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Re: The Good Stuff



My students have a decent idea about world record times in the pole
vault and the 100 m dash, and when we are doing work-energy I ask
them to figure out whether conservation of energy is enough for a
world-record height in the pole vault. (That is, if the pole loses
no energy in being flexed, does the vaulter have to do any work to
reach 19 feet?) I point out that the transition from the wooden to
fiberglas pole ushered in a wave of increasing pole vault records,
and that new pole technology may bring more of that in the future.

I think this stuff is kind of neat; for me it is 'good stuff'. [As is
the funny car 1/4 mile time of around 5 sec, which implies a friction
coefficient much greater than 1, and the use of skid marks to
evaluate traffic accidents. And don't forget the 'rotor' ride where
people get pinned against the wall.]

--

Mike

===============================================================
Mike Moloney
moloney@nextwork.rose-hulman.edu
Dept of Physics & Applied Optics (812) 877 8302
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology Terre Haute, IN 47803
http://www.rose-hulman.edu/~moloney