Body Physics: Supplementary Material

Body Physics: Supplementary

Material

LAWRENCE DAVIS
Body Physics: Supplementary Material by Lawrence Davis is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except
where otherwise noted.
Contents

What's in the Supplementary Material? 1

Part I. Design-Build-Test Projects

1. Biophysical Model of the Arm 5

2. Mars Lander 9
3. Energy Efficient Home 16

Part II. Lab Extension Activities

4. Unit 9 Lab Extension Part II: Limits on Human 19

Performance*
5. Unit 8 Lab Extension: Quantitative Numerical 22
Modeling of Falling Motion with Air Resistance*
6. Unit 9 Lab Extension Part I: Replenishing Energy* 23
7. Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions 25
8. Unit 10 Lab Extension: Ballistic Pendulum* 32
9. Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity 35
and Extracting Drag Coefficient*
10. Measuring Weight 41
11. Modeling Body Tissues as Springs* 46
12. Unit 7 Review 52
13. Unit 7 Practice and Assessment 54
14. Forces on the Forearm while Curling 57
15. Body Levers 59
16. Forces in the Elbow Joint 69
17. Friction in Joints 72
18. Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep* 83
19. Alternative Method for Calculating Torque and 90
Tension*
20. Unit 6 Review 94
21. Balance 96
22. Unit 6 Practice and Assessment 98
23. Center of Gravity 102
24. Supporting the Body 105
25. Tipping Point 110
26. Types of Equilibrium 114
27. Walking and Tripping 120
28. Human Stability 122
29. The Anti-Gravity Lean 125
30. Unit 5 Review 127
31. Unit 5 Practice and Assessment 129
32. Body Density 136
33. Body Volume by Displacement (Dunking) Method 138
34. Body Weight 141
35. Body Density from Displacement and Weight 143
36. Under Water Weight 148
37. Hydrostatic Weighing 157
38. Unit 4 Review 161
39. Body Mass Index 163
40. Unit 4 Practice and Assessment 165
41. The Skinfold Method 167
42. Pupillary Distance Self-Measurement 171
43. Working with Uncertainties* 174
44. Other Methods of Reporting Uncertainty* 181
45. Unit 3 Review 183
46. Unit 3 Practice and Assessment 184
47. Jolene’s Migraines 187
48. The Scientific Process 191

Part III. Oregon Community College Association

2018 Meeting

49. Body Balance App 197

50. OER Familiarity 198
51. Original OER Motivation 199
52. Observations on Student-Textbook Interactions 201
53. Survey of 200-level Physics Students 203
54. Observations on Traditional Textbook Design 205
55. OER at the 100 Level 208
56. Shifting Reference Frames 209
57. Crowd-Source Content 212
58. Initial Response 214
59. What Else? 216

Part IV. Cascadia OER Summit 2019

60. Calibration Questions 221

61. Observations on Student-Textbook Interaction 224
62. Survey of 200-level Physics Students 226
63. Observations on Traditional Textbook Design 228
64. Audience Observations 231
65. Physics OER at the 100-Level 232
66. Backward Design 233
67. Shifting Reference Frames 239
68. Additional Features Improving and Leveraging 241
Digital Literacy
69. Initial Response 246
70. Crowdsource! 247
71. Original OER Motivation 252

Part V. Physics from the Student Perspective

Glossary 259
What's in the Supplementary
Material?

What's in the Supplementary

Material? | 1
PART I
DESIGN-BUILD-TEST
PROJECTS

Design-Build-Test Projects | 3
1. Biophysical Model of the
Arm

Project Goals

• Use hands-on experience to reinforce physics concepts

covered so far
• Jump cognition levels to create
• Practice critical thinking and the scientific process
• Have fun

Project Description

Build a scale articulating model of the human arm from the shoulder
to the wrist. The model will include the lower arm, upper arm,
elbow joint, biceps and triceps muscles and associated tendons.
The model will be made out of cardboard, glue, twist ties and
wooden dowels. The articulation of muscles will be done using
syringes and tubing to form hydraulic actuators and twist ties will
serve as tendons in similar fashion to the process seen in the
following video:

Biophysical Model of the Arm | 5

 A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the
text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=368

Your project assess the concepts listed below and your project
grade will be determined according to the criteria listed under each
concept. The project is worth 15 points overall, and the distribution
of points among the criteria are listed under each concept.

1. Scientific Method: Creation process is well documented in a

typed project report with the sections listed in bold below:

◦ DESIGN
◦ Neat documentation of design considerations and how
they relate to concepts covered in class = 1pt
◦ Neat scale diagram of your design before building begins.
Must include labels and dimensions. = 1pt
◦ BUILD

6 | Biophysical Model of the Arm

 ◦ Neat documentation of issues encountered during build =
1pt
◦ Neat documentation of solutions to build issues and
changes to design = 1pt
◦ TEST
◦ Neat documentation of issues encountered during testing
of design =1pt
◦ REDESIGN
◦ Neat documentation of solutions to testing issues and
changes to design = 1pt
◦ Neat final updated scale diagram = 1pt

2. Unit Conversion: The model is a 2:3 scale size of a human arm.

◦ Scaled 2:3 = 2pts

◦ Proportionally scaled, but not 2:3 = 1pt

3. Forces and Torques: The model is capable of curling at least

1:100 the weight that a human arm can curl.

◦ Curls at least 1:100 scale weight = 2 pts

◦ Curls weight, but not 1:100 scale weight = 1pt

4. Levers: The model actuates with the same range of motion (in
terms of elbow angle) as the human arm.

◦ Articulates full human range of motion = 2 pts

◦ Articulates, but not full human range of motion= 1pt

5. Stability: The model does not tip over under the 1:100 scale
load.

◦ Remains standing = 1pt

6. Strength of Materials: The model materials do not fracture,

rupture, or otherwise fail under the 1:100 load.

Biophysical Model of the Arm | 7

 ◦ No failure, fracture or rupture = 1pt

Additional Information to Consider:

• You may use any resource you like for guidance, however only
students in you group may work on your model or add to the
documentation AND you must cite your sources in your project
report.
• You don’t have to build the control levers, you can just hold
and operate your two control syringes.
• Your model does not need to rotate like the one in the example
video.
• Do not build a hand, we will hang a weight from the end of
your model’s forearm for the testing phase.
• You do not have to generate your diagrams on the computer
unless you want to. You can draw them by hand and attach
them to your report as long as they are still neat, well labeled,
properly scaled, and the dimensions are indicated.
• Your project will receive a group score, however students not
actively participating and contributing will not receive credit
for the project.
• You will be able to go through as many rounds of design/
build/test as you would like within the time allotted for this
project.
• All projects must have their final evaluation on or before the
last day of the period allotted for the project.
• Don’t hesitate to ask your instructor for help or ask
clarification question regarding the project expectations.

8 | Biophysical Model of the Arm

2. Mars Lander

Project Goals

• Use hands-on experience to reinforce physics concepts

covered so far
• Jump cognition levels to create
• Practice critical thinking and the scientific process
• Have fun

Project Description

Lander Delivery

Welcome to the first briefing for the touchdown redundancy team.

Please play close attention because I am going to throw a lot of
information at you.
Now, as you are aware the sky crane has emerged as the most
practical method of delivering relatively massive payloads to the
Martian surface. For a brief recap of that system watch the following
video:

Mars Lander | 9
 A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the
text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=370

As we know, the sky crane system successfully delivered the

curiosity rover to Mars, an important step in getting this historic
point, where we are now in mission design phase for the Human
Exploration of Mars. Several sky crane systems will be used to
deliver supplies, equipment and the return rocket ahead of the
human mission.

Your Task

We calculate a low failure probability for the sky crane, but we also
estimate that the large majority of that probability is concentrated
during the time when the crane is within 14 m of the surface.
We know humans and equipment can only survive forces up to a

10 | Mars Lander
certain threshold. Therefore, this team will design a lander which
will prevent accelerations above the safety threshold for drops up
to 14 m on Mars. This will ensure that the humans and critical
equipment survive an unexpected drop to the Martian surface with
no adverse effects.
The system you design to accomplish this must not rely on any
other system, which would create a redundancy spiral, and that
includes any electronics systems. (Therefore a parachute
deployment system is not acceptable).The system must be built into
the structure of the lander itself. You will be designing a Mechanical
Acceleration Suppression System, or M.A.S.S.

Design and Testing Parameters:

In order to generate a diversity of design ideas the team will be split

into groups. I want hands-on contributions from all members, so
groups cannot be bigger than three. I also want us checking and
double-checking each other’s work, so no groups smaller than two.
Each group will design a system, build a model, and we will test
them in our free-fall facility here in the building. The model test
subjects and equipment we will use will be three raw eggs.
We must recognize that g on mars is only about 3.8 m/s/s
compared to 9.8 m/s/s on Earth so you will calculate a new drop
height for testing our models here on Earth.
The model lander must fall straight down from the calculated
height and land within a 25 cm x 25 cm area to ensure that it lands
in the safe location identified by the sky crane imaging system.
(Therefore a parachute system is not acceptable).
Due to the fuel requirements and cost of launching mass into
space, you are limited to a total mass of 500 g for your model lander
system, including the payload (eggs).
Due to the size limitations of the spacecraft you are limited to a

Mars Lander | 11
total size of 20 cm wide x 20 cm long by 30 cm high for your model
lander system.
You are also limited on your design budget. In order to maximize
the efficiency of taxpayer dollars for space exploration you are
limited to the following materials, with associated costs and your
total cost cannot go above 500 USD.
Glue: No cost
Paper: 4 USD/gram
Cardboard: 6 USD/gram
Wood (Popsicle sticks) 10 USD/gram
Aluminum Foil: 25 USD/gram

Presentation and Testing:

You will give the class an 8 minute presentation on your model that
will include the following sections:

1. Model design features

2. Physics concepts and reasoning behind your design
3. Materials cost breakdown for your model
4. Difficulties and solutions/redesigns during your project

Model Evaluation (Grading)

C-grades will be earned by:

1. correctly completing and submitting the guide calculations

worksheet
2. fully participating in the design-build process
3. keeping your design within budget limitations
4. contributing to your group presentation.

12 | Mars Lander
B-Grades will be earned by doing the above plus:

1. landing completely within the designated area

2. preventing damage to the test subject (egg).

A-Grades will be earned by doing all of the above plus:

1. keeping within mass and size limitations

Guide Calculations:

Drop Height, Speed, and Acceleration

Using our knowledge of conservation of mechanical energy

determine the Earth drop height we need to provide the same
impact speed as a 14 m drop on Mars:

We want to limit the peak acceleration felt by the cargo to 10 g.

The humans and equipment will be strapped tightly to the lander
frame so the lander frame must not accelerate at more than 10 g.
What is this acceleration in m/s/s?

Impact Force

Assuming your lander + payload have the maximum 300 g mas,

Mars Lander | 13
calculate the maximum net force that can be applied to the lander
on touchdown without exceeding the threshold acceleration:

Draw a free body diagram of the lander during impact

Determine the peak normal force that can be applied to your

model by the ground in order to prevent such an acceleration. This
is your safety threshold force.

You may use force plate to test version of your models and see
how they react to forces of various sizes.

Impact Duration

Use the lander mass and impact speed to calculate the change in
momentum of the lander upon impact.

If you design your lander to keep the average net force applied
on impact to be less than 1/3 of the safety threshold, then the peak
force will likely not exceed the safety threshold. Draw a F vs. t curve
for the impact that illustrates this idea.

14 | Mars Lander
 If you were to achieve this average force value of 1/3 the peak
force threshold, then over what time would you need to spread the
impact?

What design features will you implement to spread out the impact
duration?

Testing

Record the dimensions of your lander here:

Width:________Length:______Height:________
Record the mass of the lander here:________
Record the masses and total cost of various materials used:

Record the total cost of your lander here:______

Did your payload survive without damage?

Mars Lander | 15
3. Energy Efficient Home

Project Goals

• Use hands-on experience to reinforce physics concepts

covered so far
• Jump cognition levels to create
• Practice critical thinking and the scientific process
• Have fun

Project Description

16 | Energy Efficient Home

PART II
LAB EXTENSION
ACTIVITIES

Lab Extension Activities | 17

4. Unit 9 Lab Extension Part
II: Limits on Human
Performance*

Limits on Human Performance

What is the ultimate strength of the Achilles Tendon

Find or calculate the cross-sectional area of the Achilles Tendon.

Cite any sources.

Based on your answer, what force can the typical Achilles Tendon
supply before rupture?

In order to transfer the the force on the balls of the feet directly to
the lower legs during the jump, the force on the Achilles needs to be
roughly twice the force on the balls of the feet. Given the maximum
force the Achilles can handle, how large of a force can be applied to
the balls of the feet during the jump without rupture?

If you apply that force to the floor, what force is supplied back on
your feet (Newton’s 3rd Law)?

If that peak force were supplied during launch phase, what would
be the peak net force? (Don’t forget about gravity cancelling out
some of the upward force supplied by the floor).

If the peak net force was what you found above, what would be

Unit 9 Lab Extension Part II: Limits

on Human Performance* | 19
the average net force (assuming the force curve peak-to-average
force ratio as your own jump).

If that average net force were supplied over the same launch time
as your jump, what would be the impulse?

What would be the change momentum during the launch?

What would be the final velocity at the end of launch phase?

How long would it take for your velocity to become zero at the
peak of the jump?

What is the maximum hang time possible given the limitations of

the strength of the Achilles tendon?

Determine the maximum kinetic energy a person can gain during

the launch phase.

Determine the maximum height that a person can jump based on

that kinetic energy (Use conservation of Energy).

Additional Limits on Human Performance

Having already found the maximum kinetic energy a person can

gain during the launch phase, what is net work that would be done
during the launch phase. (Work-Energy Theorem)

Using the distance the center of mass traveled during your own

20 | Unit 9 Lab Extension Part II: Limits on Human Performance*

launch phase, calculate the work done by gravity during launch
(Work equation).

Determine the work that would be done by the jumper during

launch.

If the work was done over the same time interval as your launch
phase, what would be the power output of the person.

Convert your answer to horsepower.

Unit 9 Lab Extension Part II: Limits on Human Performance* | 21

5. Unit 8 Lab Extension:
Quantitative Numerical
Modeling of Falling Motion
with Air Resistance*

Numerical Modeling

Do the Unit 8 Lab Extension Activity to determine the drag

coefficient of a coffee filter.
Use a spreadsheet or your favorite coding language to build the
numerical model for skydiving motion described a the end of Unit 8.
Use the coffee filter drag coefficient you found, employ your
program to model the acceleration, velocity and potion of a three
nested coffee filters during a fall.
Measure the acceleration, velocity and position experienced by
the set of coffee filters during a fall.
Graph both your measured and predicted acceleration on a single
graph.
Graph both your measured and predicted velocity on a single
graph.
Graph both your measured and predicted position on a single
graph.
Does your model do well at prediction the coffee filter motion?

22 | Unit 8 Lab Extension:

Quantitative Numerical Modeling of
6. Unit 9 Lab Extension Part
I: Replenishing Energy*

Jump Analysis Continued…

You will need to refer to the data and analysis from the Unit 9 Lab
throughout this activity.

Human Performance

What is the change in kinetic energy of the person during the

launch phase of the jump, from stationary to leaving the force plate?

What is the net work done on the person during the launch
phase? (Work-Energy Theorem)

Use your video to find the distance the person’s center of mass
moved during the launch phase. Record here:

Using the distance above and the net work from the start of this
section, find the average net force during the launch phase. (Work
Equation)

What average force needs to be supplied by your Achilles tendon

in order to have the average net force you found above. (This force
needs to be large enough to cancel your weight, AND still have the
net force you found above left over!)

Unit 9 Lab Extension Part I:

Replenishing Energy* | 23
 Use this force and the launch distance you found to determine the
work done by the jumper.

Where did the energy to do this work come from?

You have to supply basically the same work to stop your motion
on landing than you provided to stop it on launch. How much energy
must you supply for one jump?

If a person performed one of these jumps per second for a whole

day, how many Joules of work would they do?

Assuming a 20% mechanical efficiency, how much energy do you

actually expend to do this work? (You have to do 5x more work than
actual mechanical energy you get out).

How many extra food calories is that?

You also need about 2000 Calories per day for basic metabolism,
so how many 260 Calorie candy bars would you need to eat in order
to maintain calorie balance?

If you did not eat any candy bars how many pounds of fat would
you need to metabolize to provide this energy? Cite any sources for
the calories per pound of fat metabolized.

24 | Unit 9 Lab Extension Part I: Replenishing Energy*

7. Unit 10 Lab Extension:
Collisions

Inelastic Collisions

• lab sheet and writing utensil

• calculator
• “frictionless” track + two carts with velcro bumpers and
magnetic or rubber bumpers
• two motion sensors + computer with sensor control and
analysis software (or one motion sensor and one self-tracking
motion cart).

Observation

Two objects colliding and sticking together looks just like an

explosion in reverse.

Question

When two objects collide and stick together, also known as a

perfectly inelastic collision, are kinetic energy and momentum
conserved?

Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions | 25

Hypothesis

Based on what you know about kinetic energy and momentum

during an explosion, form a hypothesis about kinetic energy and
momentum conservation during a perfectly inelastic collision.

Test

Now perform this experiment on your carts and track by giving the
carts an initial velocity with a light push. Use the Velcro bumpers
so that the carts stick together (you may instead use the magnetic
bumpers arranged so that they attract). You may start with one cart
stationary or give both carts an initial velocity.

Record the measured initial (before collision) and final (after

collision) velocities of each cart here, being sure to record them as
positive or negative according to your own choice of directions:

Measure and record the mass of each cart:

Momentum Analysis

Calculate the initial total momentum immediately before the

collision.

