1
vote
1answer
132 views

Force and Torque Question on an isolated system

If there's a rigid rod in space, and you give some external force perpendicular to the rod at one of the ends for a short time, what happens? Specifically: What dependence does the moment of inertia ...
1
vote
1answer
260 views

Kinetic Energy And Rotational Motion

The problem is, "A metal can containing condensed mushroom soup has mass 220 g, height 11.0 cm and diameter 6.38 cm. It is placed at rest on its side at the top of a 3.00-m-long incline that is at ...
0
votes
2answers
2k views

Tensions And Pulleys With Masses

The problem I am working on is: "A block of mass m1 = 1.80 kg and a block of mass m2 = 6.30 kg are connected by a massless string over a pulley in the shape of a solid disk having radius R = 0.250 m ...
1
vote
2answers
131 views
1
vote
2answers
1k views

Why does a ball bounce?

If an object is acted on by equal and opposite forces then it will be in equilibrium, and it's acceleration or velocity (and so direction as well) will not be changed. So when a ball bounces, it ...
2
votes
3answers
310 views

The two faces of $F = m*a$

As I have understood, $F(t)=m \cdot a(t)$ can have 2 different meanings: When applying an external force $F$ on a point mass of mass $m$, the resulting acceleration of that mass at time $t$ is ...
4
votes
3answers
435 views

Infinite acceleration?

Why is acceleration regulated by mass? In a frictionless environment, why doesn't an object move at infinite acceleration if force is applied on it? Force causes movement, so unless there is an ...
0
votes
2answers
1k views

Jumping in an elevator?

I've always been under the impression that jumping in an elevator wouldn't help at all, especially after reading a snippet of physics where Einstein said that free fall was identical to zero gravity. ...
2
votes
1answer
99 views

Pushing, inertia of a cart system

I have a cart with another cart on top which gets pulled down by another cart on the side. There is no friction. The question is: How strongly do I have to push with $F$ to keep the cart $m_1$ ...