Intro to Physics:

Center of Mass and Conservation of Momentum

Physics is the science about how and why things work. Sir Isaac Newton from England was one of the first people who tried to explain why things around him behave the way they do. He did this by setting up 3 basic rules, and we call these Newtons 3 Laws. These laws are the basis for most of physics. Today we sill talk about the first of these laws, and another important concept called the center of mass.
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)

Newtons 1st Law: Things at rest tend to stay at rest and things in motion tend to stay in motion. Or simply, things tend to keep on doing what theyre doing. Imagine yourself in a car. When the driver slams on the break, you feel yourself thrown forwards. Also, imagine running toward your friend with a cup of water in your hand. All of a sudden, you trip on something and water spills all over your friend. These are examples of things in motion staying in motion.

Things at rest tend to stay at rest

Experiments with the Newtons 1st Law

Materials: water bottle, penny, playing card. Procedure: 1. Place the card on the water bottle. 2. Put the penny on the card so that it is right above the mouth of the water bottle. 3. Flick the card off the bottle. What happens to the penny? Does it follow Newtons 1st Law?

Newtons 1st Law also says that heavier things tend to keep on what theyre doing with more stubbornness. It means that it is much harder to get a bowling ball moving than a ping-pong ball, because bowling balls are much heavier and more stubborn than ping-pong balls. Lets see this using some coins. Materials: 6 pennies, 1 dime, 1 nickel Procedure: 1. Lay five pennies in a line. 2. Flick one penny at the line of pennies. What happens to the penny at the end of the line? 3. Now, lay four pennies in line, and lay a nickel at the end of the line. 4. Flick one penny at the penny in the front of the line. How far does the quarter pop out? 5. Now use a dime instead of a nickel. What happens?

Center of Mass
Every object has a center of mass, which can be thought of as the point that is as close as possible to every piece of an object. Usually the center of mass is found within the object. For example, the center of mass of a ball is the very middle of the ball, and the center of mass of a book is the middle of the book. Where do you think the center of mass of your pencil is? How about the center of mass of your body? Talk about this with you mentor. The center of mass determines whether or not something will fall over. Imagine pushing over a refrigerator. At the beginning, the center of mass is directly over where the fridge touches the ground. If you push the refrigerator a little, it will fall back into place. If, however, you push it enough so that the center of mass is past the piece of the fridge that is touching the ground, it will fall.

Center of Mass

Center of Mass

Falls back standing up

Center of Mass

Falls to the ground

Experiments with Center of Mass

Materials: 1 piece of paper, scissors, pencil Procedure: 1. Cut off the bottom of a piece of paper so that what remains is roughly a square. Cut the square in half.

2. Fold one of the rectangles in half so it forms a square, then fold it in half again.

3. Now, fold the paper in half lengthwise to form a long skinny rectangle. About a half an inch below one of the ends, cut a small x in the center of the paper. Cut off the opposite end at a 30 degree angle. Your paper should look like the diagram and picture below.

4. Insert a pen or pencil into the hole made by the X you cut in the paper, from the valley side. The back end of the pen/pencil should extend out past the end of the paper. Now see if you can get your construction to balance! You might have to play with how far the pencil is pushed through the hole and how much the paper is bent.

Where is the center of mass of this construction? Think about the refrigerator example. Why does this weird looking thing not fall over? Materials: large paper clip, 2-3 staples stuck together, masking tape Procedure: 1. Bend the paper clip until if forms a bracket shape, where the connecting bar is about twice as long as the legs. 2. Tape 2-3 staples which are still stuck together onto the inside of the paper clip, so both brackets open the same direction. (You will have to cut/rip the tape so it fits between the legs of the staples. It doesnt need to be long, 2 cm is plenty.)

Now try balancing the bracket on the ends of the staples. Notice how you can swing the contraption back and forth and it doesnt fall, even though it is balanced on the ends of the staples? This is because the center of mass is actually below the staple legs. This configuration is very stable.

Center of Mass

An extra center of mass experiment, if there is time: Materials: hammer, ruler, string, table edge, counterbalance (the roll of tape works well) Procedure: 1. Put the loop of string around the ruler so that it falls across the 1 inch mark. 2. Place the first inch of the ruler on a table edge. 3. Slide the hammer through the loop, so that the head of the hammer extends under the table and butt of the hammer hits the ruler at around 6 inches. (this is not exact, you may have to play with the alignment to get this to work. 4. At this point the ruler should be trying to shoot up into the air, as the hammer rotates down. Use your counterweight to balance everything.

The whole apparatus should be able to swing to and fro with only the first half inch of the ruler touching the table. Again, this setup is so stable because the center of mass is below the table (and right underneath where the ruler is touching).

Some Physics Questions!

1.

If you were being chased by an angry elephant, why would it be good to make a sudden, sharp turn? Explain using Newtons 1st Law.

2.

What requires more energy to start, a semi-truck or a sports car?

3.

What would be more stable (harder to knock over), a cone or a cylinder? Why?