On Thursday September 2, 2010, the University of Hawaii Warriors challenged the University of Southern California Trojans in the season opener. Although Hawaii ended up losing the game, 49-36, I could not help but notice how punting a football reminded me of the free-falling labs we had been doing in class. When the punter, Alex Dunnachie, kicked the football, he established the initial velocity. The ball was then, for our purposes, free-falling - only affected by gravity, thus establishing acceleration. The ball then slowly lost speed as it traveled higher about the field until velocity equaled 0 and acceleration remained constant. At this point, the ball started falling down towards the field picking up speed as it went, representing the ever increasing negative velocity value. When the Trojan safety caught the ball, both the final velocity and acceleration values became 0. Using all this information, I could have calculated the distance the ball traveled. But seeing as air resistance is not taken into account in my equation, it definitely would not have matched the yardage on the field.
I liked how you related Physics to a current event in Hawaii. It is very different hearing the sports commentary from a Physics point of view. -Raquelle (per. 3/4)
ReplyDeleteKhaydan,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how clearly you explained what was going on from the start kick to the catch. So today when i go to the game and someone is punting the ball i will think of you and physics.
-Pua
Good explanation of the physics at work. Tackling would have been an interesting topic too - especially the brutal forearm hit that Moniz took to the face.
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