Today we in Physics class, we did a lab on hovercrafts. If I had to explain to someone else how it felt to ride on a hovercraft, I would tell them that I felt out of control. I would tell them to expect noise, movement, and an out of control feeling. Riding on a sled or a skateboard is different, because they are both on the ground experiencing friction. Riding a hovercraft does not involve friction, so there is no force to slow it down unless an outside force, such as a person, comes into contact with the hovercraft. I learned that inertia is not the force causing a hovercraft to move continue moving forward at a constant velocity, but rather a lack of force. Net force is an outside force that causes acceleration, so an example of that would be when a classmate was ready to slow down the hovercraft, turn it around, and push it. Equilibrium occurred during the second stage of the hovercraft lab when the hovercraft was moving at a constant velocity, because Newton's First Law states that things in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. Based on this lab, acceleration seems to depend on force. For example, Corrie and Orlando pushed me forcefully on the hovercraft to create acceleration. Also based on this lab, I would expect to have a constant velocity when there was no net force in action. Some classmates were harder to push than others, because it takes more force to create acceleration with a larger mass.
No comments:
Post a Comment