1. The Role of
Elementary
Physics on the
Ordinary – and
the Extraordinary!
Based on a Lecture
Delivered October 2011
Brad Sottile
2.
3. Video Discussion Points
This mission was STS-122
Goal was to assist in the assembly of the
International Space Station
Launch: July 4th, 2006 at 2:37:55 p.m. EDT
from Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Landing: July 17th, 2006 at 9:15:49 a.m. EDT
at Kennedy Space Center, Florida
Mission Duration: 12 days, 18 hours, 37
minutes and 54 seconds
Sources: Wikipedia and NASA
4. Video Discussion Points Cont’d
The space shuttle Discovery traveled 3.1 million
miles on this mission
As referenced in the video, the pilot was a US
Navy Captain by the name of Mark Kelly – he is
the wife of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords
She was wounded in the January 2011 Tucson,
Arizona shooting
NASA’s Chief Engineer and Chief Safety Officer
recommended the mission not proceed due to
safety concerned but were overruled by their
superiors. Was this the right move?
Sources: Wikipedia and NASA
5. The Space Shuttle and Physics
The launch of the space shuttle is just one
(extraordinary) example of the
application of physics to the real world!
To begin to adequately describe the
world around us, we need to re-examine
how we view elementary physics.
Let’s take a step back and time and talk
about a rather interesting character by
the name of Isaac Newton.
6. Isaac Newton
Born: January 4th, 1643
Died: March 31st, 1727
Was a famous English physicist,
mathematician, astronomer, natural
philosopher, alchemist and theologian.
One of his most famous works: Philosophiæ
Naturalis Principia Mathematica
He wrote the entire book in Latin because he
was paranoid about people stealing his ideas
and/or embarrassing him with corrections.
Co-Discoverer of Calculus
Source: Wikipedia
7. Newton’s Laws
FirstLaw (also known as the Law of
Inertia): An object in rest wants to stay in
rest while an object in motion tends to
stay in motion unless acted on by a force.
Second Law: The Acceleration of an
object is parallel and directly proportional
to the net force and inversely proportional
to the mass of the body.
Third Law: For every action there is an
equal and opposite reaction.
8. Examples and Applications
First Law:
Its hard to get out of bed in the morning
because your body doesn’t want to move.
Second Law:
The second law is famously formulated as
F = m*a
Third Law:
If you set a book on a desk, gravity pulls the
book down towards the center of the earth;
the desk pushes the book up so that there is
no net motion experienced by the book.
10. Example Problem
Let’sdo a very simple example of these types
of physics problems
Let’ssay we have an apple tree that’s
20 meters tall. If an apple is initially at rest
at the top of the tree and falls to the
ground, how long will it take for the
apple to fall? Ignore any atmospheric
effects (e.g. drag) and assume that
acceleration due to gravity is constant
and is equal to 10 m/s2
13. Follow-Up
Question: What is the magnitude of the
force acting on the apple if the apple has
mass m?
F = m*a, where a is the acceleration due to
gravity (the only force on the apple).
Is our result reasonable?
Yes!
14. Think-Pair-Share Activity
Thinkabout the following question for a
minute or so then find someone to discuss
the solution with!
Giventhe information in the previous
problem, at what speed will the apple hit
the ground?
