Physics 201 Demo Goes Smashingly

Students of Physics 201: Principles of Physics watched a unique in-class demo last week presented by Prof. Brian Welsch and laboratory manager Joe Schoenebeck. In the recording, you’ll see Schoenebeck lying on a bed of nails under a chest plate of nails and a cinder block. What happens next? You’ll have to watch…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jqIyu-Xi2s&feature=emb_title

Welsch explains, “The primary purpose of the demonstration was to illustrate the impulse-momentum theorem: the force exerted by Joe’s chest to stop the momentum of the sledge hammer was reduced by breaking the cinder block on the hammer’s way down — this basically lengthens the time interval over which the hammer stops, and thereby reduces the force.”