Monday, December 13, 2010

Blog 7 Circular Motion


 Over the summer, my brother competed in the Waimea swim series race.  He and the rest of his swim team had to swim 2.1 km at Waimea Beach.  Although my brother did not win, and he actually got dq'd because he swam around the wrong side of the buoy.....However there is still physics everywhere, even in swimming races!  In this picture you can see swimmers turning to get around the buoy, where the center of rotation is somewhere out of the picture near the beach.  As the swimmers turn, they are moving in a circle, however with such a large radius, an average speed, and all the forces of drag and friction between the water, it is very unlikely that they will surpass their centripetal force and fly off in a tangent!  Although that would be very interesting to see.  As we continue to learn more physics, we realize that there really is physics everywhere and you just have to know what it is.

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