26 | Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions

 Calculate the final total momentum immediately after the
collision

Momentum Conclusion

Do the results above support or refute your momentum hypothesis.

Explain.

Kinetic Energy Analysis

Calculate the initial total kinetic energy immediately before the

collision.

Calculate the final total kinetic energy immediately after the

collision

Kinetic Energy Conclusion

Does the result above support or refute your kinetic energy

hypothesis. Explain.

Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions | 27

 If kinetic energy was not conserved, then where did it go?

Elastic Collisions

Observation

Now attach the magnetic bumpers to your so that they repel each
other and then softly collide them. What do you observe about this
collision in contrast to the perfectly inelastic collision?

Question

Does this type of collision conserve kinetic energy and momentum?

Hypothesis

Form a hypothesis about kinetic energy and momentum

conservation during a collision between the carts with repelling
magnetic bumpers.

28 | Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions

Test

Softly collide the carts so that they “bounce” without actually

touching Record the initial and final velocities for each cart here:

Record the mass for each cart here:

Momentum Analysis

Calculate the total initial momentum of the carts:

Calculate the total final momentum of the carts:

Momentum Conclusion

Do the results above support or refute your momentum hypothesis?

Explain.

Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions | 29

Kinetic Energy Analysis

Calculate the total initial kinetic energy of the carts:

Calculate the total final kinetic energy of the carts:

Kinetic Energy Conclusion

Do the results above support or refute your hypothesis? Explain.

Was this a perfectly elastic collision? Explain.

If not, how much kinetic energy was “missing?”

Calculate a coefficient of restitution for this collision.

If this were a perfectly elastic collision then we should be able

to calculate the final velocities using the elastic collision equations
found at the very bottom of this web page. Use your measured
initial velocities and cart masses in the elastic collision equations to
calculate the expected final velocity for each cart. Show your work
below.

30 | Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions

 Calculate a percent difference between the expected and
observed final velocities for each cart. Was this collision elastic
enough that the elastic collision equations were still accurate to
within 10 % ?

Unit 10 Lab Extension: Collisions | 31

8. Unit 10 Lab Extension:
Ballistic Pendulum*

Ballistic Pendulum

The ballistic pendulum is a device used to determine the speed

of objects moving too fast for conventional instruments. The basic
idea is that a projectile is fired into a pendulum, which then swings
upward to some height, which is measured. Working backwards,
we can determine the speed of the projectile if the mass of the
projectile and pendulum are known. The steps are as follows:

1. Assume friction and air resistance are negligible during the

swing so we can use conservation of mechanical energy to
determine the speed of the pendulum + projectile immediately
after the collision.
2. Use conservation of momentum to determine the speed of the
projectile immediately before the collision.

Order of Magnitude Estimate

Compress the spring on the ballistic pendulum and launch the

projectile into the pendulum. Provide an order of magnitude
estimate for the speed of the ball by comparing the observed speed
to that of other objects that move much faster and much slower.
Cite all sources.

32 | Unit 10 Lab Extension: Ballistic

Pendulum*
Test

Find and record the mass of both the projectile and the pendulum:

Find the center of gravity of the pendulum when the projectile

is already embedded. If it is not already marked, then estimate its
location by finding where the pendulum will balance on your finger
and then mark it with a piece of tape.

Measure and record the initial height of the center of gravity of

the pendulum:

Fire the projectile and measure the final height of the center of
gravity of the pendulum. Record below:

Analysis

Calculate the change in gravitational potential energy of the

pendulum during the swing.

Use energy conservation, assuming friction and air resistance are

negligible, to find the change in kinetic energy during the swing.

If the final kinetic energy is zero when the pendulum stops at

its maximum height, what was the initial kinetic energy when the
swing started?

Unit 10 Lab Extension: Ballistic Pendulum* | 33

 Calculate the initial velocity of the pendulum when the swing
started.

Use conservation of momentum to find the initial velocity of the

ball before the collision. The final velocity of the collision is equal to
the velocity at the start of the swing, which you found above.

Conclusion

Was your estimate for the speed of the ball correct within an order
of magnitude? Explain.

34 | Unit 10 Lab Extension: Ballistic Pendulum*

9. Unit 8 Lab Extension:
Modeling Terminal Velocity
and Extracting Drag
Coefficient*

Modeling Terminal Velocity and Drag Coefficient

Materials:

• copy of lab sheet and spreadsheet from Unit 2/3 Lab

• spreadsheet and graphing software
• for distance learners, access to online forums, videos, and help
features for the spreadsheet software will likely be necessary

Lab Objectives

The objectives of this lab are:

1) derive a physical model for terminal velocity of objects falling
through air,
2) test the model against terminal velocity data
3) use our model to extract useful information from the data

Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling

Terminal Velocity and Extracting
Build a Physical Model

Terminal velocity is the maximum speed reached by a falling object.

Therefore, once a falling object has reached terminal velocity then
it is no longer accelerating and we can say the velocity is constant,
but not zero. This state is known as ___________ equilibrium.
When an object is in the state you described above, what can you
say about the total force on the object?

Draw a free body diagram (FBD) of the falling object indicating the
forces acting on it. Be sure to label the forces. [Hint: there are two
forces].

Your diagram should show that the two forces are the same size,
but pointing in opposite directions so that they cancel out. If this
were not the case, then the object would not be in
____________ equilibrium. Represent this concept with an
equation that sets the two forces equal:

One of the forces should be gravity (weight). Rewrite your

equation, but replace the force of gravity in your equation with the
formula for calculating the force of gravity on an object near the
surface of the Earth:

The other force should be the drag force. Rewrite your equation,
but replace that force in your equation with the formula for drag
force:

Now you should have an equation that relates drag coefficient, air
density, cross-sectional area and velocity to object mass and g. This

36 | Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity and Extracting Drag

Coefficient*
equation is only true when the object is in equilibrium, so the
velocity in your equation must be terminal velocity. Add a subscript
T to your velocity to indicate this ($v_T$). Solve your equation for
terminal velocity, showing your work in the space below. You may
ask for help with the algebra.

Now we have a physical model for the terminal velocity. The

model predicts that terminal velocity is proportional to the
__________________ of the mass. Stated another way, the
terminal velocity depends on mass to the _______ power.

Hypothesis

We can turn the previous statements into a quantitative hypothesis:

If identically shaped objects of different mass are dropped under the
same conditions, then the terminal velocity the objects will be
proportional to the ____________ of the mass.

Acquire Test Data

We already have the terminal velocity data for coffee filters that we
acquired during the Unit 2/3 Lab, so let’s use that. Open up the
spreadsheet you created during the Unit 2/3 Lab.

Analyze

Fit a trend line to the data. We don’t yet know what type of curve

Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity and Extracting Drag

Coefficient* | 37
should fit, so use a power fit. This will tell us how terminal velocity
depends on mass according to the data.
Write your fit equation here:_______________
Record the R2 value here:____________ The R2 value gives
you an idea of how well the equation fits your data. The closer R2 is
to one the better the fit.
Would you say that your equation fits the data well? Explain.

What power is the mass (x-variable) raised to in your equation? Is

it 0.5,1, 2, 3, or something else?

Conclusion

A power of 1 would suggest terminal velocity is proportional to mass.

A power of 2 would suggest terminal velocity is proportional to mass
squared. A power of 1/2 would say that the terminal velocity is
proportional to the square root of the mass. Does your data support
your quantitative hypothesis? Explain.

Physical and Empirical Models

Your fit equation represents a quantitative empirical model. We

could use the model to try to predict the terminal velocity of some
other filter masses, but the model is only based on data, it doesn’t
rely on any physics concepts to explain what we are observing.
Your equation for terminal velocity is a quantitative physical
model because it allows us to predict values for terminal velocity

38 | Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity and Extracting Drag

Coefficient*
AND it provides information about the underlying physics behind
the behavior we observe.
If we were to test your two types of models many more times
for many types of objects and they always did well at predicting
the experimental results then we would say the models have been
validated.
Could either of these models become part of a theory? Explain.

Could either of these models become part of a Law? Explain.

Extracting Model Parameters*

We have a physical model for terminal velocity, and we can quickly

look up or measure all of the parameters except the drag coefficient.
Combing our data and our physical model will allow us to extract
that parameter value for drag coefficient.
Write down your physical model and immediately below it write
down the equation you fit to the data. Compare the two equations to
determine what combination of physical parameters must equal the
number in front of x that you see in your fit equation. (Remembering
that the x in your equation represents mass and the y represents
terminal velocity).
Write and equation between the parameters and the number and
solve it for drag coefficient. Show your work.

Now put in the known values for the other parameters and

Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity and Extracting Drag

Coefficient* | 39
calculate the drag coefficient, including units. Show your work
below.

You have now tested your physical model against the data and
used the data to extract an unknown parameter of the physical
model. That is real heavy-duty science right there!

40 | Unit 8 Lab Extension: Modeling Terminal Velocity and Extracting Drag

Coefficient*
 10. Measuring Weight

Springs

We have learned that materials stretched within their linear

region exhibit linear stress–strain behavior. Springs allow us to
adjust the amount of strain that occurs for a given stress and
increase the size of the linear region. For example, take a steel rod
one foot in length and the diameter of a clothing thread and you
would not be able to noticeably stretch that rod with your bare
hands. However, if that rod were formed into a spring, then you
could stretch the spring with your bare hands.

The force exerted on a stretched spring determines how far it stretches. (a)
This spring has a length x when not stretched. (b) The resistance of the spring
to deformation causes a force, Frestore to be exerted back on whatever is
pulling on the hook. (c) A spring scale is one device that uses a spring to
measure force. Image Credit: OpenStax University Physics

Springs follow Hooke's Law which states that the restoring force,

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

Measuring Weight | 41
FR exerted by the spring is equal to the stretch or compression
distance, known as the displacement (Δx), multiplied by spring
stiffness (k) and the direction of the force is opposite to the
direction of the displacement.
\begin{equation}
F_R = k \Delta x
\end{equation}
A higher spring stiffness means the spring shows a greater
resistance to stretching or compressing. Spring stiffness is often
called the spring constant.
Check out this simulation of Hooke's Law:

Reinforcement Activity

If the spring scale shown in the previous image reads 6 N

CNX. Sep 14, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-

a362-9bd36ca7c97d@11.28.

42 | Measuring Weight
 when $\Delta x$ is 3 cm, what is the spring constant
(stiffness) in units of N/cm?

The standard unit for spring constant is N/m. Convert

your answer from N/cm to N/m.

Weight with a Spring Scale

Spring scales are designed to take advantage of Hooke's law to

determine the size of the force stretching the spring by measuring
the displacement. In order to use a spring scale to measure weight
we can multiply the measured stretch distance by the known spring
constant to find the restoring force applied by the spring. Typically
spring scales will have markings on them which indicate the
restoring force for each stretch distance, so we don’t have to
actually calculate the restoring force every time we use the scale. If
the object being weighed is in equilibrium then the restoring force
and the weight of the object are the same, and so by measuring the
restoring force with the scale we then know the weight. For example
when hanging the object from the spring scale the force of gravity
will pull it down and the restoring force in the spring pulls it up,
as in the image below. If instead the scale is tilted so gravity and
restoring force don’t have opposite directions, the reading may be
inaccurate. If the object and/or scale are not in equilibrium while
holding it, then the reading may be inaccurate, and we will learn
more about how and why in later units. Either way, the scale is only
accurate if the object being weighed remains in equilibrium during
the measurement.

Measuring Weight | 43
 Biologist Dr. Paula Khan holds still and
keeps the scale vertical while she weighs a
desert tortoise before release as part of the
Fort Irwin, Calif., tortoise translocation.
Photo Credit: “Paula Khan” by Neal Snyder
via Wikimedia Commons

Many analog scales are based on multiple springs or the

resistance to deformation by objects other than springs, but they
still determine weight using measurement of a deformation
combined with a known relation between deformation and force.

2. "Paula Khan" by Neal Snyder via Wikimedia Commons released in the public
domain by U.S. Army Environmental Command

44 | Measuring Weight
Digital Scales

Many modern scales follow the same principle as spring scales,

but instead of measuring the deformation directly, they measure
an electric voltage created by a material in response to being
deformed. Materials that produce voltages in response to
deformation are known as piezoelectrics. As long as the relations
between voltage and deformation and between deformation and
applied force are both known, the scale can determine your weight
by measuring a voltage.
An interesting aspect of the piezoelectric effect is reversibility,
meaning that piezoelectric materials not only produce a voltage in
response to deformation, they will also deform in response to an
applied voltage, which allows for piezoelectric motors.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the

text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=203

Measuring Weight | 45
11. Modeling Body Tissues as
Springs*

Spring Constants of Body Parts

When tissues are put under stress within their elastic region they
exert a restoring force that is proportional to the displacement.
They also return back to their original size and shape when the
force causing the deformation is removed. This exactly how springs
behave, so we can model tissues, and any other material within its
elastic region, as a collection of springs.

Artist’s conception of the elastic behavior body tissues. “Armcoil” by Sasha

Lynch.

Consider modeling the humerus bone as a spring, as depicted in

the image above. We can think of compressing a bone that has
twice the cross-sectional area of the humerus as equivalent to
compressing two of the original springs at the same time, which
would require twice the applied force to create the compression
distance (displacement). Therefore that bone would have twice the
spring constant of the humerus. We can also think of a bone that is

46 | Modeling Body Tissues as

Springs*
twice as long as the humerus as equivalent to compressing two of
the original springs placed end-to-end. Each spring will only have
to compress half of the total distance, so that would require only
half the force to create the same total compression distance. Now
we can see that the size of an object affects the spring constant. As
a result, the force required to achieve a particular compression or
stretch is different for different sized objects, even when they are
made of the same material. In order to study the elastic properties
of a material such as bone, independent of how big the bone is, then
we need to remove the effect of size. That is why we have been
working with stress, strain, and elastic modulus rather than force,
displacement, and spring constant.

Relating Spring Constant and Elastic

Modulus

We have learned that the spring constant tells us how much force is
required to stretch a spring a certain distance. We have also learned
that the elastic modulus tells us how much stress is required to
cause a certain strain. It seems like these concepts are very similar,
but not quite identical, which is true. The stress and strain relation
within the linear region is really just Hooke's Law after accounting
for the amount and shape of the material being deformed, which
allows us to analyze the material itself independent of the size of
the object. Let’s see how elastic modulus and spring constant are
related.
If we start with the elastic stress-strain relation:
\begin{equation}
stress = E \cdot strain
\end{equation}
And then replace stress and strain with their definitions from
previous chapters:

Modeling Body Tissues as Springs* | 47

 \begin{equation}
\frac{Force}{Area} = E \frac{\Delta L}{L_0}
\end{equation}
We can rearrange to get force and stretch distance on opposite
sides
\begin{equation}
Force = E \frac{Area}{L_0} \Delta L
\end{equation}
Which looks exactly like Hooke’s Law if the spring constant of an
object is just all the stuff sitting in front of the stretch distance:
\begin{equation}
k = E \frac{Area}{L_0}
\end{equation}
Now we can see that the elastic property of materials causes
them to behave like springs. The human body has adapted to take
advantage of the springy nature of tissues to walk more efficiently,
jump higher, and generally improve performance in many activities.
Upcoming units will help us to understand the physics behind these
adaptations.

Everyday Example

Earlier we stated that a typical Achilles tendon would

stretch by about the width of a human hair when an
additional 480 lbs (2135 N) of tension was applied after un-
crimping. How did we arrive at that surprising figure?

First we looked up the elastic modulus of the Achilles

1
tendon and found the value to be 1.2 GPa.

1. "In vivo human tendon mechanical properties" by Constantinos N

48 | Modeling Body Tissues as Springs*

 Then we looked up the typical length and diameter of the
Achilles tendon and found 0.15 m for the length and 0.018 m
2
for the minimum diameter.

We approximated the cross-sectional area by assuming

the tendon cylindrical with circular cross-section:

\begin{equation*}

A_x = \pi r^2 = \pi \left( \frac{0.018 \,\bold{m}}{2}

\right)^2 = 1.0\times 10^{-3} \,\bold{m^2}

\end{equation*}

Then we inserted the elastic modulus, original length,

and area into the equation for spring constant:

\begin{equation}

k = E \left(\frac{Area}{L_0}\right) = 1.2 \times 10^9

\,\bold{\frac{N}{m^2}}\left(\frac{1.0\times 10^{-3}
\,\bold{m^2}}{0.15 \,\bold{m}}\right) = 8.1 \times 10^6
\,\bold{\frac{N}{m}}

\end{equation}

Now that we have the spring constant for a typical

tendon, we used Hooke's Law to relate the tendon force
and the stretch distance.

\begin{equation*}

F = k\Delta x

Maganaris and John P Paul, U.S. National Library of Medicine, National

Institutes of Health
2. "Achilles tendon: functional anatomy and novel emerging models of imaging
classification" by Angelo Del Buono, Otto Chan, and Nicola Maffulli, U.S.
National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health

Modeling Body Tissues as Springs* | 49

 \end{equation*}

Dividing both sides by $k$ isolates the stretch distance,

which is what we want. Then we insert the k and F values,
remembering to use Newtons for our force unit to match
the units on the spring constant we calculated.

\begin{equation*}

\Delta x = \frac{F}{k} = \frac{2135 \,\bold{N}}{8.1 \times

10^6 \,\bold{\frac{N}{m}}} = 2.6\times 10^{-4} \,\bold{m}

\end{equation*}

We can write our answer above in scientific notation as

$260 \times 10^{-6} \bold{m}$ or using a metric prefix
$260\bold{\mu m}$. Typical human hair is also a few
hundred $\bold{\mu m}$ as you can see from this 2000x
magnification image of a human hair produced by a
scanning electron microscope (SEM).

