Applying Physics at Alton Towers
Applying Physics at Alton Towers Section A The two aspects of physics that I observed while visiting Alton Towers were: Tensions in context to the Skyride together with stress and strain Acceleration due to free fall in context to the Oblivion In Alton Towers, tensions can be seen everywhere in cables and structures. I have decided to look closely at the Skyride which uses tensions of cables to create not only a ride that shows off parts of the park, but also as a transportation form that takes people from one part of the park to another. The Skyride was built to replace the original cable cars, which had a low capacity and only went to the Gardens and back. The new cable cars now allow a maximum of 12 people meaning that now the groups of people can now use the ride whereas before they would have walked or have taken several cars. Even though it is newer than the original, the Skyride still uses the same principals of physics with no new technologies involved. The Skyride can be described simply as a cable moving cars suspended underneath. The car itself may swing from side to side but it is actually the cable that is moving. Once the car enters a station however, the car engages a clutch and moves from the main transportation cable onto a slower moving chain. This not only slows the car down while they are in the station but also work with the station platform
Parachute Investigation
Parachute Investigation Aim The aim of the experiment is to investigate how each of several different weights of varying mass attached to a parachute in turn can influence the gravitational pull and air resistance forces acting on it, consequently affecting the time it takes to reach the ground when dropped from a specific height. Preliminary Work Forces are measured in Newtons (N), named after Isaac Newton who invented this unit. We cannot see them but instead we can see their effects on objects, so forces are described in terms of what they do. They can cause objects to turn, change speed, direction or shape. The forces acting on a falling parachute are gravity and air resistance and these are the two forces which affect the speed at which the parachute falls. Air resistance (also called drag) is when air molecules collide with an object's leading surface. This is the opposite force to gravity, and can slow falling objects down. The actual amount of air resistance encountered by the object depends on a variety of factors. The two most common factors which have a direct effect upon the amount of air resistance are: - the speed of the object - the cross-sectional area of the object Increased speeds and increased cross-sectional areas result in an increased amount of air resistance. Gravity is what causes objects to fall downwards. If there was no air
Biomechanics of Long Jump
Mechanics and Sport Performance 09685 Contents Brief pg3 Main Text pg3 Appendix pg6 Reference List pg9 The aim of this assessment is to analysis the long jump technique by applying the following kinetic and kinematics principles: force, inertia, momentum, friction, Newton's Laws, free body force diagrams and impulse-momentum relationships which underpin the mechanics of sport. The long jump is a speed event which comprises of four phases: approach run, take off, flight through the air, landing. To achieve maximum distance in the long jump the athlete will have to balance three components - speed, technique and strength (Carr 1999). The approach phase of the long jump as stated by Hays (1993) is to get the athlete up to the optimum position for take off with as much speed as the athlete can control during this part of the jump so the rhythm in the approach run is important to ensure the ideal speed is achieved at take off and also accuracy in hitting the take off board. The generation of the forward motion is created by a ground reaction force where the earths force is responding to the athletes backwards thrust against the earths surface (Carr 1997). The ground reaction force R is equal in action line and magnitude to the downwards thrust of the foot during running but in the opposite direction. The force is greater at the heel strike then at mid stance because of
To find out what effects the acceleration of a small trolley with a weight of 1kg.
What effects acceleration Aim: To find out what effects the acceleration of a small trolley with a weight of 1kg. Variables: The variables I will keep the same are: - the weight of the trolley - the angle of the surface/slope - length of the surface/slope - the surface of the surface/slope I am going to change the mass acting on the trolley through the pulley. This mass will be measured in grams. I will put on masses from 100g to 800g. I am going to measure the acceleration of the trolley in m/s as the mass on the pulley changes. As the masses will be acted on by gravity they will extent a force on the trolley and I will use g= 10N/K to work out the force for each mass. Prediction: I predict that the larger the force in grams acting on the trolley the larger the acceleration of the trolley. I think this because by using the equation F=M*A. This shows me that force is proportional to acceleration. The greater the force the greater the acceleration. This graph shows me this: Issac Newton said in his 2nd law : 'The rate of change of momentum of a body is directly proportional to the external force acting on the body and takes place in the direction of the force.' F rate of change of momentum F change/time taken = (mv)/ t = m v/ t = ma Diagram: Equipment list: - Light-gate - String - Masses - 1kg trolley - A 'mask' - Surface/slope Method:
Albert Einstein
