TESC – winter 2003

Week 2

Please answer all of the following questions, and submit them no later than Monday, January 27. Your answers must be typed.

Suppose you stand on two bathroom scales with your weight evenly divided between the two scales. What will each scale read? How about if you stand with more of your weight on one foot than the other?

A hockey puck sliding across the ice finally comes to rest. Which of Newton’s laws would be applicable? Interpret the law to this situation, by describing what is occurring, and how it applies.

When an athlete holds a barbell overhead, the reaction force is the weight of the barbell on his hand. How does this force vary for the case where the barbell is accelerated upward? Downward?

Why can you exert greater force on the pedals of a bicycle if you pull up on the handlebars?

Give an example of Newton’s third Law of Motion, using a common sport. Be sure your example includes enough detail to show this Law being applied.