50 | Modeling Body Tissues as Springs*

 Human hair imaged with a scanning electron microscope at 2000x
magnification. Notice the green scale bar on lower left showing 10
μm, indicating that the hair is roughly 100 μm
in diamter. Image credit: “Human Hair
2000X” by MUSE via Wikimedia Commons

3. "Human Hair 2000X" by MUSE via Wikimedia

Commons [CC BY-SA 3.0
(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0)]
Modeling Body Tissues as Springs* | 51
12. Unit 7 Review

Key Terms and Concepts

Tension

Compression

Stress

Strain

Ultimate Strength

Elastic Region

Elastic Limit

Plastic Region

Yield Point

Brittle

Ductile

Elastic Modulus

Hooke's Law

Spring Constant

52 | Unit 7 Review
Learner Objectives

1. Identify and define the features of a stress-strain

curve, including stress, strain, elastic region, elastic
modulus, elastic limit, plastic region, ultimate
strength, and fracture/rupture.[2]
2. Acquire stress-strain data and calculate the elastic
modulus from stress-strain data.[4]
3. State Hooke’s Law and define spring constant.[3]
4. Apply the Hooke’s Law along with the definitions of
stress, strain, and elastic modulus to calculate the
deformations of structures. [3]

Unit 7 Review | 53
13. Unit 7 Practice and
Assessment
Outcome 1

1) A person with a weight of 715 N hangs from a climbing rope 9.2

mm in diameter.
2
a) What is the cross-sectional area of the rope in m ?
b) What is the stress applied to the rope?

2) A particular 60 m climbing rope stretches by 0.15 m when a 715

N person hangs from it.
a) What is the strain in the rope?
b) What is the strain in the rope as a percentage?

3) Label the following features in the stress-strain curve of a

hypothetical material seen below:

• Toe region
• Elastic region
• Yield point
• Plastic Region
• Ultimate Strength
• Rupture Point
• Failure Region

54 | Unit 7 Practice and Assessment

Data adapted with permission from rubber band stress-strain data originally
acquired by Umpqua Community College Students: Brittany Watts, Ashlie
DeHart, Hanna Wicks and Juan Martinez.

Outcome 2

4) Use the data in the previous graph to determine the elastic

modulus of the hypothetical material. Be sure to convert the strain
from % stretch back to fractional stretch before doing your
calculations.

Outcome 3

5) Answer the following questions regarding the material used to

create the created the stress-strain graph above.

Unit 7 Practice and Assessment | 55

 a) How much force could be applied to a 2 m x 2 m x 10 m long
block of this material before reaching the ultimate strength?
b) When operating in the elastic region, how much additional
stress would be required to cause an additional strain of 0.01?
c) What force would cause that amount of stress you found in part
b on the 2 m x 2 m block?
d) What actual length would the 10 m long material stretch when
put under the strain of 0.01?
e) What is the effective spring constant of this 2 m x 2 m x 10 m
long block of this material?

56 | Unit 7 Practice and Assessment

 14. Forces on the Forearm
while Curling
In this unit we use the example of holding a 50 lb weight in the hand
to learn more about various forces acting within the body, how they
are generated, and how to determine their magnitude and direction.

The elbow joint flexed to form a 60° angle between the upper
arm and forearm while the hand holds a 50 lb ball . Image
Credit: Openstax University Physics

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-
a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18.
Forces on the Forearm while
Curling | 57
 The tension force in the biceps is trying to lift and rotate the
forearm around the elbow joint. The force of gravity is pulling down
on the ball and the forearm, causing rotation in the opposite
direction to that caused by the biceps. Our intuition tells us that the
muscle tension needs to somehow counteract the weight of the ball
with the forearm acting as a sort of lever. That’s where we’ll start to
solve this example.
We know the ball weighs 50 lbs. If we wanted to include the effect
of the weight of the forearm in our example problem we could look
up a typical forearm weight and also look up where the center of
gravity of the forearm is located. Instead let’s take this opportunity
to practice making justified assumptions. We know that forearms
typically weigh only a few pounds, but the ball weight is 50 lbs, so
the forearm weight is about an order of magnitude (10x) smaller
2
than the ball weight . Therefore, let’s assume the forearm weight
doesn’t matter much and continue solving our biceps force problem
only including the weight of the ball, which acts at the center of
gravity of the ball.

2. "Weight, Volume, and Center of Mass of Segments of the Human

Body" by Charles E. Clauster, et al, National Technical Information
Service, U.S. Department of Commerce

58 | Forces on the Forearm while Curling

 15. Body Levers

Lever Classes

A lever is a rigid object used to make it easier to move a large load

a short distance or a small load a large distance. There are three
12
classes of levers, and all three classes are present in the body . For
example, the forearm is a 3rd class lever because the biceps pulls
on the forearm between the joint (fulcrum) and the ball (load). To
see these body levers in action check out this short video animation
identifying levers in the body.

1. "Lever of a Human Body" by Alexandra, The Physics Corner

2. "Kinetic Anatomy With Web Resource-3rd Edition " by Robert
Behnke , Human Kinetics

Body Levers | 59
 The elbow joint flexed to form a 60° angle between the upper
arm and forearm while the hand holds a 50 lb ball . Image
Credit: Openstax University Physics

Using the standard terminology of levers, the forearm is the lever,

the biceps tension is the effort, the elbow joint is the fulcrum, and
the ball weight is the resistance. When the resistance is caused
by the weight of an object we call it the load. The lever classes
are identified by the relative location of the resistance, fulcrum and
effort. First class levers have the fulcrum in the middle, between
the load and resistance. Second class levers have resistance in the
middle. Third class levers have the effort in the middle.

3. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-
a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18.

60 | Body Levers
 First (top), second(middle), and third(bottom) class levers and
real-world examples of each. Image Credit: Pearson Scott
Foresman

For all levers the effort and resistance (load) are actually just
forces that are creating torques because they are trying to rotate
the lever. In order to move or hold a load the torque created by
the effort must be large enough to balance the torque caused by
the load. Remembering that torque increases as the force is applied
farther from the pivot, the effort needed to balance the resistance
must depend on the distances of the effort and resistance from
the pivot. These distances are known as the effort arm and
resistance arm (load arm).

4. "Lever" by Pearson Scott Foresman , Wikimedia Commons is in the Public

Domain

Body Levers | 61
 Reinforcement Activity

Identify the class of lever created by the foot and the calf
muscle when raising the heel off the ground.

The foot acting as a lever arm with calf muscle supplying an upward
effort, the weight of the body acting as downward load, and the ball
of the foot acting as the fulcrum. Image adapted from OpenStax
Anatomy and Physiology

5. OpenStax, Anatomy & Physiology. OpenStax CNX. Jun 25, 2018

http://cnx.org/contents/14f b4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@10.1.

62 | Body Levers
Mechanical Advantage

The ratio of load to effort is known as the mechanical

advantage (MA). For example if you used a second class lever (like a
wheelbarrow) to move 200 lbs of dirt by lifting with only 50 lbs of
effort the mechanical advantage would be four.
Increasing effort arm reduces the size of the effort needed to
balance the load, which means greater mechanical advantage. In
fact for a lever, the mechanical advantage is equal to the ratio of the
effort arm to resistance arm.
\begin{equation*}
MA = \frac{load}{effort} = \frac{effort\, arm}{load\, arm}
\end{equation*}

Bicep Tension

We are now ready to determine the bicep tension in our forearm

problem. The effort arm was 1.5 in and the load arm was 13.0 in, so
the load arm is 8.667 times longer than the effort arm.
\begin{equation*}
\frac{13\,\bold{\cancel{in}}}{1.5\,\bold{\cancel{in}}} = 8.667
\end{equation*}
That means that the effort needs to be 8.667 times larger than
the load, so for the 50 lb load the bicep tension would need to be
433 lbs! That may seem large, but we will find out that such forces
are common in the tissues of the body!

*Adjusting Significant Figures

Finally, we should make sure our answer has the correct significant

Body Levers | 63
figures. The weight of the ball in the example is not written in
scientific notation, so it’s not really clear if the zeros are
placeholders or if they are significant. Let’s assume the values were
not measured, but were chosen hypothetically, in which case they
are exact numbers like in a definition and don’t affect the significant
figures. The forearm length measurement includes zeros behind
the decimal that would be unnecessary for a definition, so they
suggest a level of precision in a measurement. We used those values
in multiplication and division so we should round the answer to
only two significant figures, because 1.5 in only has two (13.0 in has
three). In that case we round our bicep tension to 430 lbs, which we
can also write in scientific notation: $4.3 \times 10^2 \,\bold{lbs}$.

Reinforcement Activity

Calculate the mechanical advantage of the lever system

in our forearm example. [Hint: your answer should be less
than one.]

Range of Motion

We normally think of levers as helping us to use less effort to hold

or move large loads, so our results for the forearm example might
seem odd because we had to use a larger effort than the load.
The bicep attaches close to the elbow so the effort arm is much
shorter than the load arm and the mechanical advantage is less than
one. That means the force provided by the bicep has to be much
larger than the weight of the ball. That seems like a mechanical
disadvantage, so how is that helpful? If we look at how far the weight

64 | Body Levers
moved compared to how far the bicep contracted when lifting the
weight from a horizontal position we see that the purpose of the
forearm lever is to increase range of motion rather than decrease
effort required.

Diagram showing the difference in distance covered by the

contracting bicep and the weight in the hand when moving
the forearm from horizontal.Image Adapted from Openstax
University Physics

Looking at the similar triangles in a stick diagram of the forearm

we can see that the ratio of the distances moved by the effort and
load must be the same as the ratio of effort arm to resistance arm.
That means increasing the effort arm in order to decrease the size
of the effort required will also decrease the range of motion by the
same factor. Therefore the load was moved 8.667x farther than the
distance contracted by the biceps muscle in our forearm example.
It’s interesting to note that while moving the attachment point of
the bicep 20% closer to the hand would make you 20% stronger, you
would then be able to move your hand over a 20% smaller range.

Body Levers | 65
 Diagram of the forearm as a lever, showing the similar
triangles formed by parts of the forearm as it moves
from 90 degrees to 60 degrees from horizontal. The
hypotenuse (long side) of the smaller blue triangle is the
effort arm and the hypotenuse of the larger dashed red
triangle is the load arm. The vertical sides of the
triangles are the distances moved by the effort (blue) and
the load (dashed red).

For third class levers the load is always farther from the fulcrum
than the effort, so they will always increase range of motion, but
that means they will always increase the amount of effort required
by the same factor. Even when the effort is larger than the load as
for third class levers, we can still calculate a mechanical advantage,
but it will come out to be less than one.
Second class levers always have the load farther from the pivot
than the effort, so they will always allow a smaller effort to move a
larger load, giving a mechanical advantage greater than one.
First class levers can either provide mechanical advantage or

66 | Body Levers
increase range of motion, depending on if the effort arm or load arm
is longer, so they can have mechanical advantages of greater, or less,
than one.
A lever cannot provide mechanical advantage and increase range
of motion at the same time, so each type of lever has advantages and
disadvantages:

Comparison of Advantages and Disadvantages of Lever Classes

Lever Class Advantage Disadvantage

Range of MotionThe load Effort RequiredRequires

moves farther than the larger effort to hold
effort. smaller load.
3rd
(Short bicep contraction (Bicep tension greater
moves the hand far) than weight in hand)

Range of MotionThe
load moves a shorter
Effort RequiredSmaller
distance than the effort.
effort will move larger load.
2nd
(Calf muscle contracts
(One calf muscle can lift
farther than the distance
entire body weight)
that the heel comes off the
floor)

Range of MotionThe load

moves farther than the
1st
effort. Effort RequiredRequires
larger effort to hold
(effort closer
(Head moves farther up/ smaller load.
to pivot)
down than neck muscles
contract)
1st
Range of MotionThe
Effort RequiredSmaller
load moves shorter
(load closer to effort will move larger load.
distance than the effort.
pivot)

Reinforcement Activity

If you used a wheelbarrow to move 200 lbs of dirt by

Body Levers | 67
 lifting with 50 lbs of effort, what is the mechanical
advantage?

If the handles of the wheelbarrow are 2.0 m from the

wheel axle (fulcrum) then how far from the fulcrum is the
center of gravity of the the dirt?

To lift the dirt load 3 in, what distance do you have to lift
the handles?

68 | Body Levers
16. Forces in the Elbow Joint
In the previous chapter we found the biceps tension force in our
example problem to be 430 lbs! You may have noticed that when we
found the biceps tension we completely ignored the forces acting
on the elbow joint. We were allowed to do this because forces acting
on the fulcrum of a lever don’t cause the lever to rotate. Just because
the forces on the elbow don’t cause rotation, that doesn’t mean they
aren’t important. Those forces can certainly damage the joint if they
get too large. Let’s try to find out how big those forces are for our
example problem.

The elbow joint flexed to form a 60° angle between the upper
arm and forearm while the hand holds a 50 lb ball . Image
Credit: Openstax University Physics

Forces in the Elbow Joint | 69

 1

In our example of holding a weight in the hand the forearm is not

moving and it’s in equilibrium so it can’t start moving. The forearm
is in static equilibrium. Structures in static equilibrium have no net
force, no net torque, and they aren’t moving. These structures won’t
move unless a new force pushes them out of equilibrium.
The forearm is holding still and not moving so it must be in
static equilibrium and all the vertical forces must be canceling out.
If the vertical forces didn’t cancel out the forearm would begin to
move up or down. We already know that the weight of the ball
is 50 lbs downward and the bicep tension is 433 lbs upward. The
weight cancels 50 lbs worth of the muscle tension, leaving behind
a remaining 483 lbs of upward force. The forearm is in static
equilibrium, so the vertical force on the end of the forearm at the
elbow must cancel out this 483 lbs upward force, meaning that the
vertical force on the elbow end of the forearm is 483 lbs downward.
This force comes from the upper arm bone (humerus) pushing down
on the end of the forearm bones (radius and ulna). Adjusting our
significant figures, we should report this force as 480 lbs.

Reinforcement Exercises

Draw a free body diagram of the elbow showing the

forces from the ball weight, the bicep tension, and the
upper arm pushing on the forearm. The values for all of
these forces are given in the previous paragraph.

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-
a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18.

70 | Forces in the Elbow Joint

Horizontal Elbow Forces

The horizontal forces must all cancel out because the forearm is in
static equilibrium, but there are no horizontal forces in our example
to begin with, so that’s it. We’re finished analyzing the forces on the
forearm while holding a 50 lb ball!

Forces in the Elbow Joint | 71

 17. Friction in Joints

Normal Force and Friction in the Elbow

In the previous chapter we found that the upper arm bone

(humerus) exerts 480 lbs of force on the pinkie-side forearm bone
(ulna) for the scenario shown below:

The elbow joint flexed to form a 60° angle between the upper
arm and forearm while the hand holds a 50 lb ball . Image
Credit: Openstax University Physics

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

72 | Friction in Joints
 There are two types of forces that could be acting between the
upper and lower arm bones to add up to this total 480 lbs of vertical
force. The first is normal force, which we have already learned
is the push-back provided by any object in response to being
deformed.
Along with normal force, the other force that could occur
between two bones is friction ($F_f$). Friction is the force that
resists objects sliding against one another. Rub your palms together,
the resistance you feel is friction. Complimentary to normal force,
which only points perpendicular to surfaces, friction only points
parallel to surfaces. Friction can only exist when two objects are
attempting to slide past one another, so it is also reactive like
normal force. If you don’t try to rub your palms, you don’t feel any
resistance. Of course two surfaces have to touch to have friction, so
you can’t get friction without normal force. In fact, frictional force is
proportional to normal force.

CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-

a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18.

Friction in Joints | 73
 Frictional
forces always
oppose
motion or
attempted
motion
between
objects in
contact.
Friction
arises in part
because of
the
roughness of
the surfaces
in contact, as
seen in the
expanded
view. In
order for the
object to
move, it
must rise to
where the
peaks can
skip along
the bottom
surface. Thus
a force is
required just
to set the
object in
motion.
Some of the
peaks will be
broken off,
also
requiring a
force to
maintain
motion.
Much of the
friction is
actually due
to attractive
forces
between
molecules
making up
the two
objects, so

74 | Friction in Joints
 that even
perfectly
smooth Reinforcement Activity
surfaces are
not
friction-free.
Such
adhesive Rub your palms together. Now push your palms
forces also
together hard and try to slide them at the same
depend on
the time.
substances
the surfaces Now the normal force is larger causing the
are made of, frictional force to grow in proportion.
explaining,
for example,
why
rubber-soled
shoes slip There are two categories of friction. Static
less than
those with friction($F_{f,s}$) acts between two surfaces when
leather soles. they are attempting to slide past one another, but have
not yet started sliding. Static friction is a reactionary
force because it only exists when some other force is pushing an
object to attempt to cause it to slide across a surface. Static friction
adjusts to maintain equilibrium with whatever other force is doing
the pushing or pulling, but static friction has a maximum value. If
the applied force gets larger than the maximum static frictional
value, then static friction can’t maintain equilibrium and the object
will slide. Kinetic friction ($F_{f,k}$) acts whenever two surfaces are
sliding past one another, whether or not some other force is
pushing the object to keep it sliding. If there is not another force
pushing the object to keep is sliding, then kinetic friction will
eventually stop the sliding object, but we will learn more about that
later. Static friction is larger than kinetic friction. Choose the
friction simulation from the simulation set to see how static and
kinetic friction behave.

