Chapter 7
Making The World Go Round with Physics –– Dynamics
In This Chapter
Understanding motion in a straight line
Grasping circular motion
Dynamics means to study the causes of motion and changes in the motion. The focus is to study how forces combine to create a net external force and/or a net torque acting on a biological system. In dynamics, you’re also asking why did the things move or why did their motion change? For example, a figure skater standing in one spot and spinning can change the speed at which she is spinning. This chapter tries to figure out how that happens. Or you may be interested in sports, so how does a baseball curve to the right or left? Dynamics deals with the why.
This chapter starts with one-dimensional linear motion; you may be interested in the motion of birds, fish, or mammals. If you’re interested in linear motion in two or three-dimensions, then don’t worry. This chapter also focuses on motion in a circle. This motion is two dimensional, but you can treat circular motion as one-dimensional motion if you look at the motion in terms of the angle (angular position). (The radius of the circle is a constant.) The centrifuge involves circular motion as well as the figure skater spinning in a circle.
Reducing Motion to a Straight Line
In many situations ...
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