Physics demo videos

This page is now obsolete. Please visit the following link for our current offerings: http://www.wfu.edu/academics/physics/demolabs/demos/avimov/videointro.htm

Four choices are available for each video:

RealVideo, streaming. This should be the choice of most modem users. You can begin watching the video in seconds.

RealVideo download. This is a very high quality RealVideo format. If you configure your RealPlayer for the highest speed connection, the quality of this is quite nice.
MPG streaming. Best choice for on the WFU campus. (Sorry, but bandwidth limitations mean that off-campus users cannot view this format.) MPG download. The best quality but the largest file.

 

 

Note that only those on the WFU campus can access streaming MPG, because of bandwidth limitations.

Demo Discussion

Streaming

Download

Demo
page

Mechanics

       
Collisions 1
One ball strikes another of equal mass. What will happen? Why?

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Collisions 2
1 ball hits many of equal mass. What will happen? Why does only 1 ball emerge?

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Collisions 3

Now there are two balls incoming.

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Collisions 4
All but two balls are incoming, striking two balls at rest.

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Tennis and basketball bounce

Why does the tennis ball fly so high?

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Torque 1
How does this distance from the support affect the number of masses needed to achieve balance?

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Torque 2
Which is important: the vertical distance, the horizontal distance, or the total distance from the support?

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Angular momentum
What happens when a skater in a spin brings his arms in?

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Angular momentum 2
The wheel only allows rotation about the vertical axis, so the vertical component of angular momentum is conserved.

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Angular momentum 3
What if the wheel is initially spinning horizontally?

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Vector angular momentum and vector torque vector nature

Why does the wheel not fall down?

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Fluids

       
Curve ball

A curve ball illustrates Bernoulli's Principle. The ball is thrown with side spin. As seen from above, the ball spins clockwise. Which way will it break.

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Ball in air stream
Balancing a ping pong ball on a stream of air is easy. Why is this a point of stable equilibrium, that is, why does the ball stay in the center of the air stream?

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Picking up a ball with compressed air

Compressed air is blowing out of the funnel, so what is keeping the ping pong ball in?

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Electricity and Magnetism

       
Van de Graff
Static electricity. The small ball is grounded. Notice what happens when a grounded ice pick is brought near?

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Tesla coil and electric fields

The fluorescent bulb glows without any wires connecting it.

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