125 Physics Projects for the Evil Genius

Jerry Silver has developed components for terrestrial photovoltaic systems and designed solar arrays currently providing power for over 20 commercial and NASA satellites. He participated in the production of high-performance semiconductor materials used for cell phone transistors, optical communication, and multijunction solar cells. Mr. Silver holds a B.S. in Engineering Physics from Cornell University and an M.S. in Physics from the University of Massachusetts. Mr. Silver currently teaches in the New Jersey area.

• IntroductionSection 1: MotionProject 1. Getting started. Constant velocity. Running the gauntlet.Project 2. Picturing motion. Getting a move on.Project 3. The tortoise and the hare. Playing catch-up.Project 4. How does a sailboat sail against the wind? Components of force.Project 5. Stepping on the gas.Project 6. Rolling downhill. Measuring acceleration.Project 7. Independence of horizontal and vertical motion. Basketball tossed from a rolling chair.Project 8. Target practice. Horizontal projectile--rolling off a table.Project 9. Taking aim. Shooting a projectile at a target.Project 10. Monday night football. Tracking the trajectory.Project 11. Monkey and coconut.Section 2: Going Around in CirclesProject 12. What is the direction of a satellite's velocity?Project 13. Centripetal force. What is the string that keeps the planets in orbit?Project 14. A gravity well. Following a curved path in space.Project 15. How fast can you go around a curve? Centripetal force and friction.Project 16. Ping-pong balls racing in a beaker. Centripetal force.Project 17. Swinging a pail of water over your head.Section 3: GravityProject 18. Feather and coin.Project 19. How fast do things fall?Project 20. The buck stops here (the falling dollar.) Using a meterstick to measure time.Project 21. Weightless water. Losing weight in an elevator.Project 22. What planet are we on? Using a swinging object to determine the gravitational acceleration.Section 4. Force and Newton's LawProject 23. Newton's first law. What to do if you spill gravy on the tablecloth at Thanksgiving dinner.Project 24. Newton's first law. Poker chips, weight on a string, and a frictionless puck.Project 25. Newton's second law. Forcing an object to accelerate.Project 26. Newton's third law. Equal and opposite reactions.Project 27. Newton's third law. Bottle rockets. Why do they need water? (Sir Isaac Newton in the passenger's seat.)Project 28. Pushing water. Birds flying inside a truck.Project 29. Slipping and sliding.Project 30. Springs. Pulling back. The further you go, the harder it gets.Project 31. Atwood's machine. A vertical tug of war.Project 32. Terminal velocity. Falling slowly.Project 33. Balancing act. Painter on a scaffold.Project 34. Hanging sign.Project 35. Pressure. Imploding cans.Project 36. Pressure. Supporting water in a cup.Project 37. Pressure. Sometimes the news can be pretty heavy.Project 38. Archimedes's principle. What floats your boat?Project 39. Cartesian diver.Project 40. An air-pressure fountain.Project 41. Blowing up a marshmallow. Less is s'more. Why astronauts do not use shaving cream in space.Project 42. Relaxing on a bed of nails.Project 43. Blowing hanging cans apart. What Bernouli had to say about this.Project 44. Center of mass. How to balance a broom.Project 45. A simple challenge. Move your fingers to the center of a meterstick.Project 46. Center of gravity. How far can a stack of books extend beyond the edge of a table?Project 47. Center of mass. The leaning tower of pizza.Section 5: Energy/MomentumProject 48. The pendulum and your physics teacher's Ming dynasty vase.Project 49. Two slopes. Different angle, same height.Project 50. Racing balls. The high road versus the low road.Project 51. Linear momentum. Where can you find a perfect 90-degree angle in nature?Project 52. Elastic collisions.Project 53. Inelastic collision. Sticking together.Project 54. Impulse and momentum. Eggstreme physics.Project 55. Using gravity to move a car.Project 56. How can CSI measure muzzle velocity? The ballistic pendulum.Project 57. Angular momentum. Riding a bike.<