Videos tagged physics
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PY105 pre-class video for session 24 - Torque
In this video, we introduce torque, which is the rotational equivalent of torque. We then go over three equivalent ways to calculate torque in a particular situation.
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PY106 pre-class video for session 28 - Polarized light
In this video, we discuss polarized light (specifically, linearly polarized light, which is also known as plane polarized light). We go over, generally, ways in which light can be polarized, and then we talk about how to handle situations in which [...]unpolarized light, or linearly polarized light, is incident on a polarizer. Specifically, we go over how to calculate the intensity of the light emerging from the polarizer, assuming you know the intensity of light incident on the polarizer. Finally, we wrap things up with a brief look at how reflection and scattering can produce polarized light, and what polarized sunglasses do.
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2010 Boston University Pumpkin Drop
On Friday October 29, 2010, the Boston University Physics Department hosted their 5th Annual Pumpkin Drop in the Metcalf Plaza. The largest pumpkin dropped was approximately 45.2 pounds.
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Smashing Pumpkins
On Halloween, the College of Arts and Sciences physics department hosted its third annual Pumpkin Drop at the Metcalf Science Center. The tradition, which involves dropping pumpkins filled with substances from popcorn to paint onto Metcalf Plaza [...]— 70 feet below — is both a promotional and an educational tool, according to department chair Bennett Goldberg, a CAS professor of physics. "We're interested in exciting the community about physics and seeing gravitation in action," he says. "Additionally, we have recorded the motion of each pumpkin as it fell, demonstrating that it falls at a parabolic trajectory. So there is a learning element for the students."
Read the story on BU Today:
/today/node/5658
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Acceleration - graphs for motion with constant acceleration
In this video, we look at motion graphs for an example of a ball we simply drop from rest from a height of 20 meters above the ground. We ignore air resistance, so the ball's acceleration is constant as it falls. We will graph the ball's acceleration [...]as a function of time, velocity as a function of time, and position as a function of time. We will also use the graphs to see the connections between the acceleration and the velocity, and between the velocity and the position.
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Acceleration - the basic definition
This video is a brief introduction to acceleration, going over the basic definition.
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PY105 pre-class video for session 15 - uniform circular motion
In this video, we start looking at uniform circular motion, which is motion in a circular path at constant speed. We derive the equation we generally use for uniform circular motion, and then we use the equation to compare two objects in various [...]situations.
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PY105 pre-class video for session 26 - Static equilibrium
In this video, we introduce static equilibrium, which is a fancy phrase for an object that remains at rest. In static equilibrium, two conditions must be met - the first is that there is no net force acting on the object, and the second is that there [...]is no net torque acting on the object. We'll look at a simple situation of an object that remains at rest, and see how we apply the equilibrium conditions to solve for the values of two unknown forces. Watch out for a typo in the torque equation on the second-last slide (this is noted in the audio narration accompanying the video), where a "-mg" term in the equation should be "-dmg" instead.
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