Riding the hovercraft was a strange sensation. It felt so strange because most man made forms of transportation such as cars or a skateboard involve friction with the ground. In a hovercraft, however, there are no forces acting on it besides the force enacted on it by the one pushing or stopping it. What this means is that the hovercraft, if pushed, will continue to move until someone provides a force in the opposite direction to stop it.
The heavier the person or the faster the were going, the more force was required to stop the hovercraft. This means that inertia, or the tendency of an object to stay at rest or motion, depends directly on the mass of an object If an object has a net force of zero, it means that it is in a state of equilibrium. Equilibrium therefore implies that there are opposite and equal forces acting on an object.
When pushing the hovercraft, the harder it was pushed, the faster it went and the harder it was to stop the hovercraft. This demonstrates that acceleration depends on force. After the hovercraft was pushed, it remained at a constant speed because there were no forces acting on it to slow it down.When it was time to stop the hovercraft, it was harder to stop the faster the person was going or the heavier they were.
You definitely related all the things we are learning about in Physics with the hovercraft! Both of us agree that it was weird to actually ride the hovercraft, i don't think i would do it again. This blog was extremely informative and well written.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you use multiple parts of Physics and connect it all to movement. I enjoy how you explain all parts well and include things like what inertia and equilibrium is. It must have been great to be on a hovercraft since you have no friction as you explained. Perhaps what you could have done better is include another object of same mass and aerodynamic system with wheels and prove the difference of the speed. Using the same force to push both, it would have been great to witness the difference and how much impact friction has on a moving object.
ReplyDelete