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Broom balancing
Instructions
1. Spread your hands as far apart as you can along the broom. 2. Pick up the broom using only one finger of each hand... it'll be heavy on the broom end 3. Slowly slide you fingers together at the same speed. 4. You will find that the finger close to the broom head doesn't move much compared to other finger. 5. Once you get you fingers together you have found the broom's center of gravity. 6. Can you balance the whole broom using one finger on that point? Try other odd shaped objects, e.g. baseball bats, golf clubs and hockey sticks... be careful! 7. Try repeating the experiment, only placing you hands in a different spot. Do you find the center of gravity each time no matter what?
You will need:
- 1 Broom
Every object has a center of gravity, only it is in a different place for different shaped objects.
The center of gravity is really where the mass of the object is equally balanced. If you lean to far over you will start to fall... why? Because most of your mass is away from your center of gravity, causing you to fall to the ground. You can find center of gravity being used from simple balancing toys to building structures. |
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