Dynamics

All Lessons

NYSSLS Reading Passages: Dynamics

Dynamics The Centripetal Dynamic of the Gravitron
Top-down view of the spinning Gravitron: the rider's velocity points along the circle while the centripetal acceleration points toward the center, with v = 2 pi r over T and a_c = v squared over r
Why does a spinning carnival ride pin riders to the wall while the floor drops away underneath them? An investigation into circular motion, static friction, and the inertia myths riders swear by after they step off. Open Reading Passage
Dynamics The Physics of Survival
Seatbelt locking mechanism before a sudden stop: a steel ball resting on an inclined ramp below a pivoting locking pawl next to a toothed sprocket
A humanized design journey through the forces that protect us in a crash — tracing the spring-loaded retractors and locking mechanisms that use inertia itself to keep a passenger's body from becoming the danger. Open Reading Passage
Dynamics The Physics of the Fist: Force, Impulse, and the Evolution of the Boxing Glove
Evolution of hand protection in boxing: a fist wrapped in oxhide strips, an early laced leather glove, and a modern padded red boxing glove
From bare Greek knuckles to modern padded gloves — how Newton's Third Law and the impulse-momentum theorem explain a counterintuitive trade-off: padding can protect a fighter's hands while barely helping the brain inside the skull. Open Reading Passage
Dynamics The Fastest Man on Earth: Physics of Crash Survival
John Paul Stapp on the Sonic Wind rocket sled, held by a harness, slamming into water brakes: 632 mph to a stop in about 1.4 seconds, peaking at 46.2 g
Meet Colonel John Stapp, the Air Force doctor who rode a rocket sled to 632 mph and back to a dead stop — and rewrote what scientists believed the human body could survive. Open Reading Passage
Dynamics The Bug and the Windshield: What Newton's Third Law Really Says
A bug about to hit the windshield of a car going 60 mph, asking which hit harder: the bug on the windshield or the windshield on the bug
The most misunderstood law in physics, minus the misleading poster phrase. Students see why "equal and opposite reaction" backfires as a teaching tool, then rebuild the law the way Newton actually meant it — through a truck-and-car collision, a bowling ball and pin, and Newton's own finger-on-a-stone example — before using mass and inertia to explain why equal forces can still produce wildly unequal effects. Open Reading Passage