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Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) |
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Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727) |
Week 1: Week 1 lecture notes. Each file is one transparency (e.g. "lecture3b.pdf" is the second page of lecture 3). We shall use a more convenient format in later weeks.
Vector Addition Applet. (See also the demonstration on the Hecht CD-ROM).
Week 2: Acceleration, Newton's Laws, Dynamics and Statics.
Newton's Cannon Java animation, with link to Newton's original diagram and explanation.
NASA's KC-135 "Vomit Comet" - flies in a parabolic trajectory to provide 25s of a weightless environment for astronaut training. A CNN article with images and movies.
Superman - the Escape ride at Magic Mountain provides thrill-seekers with 6.5s of free-fall. So how high is the tower? How fast are you moving at the bottom? (The required height of the tower, and the braking mechanism to slow the coaster will both add to the cost of building such a ride).
Remember: vy= dy/dt = 0.0 - gt so y=y0 - 1/2gt2.
The world's tallest free-fall tower is in Hokkaido, Japan, and provides 10.0s of free-fall time. (Therefore, it must be (10.0s/6.5s)2 times the height of the Superman ride, and the speed at the bottom must be (10.0s/6.5s) times greater). It is used for zero-gravity experiments, cheaper than sending them into orbit.
Why can't this man lift himself up?
Philip Blanco email: pblanco@ucsd.edu