Sunday, November 28, 2010

Physics Blog 6 "The Fan & The Keys"


Today, I tried to throw the house keys over one of the blades of the ceiling fan.  As the keys came down, they managed to hit the fan blade (...the fan was off...). 


When I threw the keys up into the air, they had an acceleration of -9.8 m/s^2.  As the keys slowed down, and peaked, the keys still had an acceleration of -9.8 m/s^2, but the velocity at the peak was 0.  On they way down, they keys again had an acceleratin of -9/8 m/s^2 until the keys came into contact with the fan blade.  The keys had momentum, while the fan blade and 0 momentum.  Because the keys "bounced" off the fan blade, the type of collision would be.... (drum roll please)...bouncy. :D The impulse (change in momentum) seemed to be big from where I was standing because the keys only bounced a little off the fan and the velocity after the collision also seemed very small compared to before. 


On the bright side, I managed to catch the keys before they hit the floor...so it wasn't a total fail.  And...a physics blog came out of the situation. :P

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