Friction in Joints | 75
 An interactive or media element has been excluded
from this version of the text. You can view it online
here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=172

Reinforcement Activity

Place a heavy box or book or other object on a desk,

table, or the floor. Push the object with your hand, but not
hard enough to make it slide. At this point static friction is
reacting to your push and exerting a force to perfectly
balance your push. The balance between static friction and
your push keeps the object in static equilibrium and it
doesn’t move.

Now push the object hard enough that it starts to slide.

Notice that starts with a jerk. The jerky motion occurs
because static friction is larger than kinetic friction. After
you “break” static friction and the object starts to move and
kinetic friction kicks. Kinetic friction is smaller than static
friction so the object jerks forward before you have time to
react and decrease your push force to match up with the
smaller kinetic friction.

We now know that friction force is proportional to normal force

and that there are two types of friction, static and kinetic. The final
concept that affects friction is the roughness, or alternatively the
smoothness, of the two surfaces. The coefficient of friction ($\mu$)
is a unitless number that rates the roughness and is typically

76 | Friction in Joints
determined experimentally. The static frictional force is larger than
the kinetic frictional forces because $\mu_s$ is larger than
$\mu_k$. Take a look at the table of static and kinetic friction
coefficients found below. You can find more values in this massive
table of static friction coefficients.

Table of static and kinetic friction coefficients for various surface pairs2

Rubber on
1.0 0.7
dry concrete

Rubber on
wet 0.7 0.5
concrete

Wood on
0.5 0.3
wood
Waxed wood
0.14 0.1
on wet snow
Metal on
0.5 0.3
wood
Steel on
0.6 0.3
steel (dry)
Steel on
0.05 0.03
steel (oiled)
Teflon on
0.04 0.04
steel

Bone
lubricated
0.016 0.015
by synovial
fluid
Shoes on
0.9 0.7
wood
Shoes on ice 0.1 0.05
Ice on ice 0.1 0.03
Steel on ice 0.4 0.02

Notice that two surfaces are always listed in the table; you must
have two surfaces to define a $\mu$. When someone asks a

Friction in Joints | 77
 question like, “what is the $\mu$ of ice?” they usually mean
between ice and ice, but its best to avoid asking such questions and
just always reference two surfaces.
We can sum up everything we have learned about friction in two
equations that relate the friction forces to the friction coefficient
for two surfaces and the normal force acting on the surfaces:
Max static friction before release:
\begin{equation}
F^{max}_{f,s} = \mu_{s}F_{N}
\end{equation}
Kinetic friction once moving:
\begin{equation}
F_{f,k} = \mu_{k}F_{N}
\end{equation}

Everyday Exmaple

Firefighter candidates must complete a physical ability

test (PAT) that includes dragging a dummy across the floor.
The PAT for the city of Lincoln Nebraska specifies that
candidates must drag a human form dummy weighing 170
lbs for 25 feet, around a barrel, and then back across the
starting point for a total distance of 50 feet in six minutes
or less. The candidates may only drag the dummy using the
pull harness attached to the dummy and cannot carry the
3
dummy .

2. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax CNX. Aug 2,

2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-a362-9bd36ca7c97d@11.1.
3. "Firefighter Physical Ability Test Candidate Orientation
Guide" by Industrial/Organizational Solutions, Inc.

78 | Friction in Joints
 The test is held on a polished concrete floor. If a
candidate pulls vertically up on the harness with a force of
70 lbs what horizontal pull force must the candidate apply
in order to get the dummy moving? The static friction
coefficient between cotton clothing and polished concrete
is 0.5

The dummy will move if the candidate supplies anything

more than the maximum static frictional force, so let’s try
to calculate that.

If a candidate pulls vertically up on the harness with a

force of 70 lbs then the floor must provide a normal force
of 100 lbs to support the dummy. Now that we have the
friction coefficient and normal force we can calculate the
maximum static frictional force.

\begin{equation*}

F^{max}_{f,s} = \mu_sF_N =0.5\cdot100\, \bold{lbs} =

50\, \bold{lbs}

\end{equation*}

After the dummy starts moving, what force is required to

keep it moving if $\mu_k = 0.4$?

\begin{equation*}

F_{f,k} = \mu_kF_N =0.4\cdot100\, \bold{lbs} = 40\,

\bold{lbs}

\end{equation*}

Friction in Joints | 79
 Synovial Joint Friction

Static and kinetic friction are both present in joints. Static friction
must be overcome, by either muscle tension or gravity, in order to
move. Once moving, kinetic friction acts to oppose motion, cause
wear on joint surfaces, generate thermal energy, and make the body
less efficient. (We will examine the efficiency of the body later in
this textbook.) The body uses various methods to decrease friction
in joints, including synovial fluid, which serves as a lubricant to
decrease the friction coefficient between bone surfaces in synovial
joints (the majority of joints in the body). Bone surfaces in synovial
joints are also covered with a layer of articular cartilage which acts
with the synovial fluid to reduce friction and provides something
4
other than the bone surface to wear away over time .

4. OpenStax, Anatomy & Physiology. OpenStax CNX. Jun 25, 2018

http://cnx.org/contents/14f b4ad7-39a1-4eee-ab6e-3ef2482e3e22@10.1.

80 | Friction in Joints
 Synovial joints allow for smooth movements between
the adjacent bones. The joint is surrounded by an
articular capsule that defines a joint cavity filled with
synovial fluid. The articulating surfaces of the bones are
covered by a thin layer of articular cartilage. Ligaments
support the joint by holding the bones together and
resisting excess or abnormal joint motions. Image
Credit: OpenStax Anatomy & Physiology

Check out the following lever simulation explore how force and
distance from fulcrum each affect the equilibrium of the lever. This
simulation includes the effects of friction, so you can see how
kinetic friction works to stop motion and static friction contributes
to maintaining static equilibrium.

Friction in Joints | 81
 An interactive or media element has been excluded
from this version of the text. You can view it online
here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=172

The equations given for static and kinetic friction are empirical
models that describe the behavior of the forces of friction. While
these formulas are very useful for practical purposes, they do not
have the status of laws or principles. In fact, there are cases for
which these equations are not even good approximations. For
instance, neither formula is accurate for surfaces that are well
lubricated or sliding at high speeds. Unless specified, we will not be
5
concerned with these exceptions.

5. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

CNX. Aug 2, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-
a362-9bd36ca7c97d@11.1.

82 | Friction in Joints
18. Equilibrium Torque and
Tension in the Bicep*

Torque about the Elbow

So far we have used lever concepts and static equilibrium to solve

for the forces in our forearm example. To gain a deeper
understanding of why and how the effort and load forces depend
on the effort arm and load arm distances, we need to study the
concept of torque. We have already decided that the weight of the
ball was pulling the forearm down and trying to rotate it around the
elbow joint. When a force tends to start or stop rotating an object
then we say the force is causing a torque ($\tau$) . In our example,
the weight of the ball is causing a torque on the forearm with the
elbow joint as the pivot. The size of a torque depends on several
things, including the distance from the pivot point to the force that
is causing the torque.

Reinforcement Activity

The torque caused by a force depends on the distance

that force acts from the pivot point. To feel this effect for
yourself, try this:

Open a door by pushing perpendicular to the door near

the handle, which is far from the pivot point at the hinges.

Now apply the same force perpendicular to the door, but

Equilibrium Torque and Tension in

the Bicep* | 83
 right next to the hinges. Does the door open as easily as
before, or did you have to push with greater force to make
the door rotate?

One method to account for the effect of the distance to pivot when
calculating the size of a torque you can first draw the line of action
of the force, which just means to extend a line from both ends
of the force arrow (vector) in both directions. Next you draw the
shortest line that you can from the pivot point to the line of action
of the force. This shortest line and the line of action of the force
will always be at 90° to each other, so the shortest line is called the
perpendicular distance ($d_{\perp}$). The perpendicular distance is
also sometimes called the lever arm or moment arm or torque arm.
We can draw these lines for our example problem:

Diagram of the flexed arm showing the line of action of the

gravitational force and the perpendicular distance from the
pivot to the line of action. Image adapted from Openstax
University Physics.

84 | Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep*

Finally, we can calculate the torque by multiplying the size of the
force by the length of the lever arm ($Fd_{\perp}$) and that’s it, you
get the torque. In symbol form it looks like this:
\begin{equation}
torque = \tau = Fd_{\perp}
\end{equation}

Reinforcement Activity

If you hold your 0.65 m arm out horizontally with a 12 lb

weight in your hand, what is the torque about your
shoulder joint caused by the weight? Hint: If your arm is
horizontal, and the weight points straight down, then what
is the perpendicular distance from the joint to the weight?

After you have an answer, convert it from N·m to ft·lbs by

using conversion factors between Newtons and pounds and
feet and meters.

Rotational Equilibrium

The only time a torque won’t cause an object to start or stop

rotating is when it’s cancelled out by other torques. This is exactly
what is happening in our example problem, the torque caused by
the bicep is counteracting the torque caused by the weight of the
ball. When the torques cancel in this way, so that the net torque on
the object is zero, the object is said to be in rotational equilibrium.
In our example, the forearm is not starting to rotate (or stopping).
Therefore the forearm is in rotational equilibrium so the net torque
must be zero and that fact will allow us to find the bicep muscle

Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep* | 85

tension. We have already stated that the forearm was not moving
at all and that the net force so we can say the system is static
equilibrium.
For an object to be in static equilibrium both the rotational and
translational (linear) equilibrium conditions must be met. Writing
these conditions on the torque and force in symbol form we have:
\begin{equation}
\tau_{net} = 0
\end{equation}
AND
\begin{equation}
F_{net} = 0
\end{equation}

Bicep Tension

The torques due to the bicep tension and the ball weight are trying
to rotate the elbow in opposite directions, so if the forearm is in
static equilibrium the two torques are equal in size they will cancel
out and the net torque will be zero.
Looking at our equation for torque, we see that it only depends
on the size of the force and the lever arm. That means that if the
perpendicular distance to the bicep tension were 10x smaller than
the distance to the center of the ball, the bicep tension force will
have to be 10x times bigger than the weight of the ball in order to
cause the same size torque and maintain rotational equilibrium. To
find the bicep tension all we need to do now is determine how many
times bigger the is the lever arm for the weight compared to the
lever arm for the tension.
You might be thinking, but we can’t use this method, we don’t know
the perpendicular lengths, they aren’t given, we only have the full
distances from pivot to ball and pivot to bicep attachment. Don’t
worry, if we draw a stick figure diagram we can see two triangles

86 | Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep*

formed by the force action lines, the forearm and the perpendicular
distances. The dashed (red) and solid (blue) triangles are similar
triangles, which means that their respective sides have the same
ratios of lengths.

Diagram of the forearm as a lever, showing the similar

triangles formed by parts of the forearm as it moves
from 90 degrees to 60 degrees from horizontal. The
hypotenuse (long side) of the smaller blue triangle is the
effort arm and the hypotenuse of the larger dashed red
triangle is the load arm. The vertical sides of the
triangles are the distances moved by the effort (blue) and
the load (dashed red)

The lengths of the long sides of the triangles are 13.0 in and 1.5
in. Taking the ratio (dividing 13.0 by 1.5) we find that 13.0 in is 8.667x
longer than 1.5 in. The bottom side of the small (solid) triangle must
also be 8.667x smaller than the bottom side of the big one (dashed).
That means that the lever arm for the bicep is 8.667x smaller than

Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep* | 87

for the weight and so we know the bicep tension must be 8.667x
bigger than the weight of the ball to maintain rotational equilibrium.
The ball weight is 50 lbs, so the bicep tension must be:
\begin{equation*}
8.667 \times 50\, \bold{lbs} = 433\,\bold{lbs}
\end{equation*}
We’ve done it! Our result of 433 lbs seems surprisingly large, but
we will see that forces even larger than this are common in the
muscles, joints, and tendons of the body.

Symbol Form

Do you want to see everything we just did to calculate the tension

in symbol form? Well, here you go:
The size of the torque due to the ball weight should be the tension
multiplied by perpendicular distance to the ball:
\begin{equation*}
\tau_g = F_g \cdot d_{\perp, B}
\end{equation*}
The size of the torque due to the bicep tension should be the
tension multiplied by perpendicular distance to the bicep
attachment:
\begin{equation*}
\tau_T = T \cdot d_{\perp, T}
\end{equation*}
In order for net torque to be zero, these toques must be equal in
size:
\begin{equation*}
T \cdot d_{\perp, T}= F_g \cdot d_{\perp, B}
\end{equation*}
We want the tension, so we divide both sides by $d_{\perp, T}$:
\begin{equation*}
T = \frac{F_g \cdot d_{\perp, B}}{d_{\perp, T}}

88 | Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep*

 \end{equation*}
From the similar triangles we know that the ratio of perpendicular
distances is the same as the ratio of the triangles’ long sides:
\begin{equation*}
\frac{d_\{perp, B}}{d_{\perp, T}} = \frac{13.0\,
\cancel{\bold{in}}}{1.5\, \cancel{\bold{in}}}= 8.667
\end{equation*}
Finally we find the tension:
\begin{equation*}
8.667 \times 50\, \bold{lbs} = 433\,\bold{lbs}
\end{equation*}

Equilibrium Torque and Tension in the Bicep* | 89

19. Alternative Method for
Calculating Torque and
Tension*
If you would rather not think about finding lever arms, you can
instead calculate the size of thetorque as the size of the force
multiplied by the full distance to the pivot, and by the sine of the
angle between the force and that full distance. Written in equation
form it looks like this:
\begin{equation}
torque = \tau = F \cdot d \cdot sin\theta
\end{equation}

Reinforcement Activity

The torque caused by a force depends on the angle

between the line of action of the force acts and the line
from where the force is applied to the pivot point. To feel
this effect for yourself, try this:

Rotate a door by pushing at 90° to the door right at the

outer edge.

Now apply the same force on the door, still on the very
edge, but instead of pushing in a direction 90° to the door,
push along the door, straight in toward the hinges. Does
the door swing as it did before?

In the second case, the angle between the force direction

and the distance to the pivot was 0° (they were parallel).

90 | Alternative Method for

Calculating Torque and Tension*
 Use the previous equation to show that the torque must be
zero any time the line of action of the force goes straight
through the rotation point (pivot).

Now, we know the force is 50 lbs, the distance from the pivot to
the weight is 13.0 in length of the forearm and from the diagram
we see the angle between the weight of the ball and the forearm
distance is 60° (the same as the bicep-forearm angle because they
are alternate interior angles). This is easier to see if we draw a stick
figure diagram:

Stick diagram of a flexed arm holding a ball showing the

bicep tension and weight and the angles between the
forces and the forearm.

Alternative Method for Calculating Torque and Tension* | 91

Now we can calculate the torque due to the ball weight $\tau_b$
as:
\begin{equation*}
\tau_b = F \cdot d \cdot sin\theta
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
= 50\, \bold{lbs} \cdot 13\, \bold{in} \cdot sin(60\
bold{\degree})
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
= 563\, \bold{in}\cdot\bold{lbs}
\end{equation*}
We have calculated the torque on the forearm due to the weight
of the ball. You may be used to hearing about torque in
$\bold{ft}\cdot\bold{lbs}$ rather than $\bold{in}\cdot\bold{lbs}$,
but we can always convert units later if we desire. For now, let’s keep
working on finding the muscle tension.
We already know the torque due to the weight of the ball is $563\,
\bold{in}\cdot\bold{lbs}$ so we just need to make sure that the
tension in the biceps is large enough to cause the same torque
even though it acts closer to the pivot. The biceps muscle torque,
$\tau_{m}$ is:
\begin{equation*}
\tau_m = T \cdot d \cdot sin\theta
\end{equation*}
We just need to make this equal to the ball-weight-torque:
\begin{equation*}
T \cdot d \cdot sin\theta = 563\, \bold{in}\cdot\bold{lbs}
\end{equation*}
Then we divide both sides by $d$ and $sin\theta$ to isolate the
bicep tension:
\begin{equation*}
T = \frac{563\, \bold{in}\cdot\bold{lbs}}{d \cdot sin\theta}
\end{equation*}
Finally we put in our values for $d$ and $\theta$. Our original

92 | Alternative Method for Calculating Torque and Tension*

diagram gave us the distance as from bicep attachment to the pivot
as 1.5 in and from our stick diagram we can see that the angle
between the biceps tension and the distance is 180°-60° = 120°. We
are ready to find the biceps tension value.
\begin{equation*}
T = \frac{563\, \cancel{\bold{in}}\cdot\
bold{lbs}}{1.5\,\cancel{\bold{in}} \cdot sin(120\bold{\degree})}
\end{equation*}
\begin{equation*}
T = 433\,\bold{lbs}
\end{equation*}
Our result of 433 lbs seems surprisingly large, but we will see that
forces even larger than this are common in the muscles, joints, and
tendons of the body.

Alternative Method for Calculating Torque and Tension* | 93

20. Unit 6 Review

Key Takeaways

Lever Arm

Effort Arm

Resistance (Load) Arm

Fulcrum

Pivot

Lever Classes

Mechanical Advantage

Range of Motion

Static Equilibrium

Friction

Coefficient of friction

Reactive forces

Learner Objectives

1. Identify tension, gravity, normal, and friction

forces.[2]
2. Identify classes of levers and explain advantages

94 | Unit 6 Review
 and disadvantages of each in terms of mechanical
advantage and range of motion.[2]
3. Apply lever and equilibrium concepts to solve for
forces and find mechanical advantage in scenarios
involving levers. [3]
4. Apply normal force and friction coefficient
concepts to calculate static and kinetic frictional
forces.[3]

Unit 6 Review | 95
 21. Balance

Warning sign indicating a rough walking surface, which isn’t

a problem for animals with more stable body types, such as
cats and dogs. Image Credit: National Park Service

The human body typically operates in positions that are not very
stable and we must constantly use our muscles to adjust our body
position and counteract the tendency of our bodies to fall over. We
commonly refer to this skill as balance. For the most part balance
is subconscious, but watching a toddler who has just learned to
walk will provide an accentuated idea of how much actual work

1. "Rough Surface Warning"National Park Service is in the Public Domain

96 | Balance
is required for humans to stay upright. Toddlers are especially
unstable due to their disproportionately massive heads, and after
this unit we will understand why that feature so greatly affects their
stability.

