ERIC Number: EJ1332113
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022-Mar
Pages: 3
Abstractor: ERIC
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0031-921X
EISSN: N/A
Jumping off a Merry-Go-Round
Physics Teacher, v60 n3 p176-178 Mar 2022
How many vertical jumps does it take to jump off of a rotating merry-go-round (MGR)? The answer is hidden in the expression: "r[subscript n]" = "r[subscript 0]" (1 + ["beta superscript 2") ["superscript n/2"]. When you make a vertical jump on a train moving on a straight line at constant speed (inertial frame), you land on the same spot. Not so on a MGR! A note in "The Physics Teacher" and a recent viewing of a 1960s gem online, "Frames of Reference" by Ivey and Hume, combined to motivate this paper. A very interesting paper by A. E. Wilson describes "Jogging on a Carousel" but does not include a simple vertical jump as viewed from the uniformly rotating frame. In this article, a few simple physics concepts are used to form a general solution to the initial question.
American Association of Physics Teachers. One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740. Tel: 301-209-3300; Fax: 301-209-0845; e-mail: pubs@aapt.org; Web site: http://aapt.scitation.org/journal/pte
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A