Monday, January 21, 2013
Cats and Physics, who knew they had anything in common!
So, when you first watch this video, it is completely understandable that there might be some people out there scratching their heads and thinking, "What did I just watch?" Honestly, if I had not been in a physics class I would have thought the exact same thing, but that was before we learned about the concept of torque. Torque is the name given to the property that causes something to rotate. To get torque, you can multiply the force and the lever arm together; the lever arm is just a fancy way of saying the distance from the axis of rotation. So putting this video into context, we saw the doorstop that the cat was playing with. Based on torque, we know why that doorstop was placed at the very end of the door instead of somewhere in the middle. This was done to increase the distance from the hinge, ultimately increasing the lever arm and thus the torque.
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This video is so great because once again, it proves that you can find physics in EVERYTHING. This isn't similar to my video because mine is a video of explanations of torques, however both videos use everyday examples. If the cat was not as smart, he might have tried to to pull the door close to its hinges, however this would decrease the lever arm and increase the amount of force it would take to open the door. I liked your explanation of torque a lot. This can also tie back to the beginning of our unit. The closer the cat is to the hinges the closer it is to the axis of rotation. As strange as this video is, you managed to find the physics behind it.
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