18 Apr Physics Teachers, Meet Rhett Allain
Rhett Allain writes about the “fruit jello” of physics; a curious blend of healthy stuff mixed in a tasty and appealing concoction. IMHO he’s the Emeril Lagasse of Newtonian principles, and he uses movies, video games, and pop culture references instead of pots and pans. In the adulterated words of Mary Poppins, “Just a spoonful of his [physics sugar] will help the medicine go down.” The medicine just happens to be one of my least favorite science topics: Physics. However, Rhett is making me love physics just a little bit more because his topics are ever so interesting.
A professor at Southeastern Louisiana University and contributing writer for WIRED’s Science content, Rhett explores the physics of phenomena that people quickly overlook when traversing the Internet highway. Want to know what happens when a CD shatters? He has tried it and explains the science behind musical destruction at 23,000 RPM. Curious about the accuracy of the physics engine in Rovio’s Angry Birds games? So was Rhett. Is it physically possible for Marvel’s Black Widow character to move in the manner depicted in the trailer for The Avengers: Age of Ultron movie? Some video analysis using the freely available Tracker software provides clues about the impossibility of the filmmaker’s after effects magic.
Below are selected entries from the Dot Physics blog where Rhett Allain regularly writes. For additional information, check out his books Geek Physics: Surprising Answers to the Planet’s Most Interesting Questions and Angry Birds: Furious Forces. His Twitter account is also worth following (@rjallain).
An Analysis of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 Crash Landing
Website: http://www.wired.com/2015/04/analysis-falcon-9-crash-landing/
Description: “SpaceX once again successfully launched a Falcon 9 rocket with supplies for the International Space Station. The booster that launched the payload was then supposed to return, landing on a platform (at sea). Well, that didn’t go so well. The booster crashed on landing…” (Allain, 2015). Rhett goes on to analyze the rocket’s failed landing using video footage and analysis software (See Related Resources below).
Science Content: Vertical & horizontal acceleration, velocity, mass, graphing
Related Resources: See SpaceX’s Rocket Landing Crash Up Close with These Photos & Video (Space.com article), CRS-6 First Stage Landing (YouTube video), Tracker Video Analysis Tool (Downloadable software)
What Happens When a CD Spins Too Fast?
Website: http://www.wired.com/2015/03/happens-cd-spins-fast/
Description: “What happens when you take expensive equipment and do silly things with it? Awesome stuff is the correct answer… But what I really love is seeing cool things that no one saw before. That is exactly what happened when [some videographers] used a high speed camera with a spinning Compact Disc. It turns out that these discs shatter when you spin them too fast—with a high speed camera, you can see the propagation of material failure as the disc spins. [But] how fast was the CD spinning?” (Allain, 2015).
Science Content: Angular velocity, trajectory, velocity, radius, linear speed, air resistance, acceleration
Related Resources: CD Shattering at 170,000 FPS (YouTube video), Tracker Video Analysis Tool (Downloadable software)
The Physics of Angry Birds
Website: http://www.wired.com/2010/10/physics-of-angry-birds/
Description: “You know the game, I know you know. Angry Birds… The basic idea is that you launch these birds (which are apparently angry) with a sling shot. The goal is to knock over some pigs. Seriously, that is the game. But what about the physics? Do the birds have a constant vertical acceleration? Do they have constant horizontal velocity?” (Allain, 2010).
Science Content: Force, acceleration, velocity
Related Resources: Rovio’s Angry Birds (Software description), Official Angry Birds 3 Star Walkthrough Theme 1 Levels 1-5 (YouTube video), Tracker Video Analysis Tool (Downloadable software)
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