Question #5 2/14/09
Friday, February 13th, 2009What amount of gravitational force downward or upward was DT feeling as he stood on the treadmill?
Express your answers in Gs or percent Gs. And show your method.
Yesterday we were rocking and rolling with winds peaking out at 40-50 knots and swells of 3-4 meters. The boat rocks side-to-side and front to back. I tried running on the treadmill and had to hold on and found it difficult. Sometimes I felt really light and other times I felt really heavy. The boats motion also has a side- to-side motion. At breakfast we pondered how many Gs or (gravitational forces) I might have felt? On earth without any other extraneous forces we feel one G and it is equivalent to our weight.
The Experiment
Disregarding the running part that puts more and less G’s on my legs automatically, I stood on a bathroom scale on top of treadmill.
The Data
The scale recorded my weight from 128 pounds to 168 pounds. I’d assume my actual weight was in the middle around 148.
Other interesting data
We also thought that the G’s would vary depending on the location that you were on the boat, my weight didn’t vary as much in the laundry room where the rotational radius is less. My weight varied from 135 to 155 pounds.
DT warming-up for another round
Photo from- http://kecute.files.wordpress.com/2008/01/hamster-wheel-race.jpg
Winner from Question #4 is Kathryn Jones from Platt Middle School, Congratulations!
Kathryn was one of three students to attempt last week’s question about clouds. She was the only student attempting to explain her answer. Kathryn said the clouds had something to do with the distance to land wind and dew point.
It was hard to see any strong correlation of clouds to the data set.
Clouds form when temperature drops condensing moisture. A pressure drop can do the same thing. We can also see clouds form at various times along the coast due to differential heating. It is common to see fog along the coast in the morning.