Balance | 97
22. Unit 6 Practice and
Assessment
Outcome 1

1) For each object below, draw a free body diagram:

• A car hanging from a crane (there are two forces).

• A car skidding to a stop (there are three forces).
• A car with the parking brake set being pushed on by a
someone, but not moving (there are four forces here, but two
of them are the same type).

2) A person stands on a scale. What type of force is pulling them

down? What type of force is provided by the scale to hold them up?

Outcome 2

4) Consider the following items:

• Pliers
• Tweezers
• Shovel

(a) For each case, draw a stick figure of the tool and label the
fulcrum, effort, load, effort arm, and load arm.
(b) State the class of lever for each item above.

(c) For each item above, state whether the tool is providing
mechanical advantage or increasing range of motion.

98 | Unit 6 Practice and Assessment

Outcome 3

5) When a person raises their heels off the ground, the foot acts like
a lever.
(a) Typically we consider the foot as a second class lever, but
if we treat the ankle bone as the fulcrum, the tension in the
calf muscle as the effort, and the normal force from the floor
as the resistance, what class of lever is this system?
(b) Calculate the tension applied by the calf muscles ($F_A$)
to lift a person with weight of 637 N.
(c) Calculate the force in the ankle joint between the foot
and the lower leg bones ($F_P$). [Hint: Both the normal force
from the floor and the calf tension point upward. In order for the
foot to be in static equilibrium, the force of the lower leg pushing
down on the foot must cancel out both of those upward forces.]
(d) Convert your final answers to pounds.

The foot acting as a lever arm. Image Credit:

OpenStax College Physics

Unit 6 Practice and Assessment | 99

 1

6) The head and neck are also a lever system.

(a) State the class of this lever system.
(b) Calculate the force of tension in the neck muscles
($F_M$) to hold the head in the position shown in the diagram.
(c) Calculate the force on the head-neck joint ($F_J$).
(d) Convert your final answers to pounds.

The head and neck acting as a lever system.Image

Credit: OpenStax College Physics

1. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Aug 3, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.42

100 | Unit 6 Practice and Assessment

 2

Outcome 4

7) Find a value for the kinetic coefficient of friction between ends

of a bone in a synovial joint lubricated by synovial fluid. State your
source.
8) If the normal force between bones in the knee is 160 lbs, what is
the kinetic frictional force between the surfaces of the knee bones?
9) A car with 10,000 N weight is sitting on concrete with the
parking brake on,
a) What is the normal force on the car from the concrete?
[Hint: Is the car in static equilibrium?]
b) What is the maximum horizontal force that can be applied
before the car begins to skid? List your sources for the friction
coefficient.
c) After the car begins to skid, how much force is required to
keep it moving at constant speed, despite friction?
d) If you apply only 120 N of horizontal force to the
stationary car, what is the static frictional force at that time?

2. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Aug 3, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.42

Unit 6 Practice and Assessment | 101

23. Center of Gravity
You may have heard the term center of gravity in reference to
balance and you might intuitively know that a toddler’s big head
raises their center of gravity, which makes them less stable than
adults. We already know that the force of gravity is what gives an
object weight, but what is the center of gravity? Think about which
body part you feel gravity pulling on. Do you feel it pulling on just
your leg, or your arm, or what? Actually, the force of gravity acts on
all of your mass in the same way, according to Newton's Universal
Law of Gravitation down to every single molecule and atom. If we
break up your body into many many small chunks of equal mass
we could calculate the tiny force of gravity on each one. If we add
up all those tiny forces we get your total weight. If we average the
locations of all those equal tiny forces, the resulting location would
be the center of gravity. If we averaged the location of all the equal
chunks of mass that would be the center of mass. Everyday objects,
like humans, are small enough that gravity acts uniformly on all
parts of the object and the center of gravity and the center of mass
are essentially the same location. Check out the following video to
learn how to experimentally find the center of gravity (mass) of an
irregular object.

102 | Center of Gravity

 A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the
text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=122

Being out of balance means that your center of gravity is no longer

above your support base (usually the space between your feet).
When that happens you either fall down or take a step to widen your
support base (regain your balance). Let’s examine why those are the
only two options you have.

Center of Gravity | 103

 The center of gravity of an object (blue dot) is the average location of all
gravitational forces. This average location does not necessarily have to be on
the object. Image Credit: D. Gordon E. Robertson via wikimedia commons

Freely rotating objects tend to rotate around their center of mass.

The following video shows a neat demonstration of that
phenomenon:
https://youtube/DY3LYQv22qY

1. "COM" by D. Gordon E. Robertson, Wikimedia Commons is licensed

under CC BY-SA 3.0

104 | Center of Gravity

24. Supporting the Body

Support Force (Normal Force)

When standing on the ground gravity is pulling you down, but you
aren’t falling. The ground must be providing a supporting force that
balances your weight to hold you in place. The ground provides
that force in response to compression caused by your weight. When
solid objects push back against forces that are deforming them we
call that responsive push-back the Normal Force.

Reinforcement Activity

Push your finger down into your palm and feel the
resistance from your palm.

That’s the normal force.

The normal force is a reactive force, meaning it only

exists in response to a push from another object. When you
pull your finger away from your palm, the normal force
from your palm goes away.

Supporting the Body | 105

 1
Everyday Example

In the diagram below, we see a person placing a bag of

dog food on a table. When the bag of dog food is placed on
the table, and the person lets go, how does the table exert
the force necessary to balance the weight of the bag? While
you wouldn’t see it with your naked eye, the table sags
slightly under the load (weight of the bag). This would be
noticeable if the load were placed on a thin plywood table,
but even a sturdy oak table deforms when a force is applied
to it. That resistance to deformation causes a restoring
force much like a deformed spring (or a trampoline or
diving board). When the load is placed on the table, the
table sags until the restoring force becomes as large as the
weight of the load, putting the load in equilibrium. The
table sags quickly and the sag is slight, so we do not notice
it, but it is similar to the sagging of a trampoline or a
hammock when you climb on.

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1.

OpenStax CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/
d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18
106 | Supporting the Body
 The person holding the bag of dog food must supply an upward force
equal in size and opposite in direction to the force of gravity on the
food. The card table sags when the dog food is placed on it, much like
a stiff trampoline. Elastic restoring forces in the table grow as it sags
until they supply a normal force equal in size to the to the weight of
the load. Image credit: University Physics

If you place an object on a table the normal force from the table
supports the weight of the object. For this reason normal force is
sometimes called support force. However, normal is another word
for perpendicular, so we will stick with normal force because it
reminds us of the important fact that the normal force always acts at
an angle of 90° to the surface. That does not mean the normal force
always point vertically, nor is it always equal to an object’s weight.
If you push horizontally on the wall, the wall pushes back (keeping
your hand from moving through the wall). The force from the wall
is a normal force, but it acts horizontally and is not equal to your
weight.

Supporting the Body | 107

 Situations where normal force is not equal to the weight of the object. Adapted
from Garscon Plancher” by Obiwancho, and “Trek on the Viedma
Glacier” by Liam Quinn “U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Suzan
Sangster”released by the United States Armed Forces with the
ID 090815-F-3140L-048

234

In each situation pictured above the normal force is not equal to

body weight. In the left image the normal force is less than body
weight, and acting horizontally. In the middle image the normal
force is less than body weight and acting at an angle. In the right
image the normal force on the drill is more than it’s own weight
because Master Sgt. Sangster is also pushing down on the drill. The
normal force on Master Sgt. Sangster’s feet is less than her weight

2. "Garscon Plancher" by Obiwancho , Wikimedia Commons is licensed

under CC BY-SA 3.0
3. "U.S. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Suzan Sangster", Wikimedia Commons is in
the Public Domain,
4. "Trek on the Viedma Glacier" by Liam Quinn , Wikimedia Commons is
licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

108 | Supporting the Body

because she is also receiving an upward normal force from the drill
handle.
Often (N) is used as a symbol for normal force, but we are using
N to abbreviate for the SI force unit Newtons, so instead we will
use $F_N$. The normal force comes up so often students often
accidentally begin to refer to normal force as “natural force” instead,
so watch out for that possible source of confusion.

Supporting the Body | 109

25. Tipping Point

Torque

When you hold an object in your hand, the weight of the object
tends to cause a rotation of the forearm with the elbow joint acting
as the pivot. The tension force applied by your biceps tries to
counteract this rotation.

The elbow joint flexed to form a 60° angle between the upper
arm and forearm while the hand holds a 50 lb ball. The weight
of the ball exerts a torque on the forearm about the elbow
joint. Image Credit: Openstax University Physics

110 | Tipping Point

 1

When forces applied to an object tend to cause rotation of the

object, we say the force is causing a torque. The size of a torque
depends on the size of the force, the direction of the force, and the
distance from the pivot point to where the force acts.

Reinforcement Activity

The torque caused by a force depends on the distance

that force acts from the pivot point. To feel this effect for
yourself, try this:

Open a door by pushing perpendicular to the door near

the handle, which is far from the pivot point at the hinges.

Now apply the same force perpendicular to the door, but

right next to the hinges.

Does the door rotate open just as it did before, or did you
have to push with greater force to make the door rotate?

Rotational Equilibrium

The only time a torque wont cause an object to start or stop rotating
is when its cancelled out (balanced) by other torques, as we saw
for the torque due to biceps tension and torque due to ball weight

1. OpenStax University Physics, University Physics Volume 1. OpenStax

CNX. Jul 11, 2018 http://cnx.org/contents/d50f6e32-0fda-46ef-
a362-9bd36ca7c97d@10.18.

Tipping Point | 111

in the forearm example. When the torques all cancel out the net
torque is zero and the object must be in rotational equilibrium.
An object in rotational equilibrium might be rotating, but it won’t
change it’s rotation speed or direction. If an object in rotational
equilibrium is not rotating then it will not start rotating as long as it
remains in rotational equilibrium.

Tipping Point

When a body’s center of gravity is above the area formed by the

support base the normal force can provide the torque necessary to
remain in rotational equilibrium.

An object in rotational equilibrium. The torque from normal force cancels the
torque from gravity.

112 | Tipping Point

The critical tipping point is reached when the center of gravity
passes outside of the support base. Beyond the tipping point, gravity
causes rotation away from the support base, so there is no normal
force available to cause the torque needed to cancel out the torque
caused by gravity. The normal force acting on the pivot point can
help support the object’s weight, but it can’t create a torque because
it’s not applied at any distance away from the pivot.

An object out of rotational equilibrium. The normal force acting at the pivot
cannot produce a torque to cancel the torque caused by gravity.

Now with a net torque the object can not be in rotational

equilibrium. The object will rotate around the edge of the support
base and tip over. We often refer to structures (and bodies) that are
resistant to tipping over as having greater stability.

Tipping Point | 113

 26. Types of Equilibrium

Stable Equilibrium

If a structure is pushed out of equilibrium we say it has been

displaced from equilibrium. If the object tends to move back toward
its equilibrium position then it must be in a region of stable
equilibrium and the force that pushed it back is a restoring force.

A marble in the bottom of a bowl is an example of stable

equilibrium. Image credit:

As your arm hangs from your shoulder, it is in stable equilibrium.

1. "Stable Equilibrium" by Urutseg, Wikimedia Commons is in the Public

Domain, CC0

114 | Types of Equilibrium

If your arm is lifted to the side and then let go it will fall back
down to the hanging position. The hanging arm is a stable position
because the center of gravity of the arm is located below the base of
support, in this case the shoulder. When displaced (lifted a bit) the
force of gravity acting on your arm will cause a torque that rotates
your arm back down to the hanging position. In such cases, when an
object is displaced from the equilibrium position and the resulting
net forces (or torques they cause) move the object back toward the
equilibrium position then these forces are called restoring forces.
The sloth takes advantage of stable equilibrium to save energy that
humans spend on staying upright. If the sloth is displaced in any
direction, the force of gravity automatically acts as a restoring force
and returns the slot to its equilibrium position.

A two-toed sloth hangs from its feet in a

stable equilibrium position. Image Credit:
Cliff via Wikimedia Commons

Types of Equilibrium | 115

 2

Unstable Equilibrium

When a system in equilibrium is displaced and the resulting net

force pushes the object even further away from the equilibrium
position then it must have been in an unstable equilibrium.
Technically, real systems cannot spend time at unstable equilibrium
point because the tiniest vibration will cause them to move out
of equilibrium not to mention that you could never place them
perfectly into position in the first place. Trying to balance a marble
on a hill is a good example:

An example of unstable equilibrium is a marble placed on a

hill. Image Credit: “Unstable Equilibrium” by Urutseg, via
Wikimedia Commons.

2. By Cliff (Flickr: Two Toed Sloth (Choloepus didactylus)) [CC BY 2.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

116 | Types of Equilibrium

 3

Metastable Equilibrium

A person in a barely-stable equilibrium. Image Credit: Usien

via Wikimedia Commons.

Some structures that are in stable equilibrium can be displaced

3. "Unstable Equilibrium" by Urutseg, Wikimedia Commons is in the Public

Domain, CC0
4. By Usien [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/
3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

Types of Equilibrium | 117

relatively far before they are no longer in equilibrium compared to
other structures that only require a small displacement to move out
of equilibrium. We often call these systems stable and unstable, but
this can be misleading because any standing structure is somewhat
stable and a truly unstable structure would not stand still for any
time. For example we expect that most people would say the person
balancing on their head in the image above is unstable. However,
they are actively adjusting the shape of their body to shift their
center of gravityand to remain within a region of stable
equilibrium and not pass a tipping point. We could say that this
person is in a very narrow metastable equilibrium. Keeping your
balance as you stand, sit, or walk is an act of maintaining metastable
equilibrium.

The marble is in meta-stable equilibrium as long as it doesn’t

move outside the dip in the center. The peak at edge of the dip
is analogous to the tipping point for a structure; beyond this
point the marble will not move back toward the equilibrium
position. Image credit: “Meta-stable Equilibrium” by Urutseg
via Wikimedia Commons

118 | Types of Equilibrium

 5

5. "Meta-stable Equilibrium" by Urutseg, Wikimedia Commons is in the Public

Domain, CC0

Types of Equilibrium | 119

27. Walking and Tripping
For humans walking is an act of moving in and out of metastable
equilibrium.

1. You lean forward and your center of gravity passes the tipping
point, which moves you out of metastable equilibrium.
2. You take a step to move your support base back underneath
your center of gravity, putting you back into metastable
equilibrium.
3. Repeat.

When your foot doesn’t correctly move forward then you remain
out of metastable equilibrium and fall over. We call that process
tripping. Check you these AI simulations of creature that employ
bipedal motion learning how to walk, and tripping along the way.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the

120 | Walking and Tripping

 text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=139

To see what AI algorithms can do when given a real physical body to

experiment with, check out these robots.

Walking and Tripping | 121

 28. Human Stability
When asking what makes a structure more or less stable, we
find that a high center of gravity or a small support base makes a
structure less stable. In these cases a small displacement is need
in order to move the center of gravity outside the area of support.
Structures with a low center of gravity compared to the size of the
support area are more stable. One way to visualize stability is to
imagine displacement of the center of gravity caused by placing
the object on a slope. For example, a 10° displacement angle might
displace the center of gravity of a toddler beyond the support base
formed by its feet, while an adult would still be in equilibrium.

Compared to an adult, a smaller displacement will move a toddlers center of

gravity outside the base of support. Image adapted from A man and a toddler
take a leisurely walk on a boardwalk by Steve Hillibrand via Wikimedia
Commons.

1. " A man and toddler take a leisurely walk on a boardwalk" by Steve

122 | Human Stability

 The center of gravity of a person’s body is above the pivots in the
hips, which is relatively high compared to the size of the support
base formed by the feet, so displacements must be quickly
controlled. This control is a nervous system function that is
developed when we learn to hold our bodies erect as infants. For
increased stability while standing, the feet should be spread apart,
giving a larger base of support. Stability is also increased by bending
the knees, which lowers the center of gravity toward the base of
support. A cane, a crutch, or a walker increases the stability of
the user by widening the base of support. Due to their
disproportionately large heads, young children have their center
of gravity between the shoulders, rather than down near the hips,
which decreases their stability and increases the likelihood of
2
reaching a tipping point.

Hillebrand, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wikimedia Commons, is in

the Public Domain
2. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Aug 3, 2018 http://cnx.org/
contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@12.1.

Human Stability | 123

 Warning label on a bucket indicating the danger of
children falling into a bucket and drowning. This danger
is caused by the inherent instability of the toddler body.
Image Credit: GodsMoon via Wikimedia Commons.

3. "Drowning Child Warning" by GodsMoon, Wikimedia Commons is licensed

under CC BY-SA 2.0

124 | Human Stability

29. The Anti-Gravity Lean

GIF animation of the “anti-gravity lean” maneuver in which a person wearing

shoes that attach to the floor can lean forward with straight legs and then
return to a standing position. Image Credit: Asanagi via Wikimedia Commons

The Anti-Gravity Lean | 125

 1

The structures discussed in the previous chapters were resting

on the support base, which was not attached to the support surface
(such as your feet and the ground). Therefore only normal force
was available to cancel torques caused by gravity and maintain
equilibrium. When the support base is attached then tension can
help cancel out gravitational torques and the structure can remain
in equilibrium even when the center of gravity moves outside the
area of support. Such structures are known as cantilevered
structures. The animation above shows someone performing the
“anti-gravity lean” during which the body is momentarily a
cantilevered structure. The maneuver requires that the heels of the
shoes be attached to the ground in order to provide a tension force.
Cantilevered structures can generate especially large stress and
strain on the materials in the structure, for example the Achilles'
tendon is severely stressed during the anti-gravity lean. When
stress becomes too great then rupture may occur. In a future unit
we will examine response of body tissues to stress, such as
deforming and rupturing.

