Friction and Inclined Planes Help

Gentlemen, below are two videos that should help on the first two problems of the worksheet I gave you. Be sure to watch the entire first video because there is information you NEED to do the first problem contained towards the end. I recommend watching the video all the way through then working on it with your partner and referring back to the video when you need to.

I may have internet access so I may be able to respond to comments on this post in real time so if you have questions post them and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Problem One Help

Problem Two Help

Friction is Crazy

Here are two neat videos regarding friction!

In the first, the Mythbusters try to pull apart two phone books that are being held together by nothing but friction caused by the pages laying on top of each other. How hard will this be to fix? Will you need two people? Ten people? .... Tanks!?


Next we have a video demonstrating the by-product of friction: heat. How much heat could you generate from friction? Enough to weld steel together?

Vomit Rocket?

In Thursday's class we looked at an example problem regarding a bottle rocket. Lucky for us, the guys at Minute Physics have already put a video together explaining how rockets work. They also help you to figure out whether or not you could turn yourself into a vomit fueled rocket propelled person.... Probably lot as beautiful as watching a shuttle launch, but theoretically it would work!
A vomit rocket sounds pretty messy, but a 2L bottle fueled with backing soda and vinegar could probably get off the ground. For an extra credit opportunity see if you can design and execute a baking soda rocket. Document your experiment with video or pictures so we can share it on the blog and feel free to work with others. Just be sure to wear safety goggles and work under safe conditions!

"Net" Force

Nemo is a pretty smart fish. In fact, he understands Newtonian Mechanics and the idea of a Net Force. Watch the video clip below that demonstrates this concept.


Every fish in the net can push with a certain amount of force, lets call it 1 N. If there are 100 fish in the net, with 25 swimming up, 25 down, 25 left, and 25 right they all work against each other like in tug o' war. In this situation the net force is 0 N. However, if all 100 of the fish swim down then they are working together. In this situation the net has a force of 100 N down. When we use the term "net force" we mean the total effect of all the forces acting on an object. There may be ten forces acting on an object, but there is one overall effect, described by the net force.

Use the comment section to give other good examples of net force. Feel free to include links to videos/pictures but you must give some kind of description of the forces acting in your example. There may be awards for the best examples/explanations.

Some good advice for you before you start writing your report.

ATB Calculations Help

In this video I walk through some of the calculations that you need to do for Angry Tennis Balls.