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Contact
Forces
Learn
about... The common contact force is just like an invisible
hand!
Introduction
The common contact force can be explained as an invisible
hand(s) that pushes, pulls, lifts, or squashes a mass.
Contact
Forces
Balanced forces are equal forces that are applied in opposited
directions and result in no change in velocity. Unbalanced
forces are forces that are not equal and opposit and result
i a change in velocity. A unit that's commonly used to describe
forces we feel is the "g". One"g" is equal
to the force of earth's gravity. When the space shuttle takes
off, the astronauts feel about 3 g's of force (three times
the force of the earth's gravity). If a body, for examle a
roller coaster, is standing still it won't want to move unless
some contact force pushes or pull sit. This resistance of
the roller coaster is called inertia. The more mass a body
has the more inertia it has. If the roller coaster is moving,
it will want to keep moving, along the direction the direction
of motion unless some thing causes it to speed up or slow
down. This resistance of the moving roller coaster to change
its velocity is also another example of its inertia. Work
is a force used to move something in the direction of the
force. Kind of hard to explain but if you hold a box, no work
is being done to the box. If you drag a box, then work is
being done. Work is how much you have to push or pull a roller
coaster in order to move it force a certain distance. Work
is done if a chain, pulled by a motor, pulls the coaster up
to the top of a hill on the track. It takes work to lift a
roller coaster to the top of the first hill in order to over
come the first hill in order to overcome the force of gravity.
The more mass a coaster has, the more work is required to
pull it to the top. The further the roller coaste must climb,
the more work is done to get the coaster to the top of the
hill. These are just a few of the many everyday forces a roller
coaster uses and overcomes, to give you the best 2.5 minute
ride of your life.
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