1. "Anti-gravity Lean" by Asanagi, Wikimedia Commons

126 | The Anti-Gravity Lean

30. Unit 5 Review

Key Terms and Conepts

Center of Gravity

Normal Force

Torque

Rotational Equilibrium

Stable Equilibrium

Unstable Equilibrium

Metastable Equilibrium

Stability

Learner Objectives

1. Define center of gravity, support base, and normal

force.[2]
2. Compare the relative torque applied to objects by
various forces.[2]
3. State the conditions for static equilibrium.[2]
4. Compare and contrast stable, unstable, and
metastable equilibrium.[2]
5. Apply center of gravity, support base, and

Unit 5 Review | 127

 metastable equilibrium concepts to compare the
stability of various structures.[2]

128 | Unit 5 Review

31. Unit 5 Practice and
Assessment
Outcome 1

1. Rank the structures below in order of increasing support base

width.

Four structures of equal height, but varying shape and base width.

2. Rank the structures below in order of increasing center of

gravity height. All four structures are solid and are made of the
same material.

Unit 5 Practice and Assessment | 129

Four structures of equal mass, but varying height and base width.

3. Rank the structures below in order of increasing normal force

from the ground. All four structures have the same weight and
are at rest.

Four structures of equal weight. The second structure has rockets pushing up
on it and the fourth structure is hanging from a rope. Rocket images from
http://wpclipart.com are in the Public Domain.

130 | Unit 5 Practice and Assessment

Outcome 2

4. A child at a playground pushes on a large disk that rotates on

an axle trough its center. The child tries pushing on the edge
of the disk in several different directions, as indicated by the
top-down diagrams below. Rank the child’s attempts by the
amount of torque applied to the disk, from least to greatest.

Four disks 0.5 m radius, each with a 12 N force applied at the edge. Disk 1 has
the force applied outward at a slight angle to the radius. Disk two has the
force applied outward directly along the radius. Disk 3 has the force applied
perpendicular to the radius. Disk four has the force applied at a slight angle to
the radius, but inward. The angle with the radius is smaller than the angle in
disk 1.

5. If the child in the previous problem was able to apply a 12 N

force and the disk had a 0.5 m radius, what would be the value
of the torque applied in trial 3?

Unit 5 Practice and Assessment | 131

 Outcome 3

6. Each structure in the following image is at rest. What do you

know about the net force on each block?

Four structures of equal weight. The second structure has rockets pushing up
on it and the fourth structure is hanging from a rope. Rocket images from
http://wpclipart.com are in the Public Domain.

7. Structure #1 weighs 5000 N. What is the normal force on the

structure?
8. Structure # 2 weighs 5000 N. Each rocket is capable of
pushing with 1000 N of force. What is the normal force on the
structure from the ground?
9. Structure # 4 weighs 5000 N. Each rocket is capable of
pushing with 1000 N of force. What is the tension force
provided by the rope?
10. The structure in the following image is at rest. What do you
know about the net torque on the structure?

132 | Unit 5 Practice and Assessment

An inverted triangular structure at rest with a block weighting one side, an
arm weighting the other, and a rocket pushing up on the arm. Rocket images
from http://wpclipart.com are in the Public Domain.

11. An engineer performing an inspection on the previous

structure measures 45 m from beneath the center of gravity of
the block to the point where the structure contacts the
ground. The block weighs 1200 N. She then measures the
distance to the beneath the center of gravity of the arm to be
95 m. The arm weighs 1200 N as well. Finally she measures the
distance to beneath the rocket to be 150 m from the contact
point. She then calculates the force being provided by the
rocket, what value does she get?

Outcome 4

12. State which type of equilibrium is exhibited by each structure

below: stable, unstable, or metastable.

Unit 5 Practice and Assessment | 133

Four structures in static equilibrium

Outcome 5

13. Rank the structures below in order of increasing stability. All

structures are solid and made of a single material type.

134 | Unit 5 Practice and Assessment

Four structures in metastable equilibrium.

Unit 5 Practice and Assessment | 135

 32. Body Density

Body Fat Percentage from Body Density

The pitfalls of the previously discussed skinfold method and the BMI
can be somewhat avoided by actually measuring body density for
use in empirical formulas that approximate body fat percentage:
Formulas
used in
calculating
residual lung
volume, body
density, and
body fat
percentage.
Image
Credit:
Measure
Body Fat Via
Under Water
Weighing
by MattVerli
nich via
Instructables

Your lab for this unit might involve some of these formulas and
if you are curious you can read more about those formulas, play
with a simulation of hydrostatic weighing, check out a website that
does the calculations for you, and see that different formulas have

1. "Measure Body Fat via Under Water Weighing" by Matt

Verlinich, Instructables, Autodesk

136 | Body Density

 been developed for different population sets in an effort to increase
2
accuracy. .

Body Density

In order to understand density and how it might be measured, we

need to know that volume (V) is the amount of space taken up by an
object and mass (m) is a measure of the amount of matter contained
in the object. For the body and other everyday objects matter refers
to the atoms that make up the object and the number and type of
atoms determines the mass. Later we will see that mass plays an
important role in determining the weight and motion of objects. The
3
SI units for volume and mass are cubic meters (m ) and kilograms
(kg). Mass Density (ρ), which we usually shorten to just density, for
any object is defined as its mass divided by its volume. The same
mass of different materials will have different volume, and thus
different densities. For example 1 kg of foam takes up much more
space than 1 kg of steel (in fact, about 80 times more). This giant
3
table of material densities is a useful reference (click the kg/m
button to see the values in SI units).
Sometimes weight density is used instead of mass density, in
which case weight (pull of gravity on an object) rather than mass
is divided by volume. The following chapters will explain how we
measure the volume, weight, and mass of a body in order to
calculate body density for use in determining body composition.

2. "Under Water Weighing" by University of Vermont College of Medicine,

Department of Nutrition and Food Science,

Body Density | 137

33. Body Volume by
Displacement (Dunking)
Method
The displacement method (submersion, or dunking method) can be
used to accurately measure the volume of the human body and
other oddly shaped objects by measuring the volume of fluid
displaced when the object is submerged, as illustrated in the figure
below.

When the dinosaur is submerged some of the water is

displaced and the water level rises. The displaced
volume is measured by reading the gradings, in this
case 49 to 53, for a total of 4 volume units (which could
3 3
be cm for a toy dinosaur or m for a real one). Image
credit: Greg Golz, Exploring Science

138 | Body Volume by Displacement

(Dunking) Method
 1

Measuring body volume with the displacement method requires

specialized equipment, such as a large tub of water with volume
grading (markings) or a special scale that can measure the apparent
weight of a submerged person. Recently technologies have been
developed that allow for air rather than water to be used as the
submersion fluid, opening up the method to a broader set of the
2
population

“Infant body composition through air

displacement plethysmography” by Cosmed
via Wikimedia Commons

1. "Density Using Displacement" by Greg Golz, https://sites.google.com/site/

sciencegolz/ is licensed under CC BY 4.0
2. "Bod Pod Services" by Oregon Clinical & Translational Research
Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University.

Body Volume by Displacement (Dunking) Method | 139

 3

3. By Cosmed [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/

3.0)], from Wikimedia Commons

140 | Body Volume by Displacement (Dunking) Method

34. Body Weight
Now that we know how to find the volume of a body, we just need
to measure body mass in order to find body density. We typically
measure the mass of a body by first measuring the weight using a
scale, and then calculating mass from the measured weight. Weight
is just another name for the force of gravity on an object. In
everyday experience, a force (F) is any push or pull on an object.
Forces can move objects, deform objects, or both. Often W is used
to abbreviate weight, but $F_{g}$ is also used because it reminds
us that an object’s weight and the force of gravity on the object
are the same thing. Throughout this book we will learn about other
forces, including buoyant force, tension, normal force, friction, and
air resistance. We typically represent forces with arrows that point
in the direction the force pushes (or pulls). We usually try to make
the length of the arrows proportional to how big the forces are, in
which case the arrows can be called vectors. The SI unit for weight,
and all other forces, is the Newton (N). In the U.S. we often use
pounds (lbs) instead of Newtons as our unit of force. One pound is
equal to 4.45 Newtons.

Reinforcement Activity

Draw a picture of yourself jumping on a trampoline (a

stick figure will work). Then add an arrow representing
gravity acting on you while you are in the air. The arrows
should start at your center and point in the direction that
the force is pushing or pulling you. Label the forces arrows.

Draw a second figure that is just standing on the

Body Weight | 141

 trampoline and add arrows to represent the forces acting
on the person. Label the forces. (Hint: There are two.) Do
you think the lengths of the two arrows should be the same
or different? Explain your thought process.

142 | Body Weight

 35. Body Density from
Displacement and Weight

Mass from Weight

Scales measure weight, but to calculate body density we need mass.

Some scales read off mass, such as the electronic scale in the image
below, even though they actually measure weight.
A food
product sits
on a digital
weighing
scale with
options for
displaying
weight in
pounds or
mass in
kilograms or
grams. The
readout is
243 g. Image
Credit:
“Digi-keuken
weegschaal12
84” by Algont
via
wikimedia
commons.

Mass can be determined from a weight because weight is just the

1. "Digi-keukenweegschaal1284" by Algont [CC BY-SA 3.0

Body Density from Displacement and
Weight | 143
force of gravity on the body and force of gravity depends on mass in
a known way. On the surface of the Earth, the force gravity on an
object is related to its mass by the equation:
\begin{equation}
Force\, of\, gravity = mass\, \times \, \right(acceleration\,
due\, to\, gravity\left)
\end{equation}
The acceleration due to gravity on Earth, typically abbreviated
2
to g, has a value of 9.8 m/s and doesn’t change much over the
entire surface of the Earth. Therefore we (and scales) can measure
weight and then use equation (1) above to calculate mass.
Understanding why the constant g is called the acceleration due to
gravity requires introducing acceleration, which we will do in a later
unit, so for now we recognize it as a constant value that relates mass
and weight across the surface of Earth.

Reinforcement Exercise

In 2016 Helen Maroulis became the first American woman

to win an Olympic gold medal in wrestling. She competes in
the 53 kg class, which most people call her weight class.
However, 53 kg is not actually a weight, it’s a mass. Use the
formula provided above to calculate Helen’s weight in
Newtons.

Find a conversion factor between Newtons and pounds

and convert Helen’s competition weight to lbs.

(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)] via wikimedia

commons.

144 | Body Density from Displacement and Weight

Calculating Body Density

We now know how to measure volume by displacement and how

to determine mass from a weight measurement so we should be
able to determine body density. First we measure the weight, then
calculate the mass. Dividing the mass by the volume found from our
displacement measurement will give us the body density. Give it a
try:

Reinforcement Exercises

A person weighs 902 N (203 lbs) What is the persons

mass? (Assume they are on Earth’s surface)
3
The same person displaces 0.089 m of water volume
when fully submerged. What is the body density of the
person?

Body Weight and Mass on the Moon

The value of g only holds constant near the surface of the Earth, and
therefore scales that equation (1) to calculate mass from measured
weight will read incorrect results. For example, your mass doesn’t
change just because you go to the moon (there isn’t suddenly less
matter inside you), but your weight does change. In fact if
you stood on a scale on the moon it would measure a weight about
1/6 of what it would read on Earth. The scale wouldn’t know you
were on the moon instead of the Earth, so if the scale then tried to
calculate your mass from weight, it would read a mass that is 1/6

Body Density from Displacement and Weight | 145

the actual value. Of course you didn’t lose 5/6 of yourself on the way
there, so that would not be correct.

Universal Law of Gravitation*

When you do want to calculate the force of gravity and you are
not near the surface of the Earth then use the Universal Law of
Gravitation.

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the

text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=101

The Universal Law of Gravitation states that the gravitational force

between two objects depends on the mass of each object ($m_1$
and $m_2$) and the distance between their centers, ($r$). To
calculate the gravitational force we need to multiply the two masses

146 | Body Density from Displacement and Weight

together, divide by the distance between them squared, and finally
multiply by the universal gravitational constant $G$, which always
has the same value of $6.67408 \times 10^{-11}
\frac{\bold{m^3}}{\bold{ kg^1 s^2}}$. Written in equation form
the universal law of gravitation is:
\begin{equation}
$F_g = G\frac{m_1 m_2}{r^2}
\end{equation}

Reinforcement Exercise

Look up the mass and radius of the Earth and enter these
into the Universal Law of Gravitation along with the value
for $G$ provided earlier. Use the mass of the Earth as
$m_1$ so $m_2$ is the only thing left unknown in the
equation. Multiply and divide everything other than $m_2$
as indicated by the equation to get $m_2$ multiplied by a
single number. What number did you find should be
multiplied by an object’s mass to find the force of gravity?
How does the resulting equation compare to the equation
for the force of gravity near the surface of Earth that we
stated earlier?

Body Density from Displacement and Weight | 147

36. Under Water Weight

Apparent Weight

When an object is held still under water it appears to weigh less

than it does in air because the buoyant force is helping to hold it up
(balance its weight). For this reason, the reduced force you need to
apply to hold the object is known as the apparent weight. When a
scale is used to weigh an object submerged in water the scale will
read the apparent weight. When performing hydrostatic weighing
for body composition measurement the apparent weight is often
called the under water weight ($UWW$).

Static Equilibrium

When weighing under water we know the buoyant force must be

equal to the difference between the weight and apparent weight
because the object remains still, which is a state known as static
equilibrium. For an object to be in static equilibrium, all of the forces
on it must be balanced so that there is no net force. For the case
of under water weighing, the buoyant force plus the force provided
by the scale (apparent weight) must perfectly balance the weight of
the object, as long as the person is holding still. We can use arrows
(vectors) to represent the forces on an object and visualize how they
are balanced or unbalanced. This type of diagram is known as a free
body diagram (FBD). The FBD for a person undergoing hydrostatic
weighing would look like this:

148 | Under Water Weight

 Free body diagram of an object hanging from a scale,
submerged in water. The length of the weight arrow is equal
to the combined lengths of the force supplied by the scale and
the buoyant force. A scale will read the weight that it must
supply, therefore it will read an apparent weight for
submerged objects that is less than the actual weight.

Archimedes’ Principle

Measuring the weight and apparent weight of a body allows us to

calculate its density because the buoyant force that causes the
reduction in apparent weight has a special relation to the amount
of water being displaced by the body. Archimedes' Principle states
that the buoyant force provided by a fluid is equal to the weight of the
fluid displaced.

Under Water Weight | 149

 Reinforcement Exercises

Hold your hand under water. Now take an empty water

bottle and try to hold it under water.

In which case is the total buoyant force larger? Use

Archimedes’ Principle to explain why.

Buoyant Force and

Density

A given mass of low density Demonstration of Archimedes’

Principle. The buoyant force is equal to
tissue will take up volume the weight of the water displaced,
relative to the same mass of which in this case is 3 N. The buoyant
force cancels out 3 N worth of the
high density tissue. Taking up
objects weight, so the scale only pulls
the volume means more water up with 1 N to hold the object in static
is displaced when the body is equilibrium. As a result, the scale reads
an apparent weight of only 1 N. Image
submerged so the buoyant Credit: “Archimedes-principle” by
force will be larger compared to MikeRun via Wikimedia Commons

the weight than it would be for

a more dense body. In turn, that means that apparent weight is
smaller relative to actual weight for bodies of higher density. By
comparing weight and apparent weight, the body density can be

1. "Archimedes-principle"By MikeRun [CC BY-SA 4.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia
Commons

150 | Under Water Weight

determined. We will do that in the next chapter, but first we should
become more familiar with the Buoyant force.

Everyday Example

The water displaced by a brick weighs less than the brick

so the buoyant force cannot cancel out the weight of the
brick and it will tend to sink (left diagram). To hold the brick
in place you must provide the remaining upward force to
balance the weight and maintain static equilibrium. That
force is less than the weight in air so the brick appears to
weigh less in the water (right diagram).

Free body diagrams for bricks in water. The brick on the left is
sinking, the brick on the right is being held in place by you.

If you let go of the brick it will be out of equilibrium and

sink to the pool bottom. At that point the pool bottom is
providing the extra upward force to balance out the weight,
and the brick is once again in static equilibrium.

Under Water Weight | 151

 Free body diagram of a brick sitting on the bottom of a pool.

The water displaced by an entire beach ball weighs more

than a beach ball, so if you hold one under water the
buoyant force will be greater than the weight. Your hand is
providing the extra downward force to balance out the
forces and maintain static equilibrium (left diagram). When
you let go, the forces will be unbalanced and the ball will
begin moving upward (right diagram).

152 | Under Water Weight

Free body diagrams of a beach ball under water. The ball on the left is
held in place by you. The ball on the right will float upwards.

The density of ice is only about 9/10 that of water. The

weight of the water displaced by only 9/10 of the iceberg
has the same weight as the entire iceberg. Therefore, 1/10
of the iceberg must remain exposed in order for the weight
and buoyant forces to be balanced and the iceberg to be in
static equilibrium.

