mass.

The total work done on an object equals the increase in its kinetic energy. For conservative forces, we can define potential energy.

A short video showing a simple classroom method of checking the way in which this force is related to mass, speed and radius.

A presentation showing both the ideas about centripetal force and a simple classroom method of checking the way in which this force is related to mass, speed and radius.

Carefully distinguish mass and weight. Hooke's law quantifies deformation. Contact forces have normal and frictional components.

Helen Sharman, the UK's first astronaut, gives a vibrant account of her personal experience of life in space using models and film to illustrate the key scientific concepts involved in spaceflight. Among other things she discusses the way Newton's Th....

F=ma (laws 1&2). Forces come in pairs that add to zero (3). Newton's laws apply in inertial frames of reference. Some common approximations made in applying them.

In simple harmonic motion, displacement, velocity and acceleration vary sinusoidally with time, but with different phases.

Uniform circular motion: angular displacement and velocity are introduced and centripetal acceleration is determined.

Motion with uniform acceleration, such as in a uniform gravitational (or electric) field is projectile motion, analysed here with examples.

Kinematics quantifies motion without explaining the causes of it. Here we study accelerations that are zero, positive or negative.

A description and demonstration of the way in which craters formed by dropping objects into sand can be linked to some elementary physics

The quantum gas is an extreme state of an ensemble of atoms when their de Broglie wave length is of the same length as the size of the container. The ways of achieving this state are described and also how its temperature is defined.