Class Activity
Physics Phenomena
Starts: NOW
Ends: ????
Pick one of the following strange yet true physics phenomena and write a solution as to why it occurs.
Cane Craziness1. If someone were to take a cane or other similarly shaped object and hold it out to you, and you attempted to take your two index fingers and place them under the center of mass, when the other person lets go, the cane will generally become unbalanced and fall. However should you hold the cane with only your index fingers at either end and slide them together, they will end up together at the center of mass and the cane will remain balanced. Why?
Phone Flip2. If you were to flip your phone end over end, you would notice that the phone does not just go end over end but begins to twist in other directions on the axis. Why can you not flip your phone end over end as cleanly as you can on any other axis?
Charged Cup Debate3. If you were to take a plastic cup and rub it against you head giving it a static electric charge and then held it close to a trickle of water, the water would begin to deflect from its straight downward path and arch towards the cup. Despite what is taught in chemistry books, the cup does not possess enough of a charge to realign atoms on that level. So why does it happen?
Magnetic Cereal4. Take a piece of your favorite cereal and drop it into a bowl of water. Now using a strong magnet try to pull the cereal around the surface of the water. Why does this work?
Teabag Rocket5. If you were to take a tea bag and carefully cut the sealed end off and dump out the tea, then take the bag and form it into a cylinder so that it would stand on it’s own on a surface, then light the edges, why would the packet eventually take off into the air?
Rules1. PM your solutions to nepsah with the title “Leviathan Physics Phenomena - Insert Student Name”
2. Write a short RP your student came to class.
3. Do not post your solutions in the thread. Should you do so you will be disqualified and everyone else who picks the same scenario after you.