Under Water Weight | 153

 An iceberg floating with roughly 9/10 of its
volume submerged. Image Credit: “Iceberg”
created by Uwe Kils (iceberg) and
User:Wiska Bodo (sky) via Wikimedia
Commons

Check out this buoyancy simulation which lets you control how
much objects of different masses are submerged and shows you the

2. "Iceberg" created by Uwe Kils (iceberg) and User:Wiska Bodo (sky). [GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia
Commons

154 | Under Water Weight

resulting buoyant force along with forces provided by you and a
scale at the bottom of the pool (apparent weight).

Not-So-Everyday Example

Submarines control how much water they displace by

pumping water in and out of tanks within the submarine.
When water is pumped inside, then that water is not
displaced by the sub and it doesn’t count toward increasing
the buoyant force. Conversely, when water is pumped out
that water is now displaced by the sub and the buoyant
force increases, which is the concept behind the maneuver
in the following video:

Under Water Weight | 155

 A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the
text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=109

156 | Under Water Weight

37. Hydrostatic Weighing
The method of hydrostatic weighing allows us to determine the
average density ($\rho$) of a any object without any need for a
volume (V) measurement by measuring only its weight ($W_0$)
and apparent weight, also known as under water weight ($UWW$).
To see how we arrive at this useful result, follow the steps in the
derivation at the end of this chapter.
\begin{equation}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{W_O-F_A}\rho_W
\end{equation}

Reinforcement Exercises

Calculate the density of an that object that weighs 12 N,

but has an apparent weight of only 8.5 N.

The previous equation is very similar to the body density equation

used for hydrostatic weighing, but you will notice a slight difference.
The previous equation determines the average density of the object
including any hollow parts containing trapped air, but the body
density equation is designed to determine the average density of
body tissues only, not including trapped air. Therefore, the body
density equation is modified to account for a volume of air trapped
inside the body, known as the residual volume (RV). Also different
standard symbols are used to designate body density, apparent
weight, and water density.

Hydrostatic Weighing | 157

 Formulas
used in
calculating
residual lung
volume, body
density, and
body fat
percentage.
Image
Credit:
Measure
Body Fat Via
Under Water
Weighing
by MattVerli
nich via
Instructables

We arrived at equation (1) by starting with the definition of density

as mass divided by its volume:
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{m_O}{V_O}
\end{equation*}
We can find the mass of an object if we divide its weight by g:
\begin{equation*}
m = \frac{W_O}{g}
\end{equation*}
Inserting that result for mass into the density equation we have:
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{gV_O}
\end{equation*}
For a completely submerged object the volume of water displaced

1. "Measure Body Fat via Under Water Weighing" by Matt

Verlinich, Instructables, Autodesk

158 | Hydrostatic Weighing

is equal to the volume of the object, so we can replace $V_O$ with
$V_D$.
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{gV_D}
\end{equation*}
Using the definition of density again, we can replace the volume
of water displaced with the displaced water mass ($m_W$) divided
by water density ($\rho_W$).
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{g(m_D/\rho_W)} = \frac{W_O}{g
m_D}\rho_W
\end{equation*}
We can look up the density of water, but it depends on the water
temperature, which is why its important to measure the water
temperature when hydrostatic weighing. Notice that we happen to
have the mass of displaced water multiplied by g in the previous
equation. That is exactly how we calculate the weight of the
displaced water ($W_D$), so we can make that substitution:
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{W_D}\rho_W
\end{equation*}
Archimedes' Principle which tells us that the buoyant force
pushing upward on objects in a fluid is equal to the weight displaced
fluid. Therefore we can replace $W_D$ with $F_B$.
\begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{F_B}\rho_W
\end{equation*}
We have learned that the difference between an object’s weight
($W_0$) and apparent weight ($W_A$) tells us the size of the
buoyant force ($F_B$), as long as the body is in static equilibrium
(holding still):
\begin{equation*}
F_B = W_O – F_A
\end{equation*}
Making that replacement in our density equation we have:

Hydrostatic Weighing | 159

 \begin{equation*}
\rho = \frac{W_O}{W_O-F_A}\rho_W
\end{equation*}
We now have an equation that allows us to calculate the density
of an object by measuring only its weight and apparent weight, as
long as we know the density of the fluid we are using.

Specific Gravity

The ratio of the density of a substance to that of water is known

as the specific gravity. Specific gravity can be determined by
hydrostatic weighing. If we simply divide both sides of our density
equation by the density of water we will have a formula for the
specific gravity:
\begin{equation}
SG = \frac{\rho}{\rho_W} = \frac{W_O}{W_O-F_A}
\end{equation}

Reinforcement Exercises

Calculate the specific gravity of an that object that

weighs 12 N, but has an apparent weight of only 8.5 N.

160 | Hydrostatic Weighing

38. Unit 4 Review

Key Terms and Concepts

Mass

Volume

Density

Weight

Apparent Weight

Static Equilibrium

Net Force

Buoyant Force

Archimedes' Principle

Hydrostatic Weighing

Specific Gravity

Learner Outcomes

1. Define mass, volume, density, weight and apparent

weight.[1]
2. Explain how mass and weight are related when
near the surface of Earth and calculate one from the

Unit 4 Review | 161

 other.[1,2]
3. Apply the concept of static equilibrium to
determine the magnitude and direction of unknown
forces.[3]
4. Apply Archimedes’ principle to determine the
buoyant force objects and decide if they will sink or
float.[2]
5. Determine density from mass and volume
measurements and via hydrostatic weighing.[4]

162 | Unit 4 Review

 39. Body Mass Index

Body Composition

Body composition is just one of many measurable properties and

factors that health professionals use to evaluate a person’s health.
Body composition attempts to quantify the relative amounts of
different tissue types present in a person’s body, typically with
emphasis on ensuring a healthy amounts of fat relative to other
1
tissues .

Body Mass Index

The body mass index (BMI) attempts to categorize body

composition using only height and weight as inputs. Health
professionals understand that the BMI can be useful when paired
with other evaluations, but that it has many limitations when
applied to individuals or very specific populations. For example, the
extra weight caused by more than typical muscle for a given height
2
can result in a false unhealthy weight categorization. . Additional
methods for determining body composition include bioelectric
impedance, anthropometric, DEXA scan, hydrostatic weighing, and

1. "Measuring body composition." by J C K Wells and M S Fewtrell, U.S.

National Library of Medicine, U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services
2. "Assessing your weight and health risk" by National Heart, Lung, and Blood
Institute, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Body Mass Index | 163

 the skin fold method, which we will investigate in the following
3
sections.

3. "The Math of Fitness" by Eric Kim, A Healthy U, Andrews University

164 | Body Mass Index

40. Unit 4 Practice and
Assessment
Outcome 1

1) Which has greater density between a kilogram of feathers and a

kilogram of pennies? Which has greater volume? Which has greater
mass?

Outcome 2

2) What is the weight in Newtons of a 3 kg textbook?

3) Convert your own weight from pounds to Newtons. Then
calculate your mass in kilograms. Show all work.
4) The acceleration due to gravity (g) on the moon is 1/6 that
on the surface of Earth. Based on your answers to the previous
question, what would your weight be on the moon? What would
your mass be on the moon?

Outcome 3

4) A 7 N force pushes on an object to the right and a 7 N force pushes

on the object to the left. What is the net force? Can the object be in
static equilibrium?
5) A 5 N force pushes on an object to the right and a 7 N force
pushes on the object to the left. What is the net force? Can the
object be in static equilibrium?
6) You push on a large box with 120 N of force, but it doesn’t move.

Unit 4 Practice and Assessment | 165

How large is the friction force? Draw a free body diagram of the
situation.
7) Helping a 48 lb toddler learn to float in a swimming pool you
notice that it feels as though they only weigh 5 lbs. How large is
the buoyant force on the toddler? Draw a free body diagram of the
situation.

Outcome 4

8) What weight of water must the toddler in the previous question

be displacing?
3
9) An object has a volume of 0.5 m . What is the maximum volume
of water it can displace? What weight of water can it displace?
10) The object in the previous problem has a weight of 150 N. Will
it float?
11) Is the object in the previous problem more or less dense than
water?

Outcome 5

11) Calculate the density of the object referred to in the previous

problem.
12) An object has a weight of 5.5 N and an apparent weight of 3.5
N when fully submerged. Will the object float?
13) Calculate the density of the object in the previous problem.

166 | Unit 4 Practice and Assessment

 41. The Skinfold Method

The Skinfold Method

The skinfold (caliper) method is one way to determine body

composition. The skinfold method uses specially designed calipers
to measure the thickness of skinfolds that are pinched from several
specific locations on the body, as seen in this skinfold
1
demonstration video .The skinfold thicknesses are correlated with
body fat percentage using tables or equations that were produced
by making both displacement and skinfold body composition
2
measurements on many people .

1. "3-Site Skinfold (Male)" by Sydney Richard, ptdirect

2. "Taking Skinfold Measurements" by ptdirect

The Skinfold Method | 167

 Personal-use grade skinfold caliper used
for measuring skinfold thickness for body
fat percentage calculation. Image Credit:
Jks via Wikimedia Commons

The skinfold method is quick, easy, and requires minimal equipment,

however there are many possible ways for error to enter the
measurement. Analyzing the skinfold method will help us
understand the concepts of error, precision, accuracy, and
uncertainty, which actually apply to all measurements. Watching
the short skinfold demonstration video will help you follow the
discussion of these concepts.

168 | The Skinfold Method

Skinfold Measurement Error

Let’s say a physical therapist (PT) measures a particular skinfold

thickness one time. The result might not be very accurate, or close
to the actual value, for a variety of reasons. For example, measuring
above or below the center of the skinfold would produce a
measurement error that would affect the accuracy of the results.
The PT could then make many measurements of each skinfold.
If the collection of measurements were all relatively close together
then the measurement would have high precision. On the other
hand if the measurements were all relatively far apart then the
measurement would have low precision. The measurement
precision can be affected by the measurement method and/or by
the equipment so improving the method or the equipment can
improve precision. For example, the PT might draw a mark on the
skin to be sure the measurement is made in the same place every
time. A caliper with larger dial will make it easier to see which mark
is closest to the needle position.
Low precision is not desirable, but it doesn’t have to ruin the
measurement accuracy if the error causing the lack of precision is a
random error. For example, if the PT happens to randomly measure
at various distances above or below the actual skinfold center in
equal amounts then this error is random. In this case averaging all of
the measurements should give a result that is relatively close to the
actual value. The effect of random error on accuracy can be reduced
by averaging more measurements.
Systematic errors cannot be reduced by averaging because they
bias the result away from the actual value in the same direction
every time. For example, if the PT made a mark on the skin to
improve precision, but the mark was actually in the wrong spot,
then every measurement would be inaccurate in the same way.
In this case averaging the results would not produce an accurate
result. Instead, systematic errors must be reduced by improving
methods or equipment. For example, using the displacement

The Skinfold Method | 169

 method instead of calipers would improve the accuracy of the body
fat percentage measurement. These issues are part of why the
caliper method is slowly going out of favor for determining body
fat percentage. Another reason is that this specific method might
embarrass and/or lower a patient’s motivation to visit with their
health care provider about their health, and that negative outcome
is not worth the body fat percentage information that might be
gained from the measurement (uncertainty is typically 3% body
3
fat ).

3. "Body Composition" by J. Andrew Doyle, Exercise and Physical Fitness

Page, Georgia State University Department of Kinesilogy and Health

170 | The Skinfold Method

42. Pupillary Distance
Self-Measurement
You may have heard the old adage “measure twice and cut once”.
Scientists take this concept to the extreme, so the saying would
be more like: “measure 50 times, then calculate the average and
determine the possible uncertainty. Next cut a cheap piece of
cardboard to the average size and test to make sure that it fits first,
then finally cut the board. After you put the board in place, evaluate
the goodness of fit, then think about how you could get an even better
fit next time. Oh yeah, and write everything down along the way so
you or anyone else can come along and follow the same process every
time.” You might not make 50 measurements in your everyday life,
but you can still use the concepts of error, precision, accuracy, and
uncertainty to save yourself time, energy, and trouble.

Everyday Example

Tyler recently had an eye exam and his prescription

changed. He has decided to order his new eyeglasses online
to save money. He can upload a photo of his prescription,
but he needs to provide his pupil distance, or PD and this is
not written on the prescription. This is a common problem
so the company website has a video explaining that PD is
the distance between your pupils, measured in millimeters
(mm) and showing how to measure PD using a ruler and a
mirror.

Pupillary Distance
Self-Measurement | 171
 Measuring pupil distance with a mirror. Image Credit:
“Expert Reviewed How to Measure Your Interpupillary
Distance” by WikiHow

Tyler tries the measurement and finds that the ruler is

pretty far below his pupil and his pupil is several mm wide,
so it’s hard to line up the edge of the ruler with the center
of one pupil and it’s also hard to tell which mark on the
ruler lines up best with the center of his other pupil. Even
worse, his eye and the ruler both move a bit during the
measurement. Tyler doesn’t want to get his PD wrong and
have to hassle with sending the glasses back.

Tyler makes several measurements and gets 56 mm, 57

1. "Expert Reviewed How to Measure Your Interpupillary

Distance" by WikiHow is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 3.0

172 | Pupillary Distance Self-Measurement

mm, and 54 mm and he is uncertain of the actual value. He
decides that because the marks on the ruler are plenty
close together that piece of equipment isn’t affecting his
precision much. Instead, he decides his method is the
culprit.

Tyler considers making a mark on his face just below one

pupil that he can use to line up the edge of the ruler. After
thinking more about it, Tyler realizes that if his mark wasn’t
perfect then this would introduce a systematic error into
the measurement.

Instead, Tyler decides to ignore the precision issue and

focus on getting an accurate result. He thinks it’s likely that
the difficulty in lining up the ruler makes his measurement
sometimes too short and sometimes too long, so he decides
to make a few more measurements and average all of the
results. He makes four more measurements, getting 56 mm,
55 mm, 57 mm and 58 mm. Then he takes the average of all
seven results:

\begin{equation*}

Average\, PD = \frac{\left(56+57+54+56+55+57+58\
right)\bold{mm}}{7} = 56.14\, \bold{mm}

\end{equation*}

The website for ordering glasses only let Tyler enter

whole mm values, so he had to decide between 56 mm or
57 mm. Tyler’s calculated average was closer to 56 mm so
he entered that along with his prescription.

Pupillary Distance Self-Measurement | 173

 43. Working with
Uncertainties*

The Certainty of Uncertainty

No measurement can be completely error free, infinitely precise,

or perfectly accurate. Therefore we can never be absolutely certain
of the actual value of a physical quantity we are attempting to
measure. We can be certain that all measurement results have
uncertainty associated with them. Scientists try to reduce
uncertainty as much as is practical and then use a variety of
methods, some simple and some very sophisticated, to determine
the size of the uncertainty in measured results so that it can be
reported along with the results. In this textbook we will stick to the
simple methods, if you decide to continue studying science you will
12
learn some of the more sophisticated methods .

1. "Uncertainty in Measurement Results" by NIST Reference on Constants

Units and Uncertainty, National Institute of Standards and Technology
2. "Experimental Uncertainty" by EngineerItProgram, California State
University, Chio

174 | Working with Uncertainties*

 Uncertainty in Tyler’s Pupillary Distance
Measurement
3
There are various statistical methods to determine the uncertainty
in Tyler’s set of measurements, but we will just look at the range of
values to get a quick idea of the uncertainty in his measurement.
We look at the seven values and the average and we notice that the
values go up to 2 mm above the average and down to 2 mm below
the average.
\begin{equation*}
Average\, PD = \frac{\left(56+57+54+56+55+57+58\
right)\bold{mm}}{7} = 56.14\, \bold{mm}
\end{equation*}
We will use 2 mm as a rough estimate of the uncertainty, which
is probably an over-estimate, but it puts us on the safe-side so
we don’t underestimate the uncertainty. If we wanted to show the
final result of Tyler’s measurements including uncertainty in the
standard way then we would write:
$PD = 56\,\bold{mm}\, \pm\, 2\, \bold{mm}$
Notice that we have rounded the result to drop the decimal places
from his result. This is because it would be meaningless to include
decimals in the hundredth of a mm place if we don’t even know the
answer to within 2 mm, which is in the one mm place. Dropping
the decimal places changes the number of significant figures in our
result match our uncertainty. The significant figures in a result are
those digits that contribute to showing how accurately we know the
result.

3. "Uncertainty in Measurement Results" by NIST Reference on Constants

Units and Uncertainty, National Institute of Standards and Technology

Working with Uncertainties* | 175

 Significant Figures

Special consideration is given to zeros when counting significant

figures. The zeros in 0.053 are not significant, because they are only
placeholders that locate the decimal point. There are two significant
figures in 0.053. The zeros in 10.053 are not placeholders but are
significant—this number has five significant figures. The zeros in
1300 may or may not be significant depending on the style of writing
numbers. They could mean the number is known to the last digit, or
they could be placeholders. So 1300 could have two, three, or four
significant figures. Typically when you see a value like 1300 meters
the zeros don’t count, but we can avoid ambiguity by using scientific
notation and writing $1.3 \times 10^{3}$ meters or using a metric
4
prefix and writing 1.3 kilometers . The table below will help you deal
with zeros.

Number of Number of Significant

Result
Placeholder Zeros Figures

300.0 0 4

0.0003 4 1

0.000300 1 (first one) 6

300.07 0 5

300.0700 0 7

375 0 3

3,750,000 3 (typically) 3 (typically)

3
3.75 x 10 0 3

4. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 6, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.20.

