Thursday, September 12, 2013
HOVERCRAFT LAB
Thursday, September 12, 2013
Today in Physics, each member of our class rode in a home-made hovercraft. Riding in a hovercraft feels unlike riding in any car, bike, or other form of transportation. Since there's virtually no friction between the vehicle and the ground, you glide along the floor at a constant speed without slowing down. The only way to stop the hovercraft is to approach it with an opposing force. This is because of inertia, which is an object's tendency to remain at a state (in this case, in motion) unless acted upon by an opposing force. This opposing force is also known as net force. In this case, the net forces acting upon the hovercraft were the person pushing it forward and the person stopping it. Soon after the hovercraft is pushed, it reaches a state of equilibrium, which means all forces acting upon it are equal and it begins to glide at a constant velocity. As a class, we also noticed heavier people were harder to stop. We discovered that objects with more mass have greater inertia, therefore build up a faster speed and are harder to stop.
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Hi Catherine! It's your partner, Emma. Just looking at your blog, one thing that I like is how complete your explanations/posts are. No two-sentence answers for you! One thing that our blogs have in common is that they both use proper grammar. I like that in writing. Other than that, our blogs are complete opposites. I have a different theme, a quirkier, more creative title, and tend to add a splash of humor to my posts. In terms of constructive criticism, there are two definitions in the above post that are just a little off. Number one is that net force is the sum of the total forces acting on an object, not simply an opposing force. Also, while the way you put it may indeed be correct, I believe objects with greater mass have more inertia, not momentum. Unfortunately, you haven't posted your inertic resource, so I can't comment on that. Good luck maintaining an informative blog, you're off to a great start!
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