Monday, October 31, 2011

spinning birdfeeders

I meant to show these in class today, but explaining my Halloween costume took longer than I had thought!

Here are two videos featuring a spinning bird feeder, designed to keep pesky squirrels from stealing the bird seed.



What force creates the torque that spins the squirrel?
And where does the squirrel's increase in kinetic energy come from?
What physical factors determine how long the squirrel can hold on for?
Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

3 comments:

  1. murffdanNovember 1, 2011 at 4:17 PM

    Undoubtedly the funniest squirrel video I've ever seen. Even better than the "dramatic squirrel" videos. The slow motion video is what gets to me the most. Hilarious!!!! Thanks Dr. Lane.

    ReplyDelete
  2. WBHNovember 1, 2011 at 5:57 PM

    this was funny!! Good video Dr. Lane

    Walter Hill

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousNovember 3, 2011 at 3:46 PM

    I've seen this video before, but not the slow motion one. I think the momentum of the squirrel hitting the bird feeder causes him to spin. I think the kinetic energy comes from the bird feeder itself spinning in small circles. The physical factors could be from how good a grip the squirrel has, and how fast its spinning. My question is Where can I get one of these? haha

    Aaron Gibbs

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)