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Re: MBL, was Re: Air resistance



ramp. As far as effects of air resistance on balls is concerned, I have
gotten
some very nice data using a motion detector mounted on a tall pole
looking
down towards the floor observing a ball bouncing under it. Even in this
case
one can tell that the acceleration of a low density ball is different
for
upward and downward motion. (I'll add that the absolute best air
resistance
data I've gotten in student projects is by videotaping the ball and
analyzing
the tape frame by frame.)

Steve Luzader

--
Stephen Luzader
Frostburg State University
Frostburg, MD
http://antoine.fsu.umd.edu/phys/luzader

A few years ago, a similar idea occurred to me but I never carried it out.
Steve I'm glad you did. The idea occurred to me while watching the movie,
Cannery Row. Nick Nolte plays "Doc" in the film. At one point the scene
shows Doc laying on his bed and repeatedly throwing a baseball straight up
above him and catching it as it falls back down toward him. Doc lives in
his lab (he's a pro baseball pitcher turned biologist) so the ceiling in
the room is apparently fairly high. The scene appears to be filmed in
telephoto so there is this sensation of the ball getting bigger and then
smaller while the whole scene stays in focus. I have wondered whether one
could take diameter vs time data on the ball and determine "g" or other
things from this. (I doubt that air resistance would be extremely
significant for a baseball, given the heights that might be achieved during
the throw.)

Dewey

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr. Phone: (208)385-3105
Professor of Physics Dept: (208)385-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418 Fax: (208)385-4330
Boise State University dykstrad@bsumail.idbsu.edu
1910 University Drive Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570 novice piper

"Physical concepts are the free creations of the human mind and
are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external
world."--A. Einstein in The Evolution of Physics with L. Infeld,
1938.
"Every [person's] world picture is and always remains a construct
of [their] mind and cannot be proved to have any other existence."
--E. Schrodinger in Mind and Matter, 1958.
"Don't mistake your watermelon for the universe." --K. Amdahl in
There Are No Electrons, 1991.
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