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein is renowned for developing revolutionary theories of physics such as the general theory of relativity this is why he is inspirational and also because he did not do very well at school, but yet came up with revolutionary ideas. He also possessed a keen sense of social responsibility. His humanitarian efforts assisted Jews who had escaped from the clutches of Nazi Germany during World War II. Albert was intrigued by the needle of the compass. He wondered what forces were at work to make the needle always point north. The compass made a deep and lasting impression on him. Einstein was interested in the relationship between electricity and magnetism (electromagnetism) because these combined forces did not behave in a way that could be explained by traditional Newtonian physics. He also developed theories explaining the nature of light. He theorized that light was a shower of particles called photons that travelled in a wavelike fashion. Einstein won the Nobel Prize in 1921 for his photon theory. The theories that Einstein is most famous for, however, are his theories of relativity. The general theory of relativity deals with acceleration and gravity, while the special theory of relativity deals with energy, mass, and acceleration. According to the general theory of relativity, acceleration and gravity are the same force, and gravity has the
The Physics of an Atomic Bomb
Nuclear Fission: Nuclear fission occurs when the nuclei of certain isotopes of very heavy elements, isotopes of uranium and plutonium capture neutrons. The nuclei of these isotopes are just barely stable and the addition of a small amount of energy to one by an outside neutron will cause it to promptly split into two roughly equal pieces, with the release of a great deal of energy (180 MeV of immediately available energy) and several new neutrons (an average of 2.52 for U-235, and 2.95 for Pu-239). If one neutron from each fission is captured and successfully produces fission then a self-sustaining chain reaction is produced. If more than one neutron from each fission triggers another fission, then the number of neutrons and the rate of energy production will increase exponentially with time. Two conditions must be met before fission can be used to create powerful explosions: ) The number of neutrons lost to fission (from non-fission producing neutron captures, or escape from the fissionable mass) must be kept low. 2) The speed with which the chain reaction proceeds must be very fast. A fission bomb is in a race with itself: to successfully fission most of the material in the bomb before it blows itself apart. The degree to which a bomb design succeeds in this race determines its efficiency. A poorly designed or malfunctioning bomb may "fizzle" and release only a tiny
Making sense of data
Making sense of data Trolley project Data Provided: Height (m) Time (s) 2 0.088 .89 .92 0.106 .48 .5 0.128 .28 0.145 .14 .14 0.163 .02 .03 0.182 0.953 0.957 0.198 0.883 0.887 0.215 0.833 0.836 0.236 0.793 0.795 0.252 0.753 0.754 0.271 0.721 0.72 0.291 0.695 0.696 0.311 0.666 0.66 The experiment I have chosen to analyze is a test to see how changing the height of a slope will affect the time it takes for a trolley to pass through a set of light gates. I hope to explore the data and consider what other conclusions can be drawn from it. To do this I must first ask the relevant questions, such as: * What is the average time for each height? * What is the average velocity through the light gates for each height? * What is the final velocity for each height? * What is the angle of the slope for each height? * What is the speed at the first and second light gate? * What is the acceleration? * Is the ramp a smooth plane or will friction slow down the trolley, if so what is the coefficient of friction? * How far up the slope are the light gates? First of all, from the data I have been given, I know that on the first test the height of the ramp is given as 0.088 metres, and the time the trolley took to travel between the light gates was 1.89 seconds on the first run and 1.92 seconds on the second run. From this I can then work out
The Fencing Problem
The Fencing
Law and Order in the late Nineteenth Century
Law and Order in the late Nineteenth Century In this essay I am going to write about London in the nineteenth century and also about the creation of the metropolitan police force. During the 19th century London was different then what it is now for instance there was no major police force and most of the police was made up of volunteers. 75% of the crime in London was petty theft; only 10% of the crime was made up of violent crimes such as murders so there really wasn't any need for a police force which explains why there wasn't one. The population of London started to grow and so did the crimes because the more people there are at one place the criminals could easily pick pocket them. The home secretary at the time Robert Peel had to take some measures. In 1829 Robert Peel who was the home secretary sets up the metropolitan police force because of the number of crimes in Britain mainly in England was rising at a very fast rate. At the time there was a marine/river force and volunteers but they were not trained to handle crime or prevent it. At the start the metropolitan police force was given a black and blue uniform in order to be different from the army uniform because no one in Britain liked the army, so the MET police wanted to get on the good side of the people. The MET were given a nickname ''The London Bobby'' named after Sir Robert Peel. The MET police didn't
Investigating motion using video processing software.
Experiment 6: Investigating motion using video processing software Part One Method: We switched on the laptop and connected the web cam into the USB. Once this was done we made sure that the web cam was working correctly and as soon as this watched checked we began to set up the practical part of the experiment. We then pressed record on the web cam using the software VISILOG and recorded the ball being thrown in the air next to a vertical ruler (one metre). Once this had been done we stopped the recording and the replayed the video and once we were happy, using the software, we recorded the position of the ball frame by frame. Below are the results for the first part of the experiment: Results: Time (s) Height (m) Speed (m/s) Acceleration (m/s2) 0.00 0.057 0.00 0.00 0.03 0.133 2.53 84.44 0.07 0.260 3.18 6.04 0.10 0.380 4.00 27.50 0.14 0.510 3.25 -18.75 0.17 0.615 3.50 8.33 0.20 0.702 2.90 -20.00 0.24 0.793 2.28 -15.63 0.27 0.865 2.40 4.17 0.30 0.927 2.07 -11.11 0.34 0.970 .08 -24.79 0.37 .006 .20 4.17 0.40 .032 0.87 -11.11 0.44 .050 0.45 -10.42 0.47 .057 0.00 -15.00 0.50 .050 0.23 7.78 0.54 .025 0.62 9.79 0.57 0.999 0.87 8.06 0.60 0.963 .20 1.11 0.64 0.909 .35 3.75 0.67 0.840 2.30 31.67 0.71 0.767 .83 -11.87 0.74 0.688 2.63 26.94 0.77 0.586 3.40 25.56 0.81 0.477