Get out of that

Friday 13 February 2015

I was introducing rotational mechanics to one of my first year classes, by showing some simulations with Interactive physics. First without gravity or pivots then adding complexity a bit at a time. So here's the scene:

As you can see in the image there is a uniform bar in the Earths gravitational field pivoted at that cotton reel thing. The arrow represents applied force. So, what happens. Easy, the bar rotates clockwise about the pivot, well click the eye and reveal the answer

Panic!

How do you explain that?
Well I made some noises which gave me time to work out what's going on.

I picked the wrong object to make the pivot, the cotton reel thing is a motor.


Bounce zone
15 Feb 2015