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Images of acceleration - in textbooks, everyday life and amusement parks

Acceleration - Physics or Math ?

Sequence of screen shots
Illustration of velocity and acceleration

This is a www version of the poster for the Nordic Physics Days 2021.

Do we see acceleration as a mathematics or physics concept? a = F/m or a =d2h/dt2?

Grafs
Integrating accelerometer graphs to get velocity, Elevation from barometer sensor data.

A Virtual Reality Drop Tower ride

Screenshots from simulated ride
Screen shots from a virtual reality ride in the Golden Tower.

Read more in Phys.Ed. 55  055017 and view the VR movies

USING PHYSICS TO MEASURE VERTICAL ACCELERATION

HORIZONTAL ACCELERATION

Launch
Acceleration of the Kanonen Launch coaster at Liseberg

Using physics to measure horizontal acceleration

Chain flyer ride
Chain flyer ride. Gröna Lund Watch the angle of the chains - can you use them to estimate the horizontal acceleration?
Protractor for measuring horizontal acceleration
Using an object on a string, horizontal acceleration can be measured using a protractor

Read more about physics in Chain Flyer Rides in Physics Education 51 015014 (with video abstract)

Weightlessness in amusement rides

What forces act on the train moving under the track in the top of the loop? Read about student discussions of forces in a roller coaster loop: Physics Education 54 065017

What forces act on the train in a "zero-g roll"?

 

What forces act?

What strategies do students use to work out what forces act in different situations? 

Are the strategies coherent?

Pendrill, poster Nordic physics days 2021
Click to open PDF