Chapter 4
Bullying Biomechanics with the Laws of Physics
In This Chapter
Identifying Newton’s three laws
Working with conservative and nonconservative forces
Plugging into the power
Conserving all physics
Bouncing bodies
Nothing in the universe can break the laws of physics. In this chapter I introduce the fundamental laws of physics and explain how they’re relevant to biological systems and biomechanics. Biomechanics is the study of forces acting on biological organisms. Biomechanics is relevant from the study of ions moving within an organism to the study of the motion of animals.
This chapter focuses on Newton’s three laws of motion as well as the work-energy concept. These laws describe how objects move, based on their interactions with their surroundings. This chapter also describes conservative forces such as gravity. A conservative force will work against you in one direction, but going back in the opposite direction, the force will work with you. I also discuss nonconservative ...
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