To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .
- The Big Story
- Newsletters
- Steven Levy's Plaintext Column
- WIRED Classics from the Archive
- WIRED Insider
- WIRED Consulting
Holiday Physics Homework
It's that time of year. Christmas, New Years, and other holiday stuff. Now you can just sit around in your pajamas and watch football. Or can you? Don't forget your holiday physics homework.
Before I post your homework, I am going to give you an example. If I don't give an example, everyone gets angry. So here it is (yes, this is an old problem with new data).
How Fast Is That Nerf Dart?
Everyone loves Nerf guns. Also, if you borrow your wife's phone you can easily make a slow motion video.
This is a 240 fps video from the iPhone 6 ( here is a youtube version ). It's a little difficult to see, but there is also a meterstick on the ground for scaling. You should know what comes next - video analysis with Tracker Video Analysis. I'll just skip all the details (but here is a quick video analysis tutorial ) and go straight to a plot of the position of the dart.
Since the dart was shot at an angle, I have included plots for both the x- and y-position. Looking at the slope, this gives an x-velocity of 19.2 m/s and a y-velocity of 3.04 m/s. This gives an average magnitude of 19.44 m/s. This speed is quite a bit faster than this other Nerf gun I tested at around 10 m/s.
See. That's not so difficult of a homework problem. Actually, you could take this one step farther. Here are some follow up questions.
- How much does air resistance slow the dart down? Make an estimate based on the size and mass of the dart. If the dart was shot in a space station (so you could ignore gravitational effects), how far would it travel? What is the effective range of the dart?
- Projectile motion. If you neglect air resistance, how high will the dart travel if you shoot it straight up? How far horizontally will the dart travel if you shoot it from a standing position and aimed horizontally?
- Estimate the stretch distance and the spring constant for the spring inside the gun.
Some of those questions aren't too difficult.
Other Holiday Homework Questions
Now that you have an example, here are some other questions.
1. Twist ties. For the past few years, it seems like many toys have been packaged with an increasing number of twist ties to hold them into the package.
Experimentally create a model for the retaining force strength as a function of twists. So, if you twist it twice instead of once, is it twice as strong?
2. Twist ties and time. Estimate the total amount of time (in human hours) that was spent in Christmas morning in the USA undoing twist ties.
3. Air drag and power. Here is a running parachute.
Estimate the increase in power needed to run with the parachute.
4. Wrapping paper. Suppose you took all the wrapping paper used in the USA during Christmas. If you put all of this together (tape it together), how much surface area would it cover? Would it be enough to cover a city? What about Rhode Island? Could you see it from orbit?
5. Hot Christmas trees. Suppose you have normal incandescent bulbs on your Christmas tree. What perecent of the electrical power goes into thermal power? Does your tree actually get hot?
This older post on the power used by Christmas lights might be helpful.
That's your homework.
IMAGES
VIDEO
COMMENTS
Here are some holiday inspired physics homework including an example of the video analysis of a nerf dart.
In this video you learn how to draw a simple & attractive design on paper, charts, files, project work, boards and templates. Physics Holidays Homework. Front Page Idea For Physics...
Discover Pinterest’s best ideas and inspiration for Physics holiday homework cover page. Get inspired and try out new things.
With them, you can personalize your cover page template by adding science-related visuals. Pick atom vectors, illustrated lab equipment, and even photos of famous scientists. Aside from those, you can change your cover page’s colors and the preset font style, hue, and size.
Discover Pinterest’s best ideas and inspiration for Physics file cover decoration ideas. Get inspired and try out new things.
Discover Pinterest’s best ideas and inspiration for Science holiday homework cover page. Get inspired and try out new things. 1k people searched this. ·. Last updated 4d. Aesthetic Science Project Ideas. Science Assignment Ideas. Computer Science Front Page Design. Physics Practical File Cover.
This will teach you how to draw and design a cover page. This is a ...
This Christmas physics activity is great for practicing the Accelerated Motion Equations! Students will solve 10 holiday-themed word problems using the ‘Big 4’ Kinematic Equations in this no-prep, self-checking, color-by-code physics activity.
HOLIDAY HOMEWORK. Year 12, 2021. 2020 PHYSICS UNITS 3&4 COURSE OUTLINE. OBJECTIVES. These units are designed to enable students to. Explore the importance of energy in explaining and describing the physical world. Explore the use of wave and particle theories to model the properties of light and matter.
This physics holiday homework document outlines a 4-week schedule of activities and assignments to complete. Week 1 focuses on physical quantities, units, and measurement. Week 2 covers the properties of matter and states of matter. Week 3 explores forces and related physics topics.