Swinging a bucket (sure beats kicking it!) in AP Physics

By -
When the 16 students who comprise L-S's AP Physics class arrived first period today, their teacher, Dr. Tom Habowski, did a demonstration involving swinging a bucket of water in the air. He quipped that in the event the experiment failed, he had "highly absorbent" paper towels ready to go to clean up a spill. He did not need them.

Dr. Habowski demonstrates centripetal force.
The class is studying circular motion and centripetal force, so the experiment fit into one of its homework problems about tension on a rope when swinging a bucket.

When done correctly (and swung at a sufficient speed), the water does not fall out of the bucket; the centripetal force "holds" the water in the bucket since the water has a tangential velocity pointing horizontally.
"I just thought of this experiment this morning," Habowski says, going on to comment that it has been several years since he has swung a bucket of water in class.

The class enjoyed the activity.


Senior Beth DiBiase says, "I thought it was really cool when [classmate] Chaz [Wolf] did it on the first try."

--Benjamin Pontz, LSNews.org Editor-In-Chief

Popular posts from this blog

Advice: How to get straight As

By -
Image
Achieving straight As, or an unweighted GPA of 4.0, is the goal of many high school students. Getting straight As involves a lot of hard work, but it isn't impossible. Here is how I believe you can get all As. Do your homework. The number of students who do not do their homework shocks me. But doing your homework has many benefits and will help keep your grades up. Those five points you receive for a homework check matter, and when you get a 0 out of 5, it matters even more. Doing your homework also helps you learn the information, raising your test and quiz grades as well. Don't procrastinate. Procrastination is the downfall of many high school students who are capable of good grades. When you receive an assignment, do it ASAP. And when you are given the date of a test, start studying immediately instead of waiting and then cramming the night before. When you do this, you are likely to be less stressed, which increases the quality of the work you do. Don't put ...
Read more

Rumble Fish Book Review

By -
Image
I recently finished reading  Rumble Fish  written by S.E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton and published in 1975. The book starts with Rusty-James on a beach and he runs into an old friend of his that he hadn’t seen in years, Steve. That’s when he flashes back to everything he and Steve had done and been through when they were kids. Rusty-James’ memory is all messed up, and he barely ever remembered much from his childhood, but seeing Steve made everything come back to him… and that was probably for the worst. Most of the book is from Rusty-James’ point of view (in a flashback) when he was fourteen years old. He was the toughest kid in his neighborhood… besides his brother, the Motorcycle Boy, of course. The Motorcycle Boy’s real name is never said, everyone just calls him the Motorcycle Boy because he was constantly stealing and riding motorcycles. He was older than Rusty-James and everyone in their neighborhood respected him and thought he was the coolest and toughest guy to ...
Read more

Book Review: Read the story of 14-year-old 'Tex' an aimless, trouble-prone youth

By -
Image
Book Review Before school started, I went to Barnes & Noble to get a few books from my favorite author, S.E. (Susan Eloise) Hinton, to read as the year started. I got That was Then This is Now , Rumble Fish , (a third copy of) The Outsiders , and Tex .  I had already read The Outsiders at least nine times, I had finished That was Then This is Now , and I had just finished Rumble Fish , so I decided to pick up Tex and start reading. The author of these books writes them in the only way I can ever read books. First person point of view with a relatable narrator.  This one was told by the point of view of Texas (Tex) McCormick, a fourteen year old boy who is living with his brother Mason because they’re mom died when Tex was little and their dad walked out on them a few months back.Texas (Left) and Mason (Right) McCormick Texas believes that Pop (their dad) will be back soon, but Mason knows otherwise…or at least he thinks he does. Tex has a few close friends...
Read more