Physics Blog 8 "Boarding"

This past winter vaca, i went snowboarding, and that got me thinking about monent of inertia, center of mass, area of support, and angular momentum.  when i think back on trying to do 180's, i didn't fall because my center of mass was over my area of support, and i always kept the correct edge up.  at first, my arms remained extended when trying to do the trick which caused me to have a big moment of inertia.  after awhile though, i was able to bring my hands in closer which caused my angular velocity to increase and my moment of inertia to decrease conserving my angular momentum.  i finally got my 180 down and then proceeded to work on my nose and tail presses.  when doing a press, you want one end of the board completely off the ground, which is a little hard because your center of mass needs to remain over you very small area of support in order for the trick to be considered a trick.  it takes a few tries to get your center of mass to remain over your area of support.  :D