Picture Physics
 
 

Illustrating Physics in the World Around You

 
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Moving

All around us things are moving.  Animals are moving.  People are moving.

What makes things start to move?  What makes them stop moving?  Why do some things keep moving while others keep still?

On this website, we will answer these and many other questions about motion in our everyday lives. We will introduce words that are used to describe basic concepts.  We will see how these concepts are related to one another.  We will look at a lot of examples of people and things moving around. These examples will be familiar to you.  Only now you'll be able to understand them better!

 
 

Swinging

One special type of motion is when something moves back and forth again and again.  For example, when you ride on a swing, you move back and forth from side to side.  As another example, if you hang something on a spring and pull down on it, it will bounce up and down.

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In order to understand the physics of swinging and bouncing, we will start with an introduction to energy, since energy is at the heart of this kind of motion.  We will then learn about what happens when you hang something on a spring and when you make it bounce up and down. We will then learn about swings and several other kinds of things that move back and forth.

1. Energy and Work

2. Springs

3. Oscillator Basics

4. Swings

5. Other Oscillators

 

Spinning

This section is under construction.  It describes the motion of things that go around in a circle.  It also explains why you don't tip over when you ride a bike!

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Flowing

This section is under construction.  It covers floating and sinking and the flow of water and air.  Some computer-generated illustrations of air flow around moving things are included as well.

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