Over spring break I went snowboarding in Oregon with my family. In this picture my brother Ian is in the air after going off a jump. As Ian approached the jump he was going downhill and gaining speed, so his acceleration was negative. When he goes off the jump, Ian has a high initial velocity and he is in free fall, so his new acceleration is -9.8 m/s/s. Ian is moving forward (up), but slowing down so his acceleration is negative. When he gets to the peak of his motion in the air, Ian's velocity will be 0 m/s and then he will start to accelerate again at -9.8 m/s/s, his acceleration is again negative because he is going backward (down) and getting faster. Knowing about acceleration and free fall acceleration can be very important for snowboarders who enjoy spending time in the terrain park. If a snowboarder knows that his or her acceleration will be -9.8 m/s/s after going off a jump, they can clculate how fast they need to be going in order to travel a certain distance in the air and clear any obstacles that might impede a smooth landing. Of course in reality, one's acceleration would be slightly affected by air resistance, however snowboarders are much to rad to worry about inconvenient laws of physics such as this.
3 comments:
this picture is awesome! i've never snowboarded before. it looks like a lot of fun. and of course...the connection to physics is superb!
the explanation was great and I really like the picture. too bad it was a pic of your bro and not you. But you probably get more air than him anyway.
is that you!!
kay snow boarding has got to be the funnest thing to do...like i've only went 2 1/2 times but its crazy fun
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