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[Phys-L] Re: Moving Ramp Launching Snowboarder




<http://www.big-boys.com/articles/roadstunt.html>

Nice clip of a car with ramp mounted to it riding up to a snowboarder
at rest and launching him over the car.

I wonder how many of my students will be able to predict the final
direction of the snowboarder after the collision.


From my experience very few will figure it out. Even when they see things
like this, they will deny that the skateboarder went forward, in the same
direction as the car. As I understand, they put themselves in the frame of
the car and also in the frame of the ground, but answer the question from
the car frame. This happenes even when they are clearly asked to look at
the ground frame, and to consider the forces on the skateboarder.

It would make a good in class demo, but I would be afraid to show it because
it might be considered enticing them to do it. There is not danger of
snowboarders doing it in Houston, but they will just do it with skateboards.

John M. Clement
Houston, TX
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