176 | Working with Uncertainties*

 Reinforcement Activity

Determine how many significant figures are in each of

these reported results:

• $517\, \bold{m}$
• $0.00180\, \bold{mi}$
• $6700\, \bold{s}$

Reinforcement Activity

Use the reported uncertainties to adjust each of the

following results to the correct number of significant
figures:

• $(517 \pm 20)\, \bold{m}$

• $(0.00180 \pm 0.00006)\, \bold{mi}$
• $(6700 \pm 2)\,\bold{s}$

Method of Significant Figures

Sometimes values are reported without uncertainty, but the level

of uncertainty is still implied by the number of significant figures.
When we express measured values, we can only list as many digits
as we initially measured with our measuring tool. Tyler reported

Working with Uncertainties* | 177

 his first PD measurement as 56 mm, but he could not express this
value as 56.31 mm because his measuring tool lacked the precision
to measure down to the hundredth of a millimeter. Tyler had to
decide which millimeter marking lined up with his pupil so the 1 mm
digit has significant uncertainty. The last digit in a measured value
has always been estimated in some way by the person performing
the measurement. Using the method of significant figures, the last
digit written down in a measurement is the first digit with some
5
uncertainty. In this way significant figures indicate the precision of
a measuring tool that was used to measure a value.
Whether uncertainties are written out or implied, we still need to
account for the fact that measured values have uncertainty when
we use those values in calculations. We will use four general rules to
determine the number significant figures in our final answers.

• 1) For multiplication and division, the final answer should have

the same number of significant figures as the least number of
significant figures in any of the values being multiplied or
divided.

• 2) For addition and subtraction, the final answer should have

the same number of decimal places as the least number of
decimals in any of the values being added or subtracted.

• 3) Counting discrete objects may have zero uncertainty. For

example, sitting at a table with three oranges on it, you can
measure the number of oranges to be: oranges

5. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Jul 6, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.20.

178 | Working with Uncertainties*

 • 4) Definitions can have zero uncertainty. For example, the
definition of a kilometer is 100 meters, so if using this
conversion factor in a calculation it does not contribute to
adjusting your significant figures.

Each of Tyler’s PD measurements are reported to the one’s place

due to his rulers’ precision. He took the average to get the final
result:
\begin{equation*}
Average\, PD = \frac{\left(56+57+54+56+55+57+58\
right)\bold{mm}}{7} = 56.14\, \bold{mm}
\end{equation*}
We see that to take the average Tyler had to add up the values:

\begin{equation*}
\left(56+57+54+56+55+57+58\right)\bold{mm} = 393\,
\bold{mm}
\end{equation*}
Applying the rule for addition (rule # 2), the result must have its
last digit in the ones place because that was the least number of
decimals in any number we used.
Tyler then divided by the number seven to get the average, but
because this is just a count of how many measurements we made
it has no uncertainty and doesn’t affect the significant figures. So
applying the rule for division, the final result should have the same
number of significant figures as the least number in the division,
which in this case is the three significant figures in 393 mm.
Therefore our final result would be 56.1 mm. This result has more
significant figures than the result we originally determined by
simply looking at the range of values to roughly estimate the
uncertainty; but remember we expected that quick method to be an
overestimate of uncertainty so this result makes sense.

Working with Uncertainties* | 179

 Reinforcement Activity

Let’s return to our everyday example of Ronnie

estimating how much money he will spend on gas driving
back and forth from campus this term. A round-trip to
campus is 14.2 miles, his car typically gets 27 miles per
gallon (MPG) and gas is currently $2.86 per gallon. He needs
to drive to campus and back 4 times per week. We
calculated his cost for gas during the 11 week term:

\begin{equation*}

11\,weeks \,per \, term =

=\left(\frac{11\, \cancel{weeks}}{1\, term} \right)

\left(\frac{4\, \cancel{trips}}{1\, \cancel{week}} \right)

\left(\frac{14.2\, \cancel{miles}}{1\, \cancel{trip}}

\right)

\left(\frac{1\, \cancel{gallon}}{27\, \cancel{miles}}

\right)

\left(\frac{2.86\, dollars}{1\, \cancel{gallon}} \right)

\end{equation*}

\begin{equation*}

=\bold{\$}66.18\, per\, term

\end{equation*}

Correct the result of this calculation to have the correct

number of significant figures.

180 | Working with Uncertainties*

44. Other Methods of
Reporting Uncertainty*
Sometimes scientists report uncertainty as percentages of the
result. For Tyler’s example we would divide the uncertainty by the
result and the multiply by 100 to find the percent uncertainty before
writing it behind the result:
\begin{equation*}
\Average\, PD = 56\, \bold{mm}\, \pm\
left(\frac{2\,\bold{mm}}{56\,\bold{mm}}\right)\times100=56\,\b
old{mm}\pm 4\%
\end{equation*}
Finding percent uncertainty is an important step in some of the
more sophisticated methods of determining the total uncertainty
in the result of a calculation that uses several numbers that each
have uncertainties themselves. This text won’t get into those
sophisticated methods, but if you are curious you can read about
some of them in Section 1.3 of OpenStax College Physics.
In addition to the methods we just discussed, Scientists
sometimes report uncertainty in other ways, such as confidence
intervals. Typically this method states 95% confidence that an
actual value lies within the interval between two values. For
example, this 25-year and 7-country study on cigarette smoking and
mortality risk found that the hazard risk for all causes of death was
1.3x higher for smokers than non-smokers with a 95% confidence
that the value was between 1.2x and 1.4x. (The risk was 1.8x higher
for smokers of more than 10 cigarettes a day and even higher for
death caused by coronary heart disease, all stroke, other arterial

Other Methods of Reporting

Uncertainty* | 181
 disease, lung cancer, other cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary
1
disease, and other disease in smokers .

1. "Cigarette smoking and mortality risk: twenty-five-year follow-up of the

Seven Countries Study" by Jacobs DR Jr, Adachi H, Mulder I, Kromhout D,
Menotti A, Nissinen A, Blackburn H., U.S. National Library of Medicine, U.S.
Department of Heath and Human Services

182 | Other Methods of Reporting Uncertainty*

45. Unit 3 Review

Key Takeaways

Measurement error
Random error
Systematic error
Precision
Accuracy
Uncertainty
Significant figures

Learner Objectives

1. Compare and contrast precision, accuracy,

systematic errors, and random errors. [4]
2. Identify sources of random and systematic
errors.[4]
3. Explain how systematic and random errors affect
precision, accuracy and uncertainty.[4]
4. Calculate and report uncertainties in
measurements. [4]

Unit 3 Review | 183

46. Unit 3 Practice and
Assessment
Outcomes 1, 2, 3

1. Would putting larger tires on a vehicle introduce random or

systematic error into the speedometer reading? Would this
affect the accuracy or precision (or both) of the speedometer?
Explain your answers.

2. Would a wiggling baby introduce random or systematic error

into a measurement of its weight? Would this affect the
accuracy or precision (or both) of the weight measurement?
Explain your answers.

3. Would slightly under-filling measuring cups to prevent spilling

ingredients introduce random or systematic error into the
measurement of ingredient volumes? Would this affect the
accuracy or precision (or both) of the measurement volumes.
Explain your answers.

A set of measurements of a physical quantity was made for

comparison to an accepted standard value. The data were plotted
in graphs with the measured values on the horizontal axis and the
number of times each value occurred on the vertical axis. This type
of graph is known as a histogram and the data on the vertical axis
are called the frequencies. Use the histograms below to answer the
questions that follow.

184 | Unit 3 Practice and Assessment

4. For each histogram state
whether the data suggest
the measurements were
relatively accurate, precise,
both, or neither. Explain
your reasoning.
5. For each histogram state Histograms of values measured during
what types of errors were an experiment.

likely to be relatively
significant: random, systematic, both or neither. Explain your
reasoning.

Outcome 4

6)A person measures his or her heart rate by counting the

number of beats in 30 s as timed using a clock on the wall,
such as the one in the image below. They start counting when
the second hand jumps onto a particular tick mark (say the 12)
and then stop counting when it jumps to the opposite mark
(say the 6). A reasonable estimate of the uncertainty in the time
measurement would be which of the values listed below?
Explain your reasoning.

a) 0.05 s
b) 0.5 s
c) 5 s
d) 50 s

Unit 3 Practice and Assessment | 185

 Typical wall clock with hour, minute, second hands and 1
hour, 1 min (1s) divisions. Image Credit: Clock by Lee Haywood
via Wikimedia Commons

7. Estimate the uncertainty in counting the beats in the previous

problem. Explain your reasoning.

*8) If 47 beats were counted by the person in the previous problem,

what a was their heart rate in BPM in correct significant figures.
Indicate the total % uncertainty and total uncertainty.

1. Clock By Lee Haywood from Wollaton, Nottingham, England (Clock) [CC BY-
SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia
Commons

186 | Unit 3 Practice and Assessment

 47. Jolene’s Migraines
Jolene is a Registered Nurse (RN). After taking time off to have her
first child she returned to work. She observed that she had migraines
of varying severity every time she worked a twelve hour shift. She
was able to fight through the migraines and do her job, but it was
difficult, painful, exhausting, and possibly dangerous.
Jolene wondered what was causing the migraines. To answer this
question she gathered available knowledge from friends and co-
workers, the internet, and her health care provider. These sources
1
gave many possible reasons for migraines . Jolene had taken science
courses in preparation for nursing school, so she knew the best
way to determine the cause was to use the scientific method. She
evaluated the list and eliminated the possible test conditions that
didn’t apply or that she couldn’t change:

1. "Migraine" by U.S. National Library of Medicine

Jolene’s Migraines | 187

 Jolene’s Table of Possible Migraine Causes

Readily
Possible Cause Reasoning
Testable?

she rarely had time to stop for

Dehydration Yes
water during shift

Caffeine withdrawal she drank coffee at work No

she was breastfeeding, but

Changes in hormone levels No
didn’t want to stop

she did go to bed and get up

Changes in sleep patterns Yes
earlier for shifts

Drinking alcohol she didn’t drink No

Exercise or other physical on her feet 12 hours, but no

No
stress control of that

Loud noises or bright the hospital lights are bright,

No
lights but no control

she often didn’t have time to eat

Missed meals Yes
meals on shift

Odors or perfumes no control of the hospital smells No

Smoking or smoke
not in the hospital No
exposure

Stress and anxiety definitely, not much control No

she missed meals, but didn’t eat

Certain foods No
different foods

Each of the three variables remaining on the list could be tested, so

each one could be used in a hypothesis. One-by-one Jolene would
hypothesize that a test condition was the cause and then test the
hypothesis by changing only that one condition and observing how
it affected her migraine. For example her first stated hypothesis
could be: dehydration is contributing to my migraines. Her first test
could be to stay well hydrated and observe how it affected her
migraines. Sometimes it’s easier to compare results with a null
hypothesis, which in this case would be: hydration level does not
affect my migraines.
Jolene realized that more than one variable could be contributing
to her migraines, and that changing one might only affect the

188 | Jolene’s Migraines

severity of her migraines rather than prevent them, so she needed
to do more than just observe, she needs to make a measurement of
migraine severity. She decided to use the Wong-Baker 1-10 Pain
Scale as her measurement tool (instrument). She calibrated the
scale with childbirth on the top, no pain on the bottom, and
stepping on a Lego in the middle.
Finally, Jolene decided she would make multiple tests of each
hypothesis by rotating through them. One week she made sure to
drink more water, the next week she made sure to go to bed and
get up at the same time every day, and finally she made sure to have
quick foods ready for breaks. Jolene repeated the cycle for nine
weeks, and kept track of her data in a table. To analyze the data she
and added up the pain scores for the three shifts each week and put
those results into a table.

Table of Jolene’s Weekly Pain Scale Totals

Test Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week Week
Total
Condition 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Hydrated 24 26 21

Consistent
18 20 19
Sleep

Well Fed 23 27 25

Reinforcement Activity

Finish analyzing Jolene’s data by adding up the pain

values for each test condition and filling in the total column
on the right. Based on the results of Jolene’s test, what
conclusion do you make about which variable is most likely
making the largest contribution to her migraines?

Jolene’s Migraines | 189

Just as we saw from Jolene’s example, the basic scientific method is:
Observe, ask a question, formulate a hypothesis, use the hypothesis
to make a testable prediction, test the prediction experimentally,
analyze results, compare prediction to test result, and formulate a
conclusion.
This example is based on actual events, but names have been
changed. The real-life Jolene concluded that a consistent sleep
schedule was the most important factor. She then committed to
getting up every day at the same early time as she did on works days,
even if she didn’t have work. After about three weeks her migraines
leveled out at about one low-severity migraine per month.
Most of the information that we use in this textbook, from the
amount of force that bones can support to the amount of energy
contained in various foods, was determined by scientists using the
scientific method, but maybe not in exactly the same way that you
learned in middle school.

190 | Jolene’s Migraines

48. The Scientific Process

Science as a Cycle

The scientific method alone is not enough to make real progress

in accumulation of scientific knowledge, but using it as the hub
of a cyclic process has led to the massive rate of scientific and
technological advancement we have seen over the last century.
Science can be thought of as a continuous process guided by with
the scientific method, as discussed in the following video:

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the

text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=53

Modern science is done according to a complex process of checks

The Scientific Process | 191

and balances, such as replication and peer-review. This complexity
emerged to help ensure the integrity of scientific results, but the
process remains rooted in the basic scientific method. You can
apply the basic scientific method every day, just as Jolene did, in
order to ensure that you make informed decisions that aren’t
overly biased by inaccurate data, false logic, or your own
preconceptions.

The complex modern scientific process built around the basic scientific
method (within dashed lines).

The previous diagram illustrates the complex scientific process,

but also highlights the basic scientific method that Jolene used in

192 | The Scientific Process

the previous example, on which the whole process is built. After
observation, the basic scientific method follows the green and
yellow boxes within the dotted line in the diagram below. Generally
speaking, the green boxes comprise theoretical science and the
yellow boxes comprise experimental science. These days most
scientists participate in some or all parts of both categories and
collaborate with other scientists to complete the process.
The uncertainty associated with all measurements means that
science cannot prove anything, despite what the media often claims.
Instead, the scientific process produces reviewed and reproduced
conclusions that account for uncertainty. (We will learn how
scientists recognize and deal with uncertainty in the next chapter).
Scientific conclusions provide evidence for or against hypotheses.

Laws, Principles and Theories

Laws

When a certain behavior is repeatedly observed across many

systems of many sizes and time periods, then the behavior becomes
a law. A law is not an explanation of the observed behavior. For
example, the 1st Law of Thermodynamics states that the when a
system does work and/or loses heat, the internal energy of the
system must drop by an amount equal to the work done plus the
heat lost.

Principles

Principles summarize rules created based on collections of laws

The Scientific Process | 193

and followed by scientists when formulating hypotheses, designing
experiments, analyzing results. For example, the principle of
conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or
destroyed, only transferred. The 1st Law of Thermodynamics
supports the principle of conservation of energy.

Theories

When a preponderance of evidence supports a particular

explanation for observed occurrences (phenomena), then the
explanation becomes a theory. Laws, principles, and theories are
what the general public and media often refer to as scientific facts,
but we don’t need to introduce another definition so we won’t use
fact here. We will combine and apply a variety of laws, principles,
and theories to understand how the body functions.

194 | The Scientific Process

PART III
OREGON COMMUNITY
COLLEGE ASSOCIATION
2018 MEETING

Creating an OER physics textbook from a

student-centered reference frame

Thank you

• UCC Faculty Artist’s conception of the elastic

• UCC Librarians behavior body tissues. “Arm Coil” by
Sasha Lynch.
• OpenOregon
• Offices of: A&S Dean,
Grants, Finance
• Office of the Provost
• Steve Loosely, BOE Chair
• Office of the President
• Audience
• Many Others

Oregon Community College

Association 2018 Meeting | 195
49. Body Balance App

What is your role in education?

1. student
2. parent
3. faculty member
4. staff
5. administration
6. board member
7. community member

How much would you pay for this app?

a) I wouldn’t bother installing the app.

b) I’d install it for free
c) 0.99 USD
d) 4.99 USD

Body Balance App | 197

50. OER Familiarity

How familiar are you with OER?

I have

a) just heard about OER

b) known about OER for a while
c) considered using OER in my course (faculty)
d) have used OER in my course (faculty and students)
e) have considered creating OER
f) have created OER

198 | OER Familiarity

51. Original OER Motivation

• Reduce cost to
students

◦ Free webview and

digital file exports.

◦ Low-cost hard copies through independent

printers.

◦ 1778 students saved 328,968.02 USD so far.

◦ 2,101,633.44 USD Projected Savings.

◦ 4.21 USD saved per 1 USD spent in the first

Original OER Motivation | 199

 year alone.

200 | Original OER Motivation

52. Observations on
Student-Textbook
Interactions
From
buzzfeed via
foodbeast

What percentage of students 200-level physics

students used the textbook as their primary study
resource?

a) > 75 %
b) 50-75 %
c) 25-50%
d) < 25%

How often did most 200-level physics students

Observations on Student-Textbook
Interactions | 201
open the textbook?

a) Less than once per week

b) 2-4 times per week
c) 5-7 times per week

202 | Observations on Student-Textbook Interactions

53. Survey of 200-level Physics
Students

Anonymous Survey

Overall Usage

• < 12% read end-to-end

• 25% Don’t use at all!
• > 50% open the textbook less than once per week!

Specific Usage

• 23% use the textbook as primary resource for HW

• 17% use the textbook as primary exam study resource

Textbook Usefulness

• < 54% find the textbook interesting

• < 50% think it even matters what textbook is used

Survey of 200-level Physics

Students | 203
A Textbook Paradox?

• 74% think using the textbook more would be the best way to
improve performance….

204 | Survey of 200-level Physics Students

 54. Observations on
Traditional Textbook Design

Mass Marketing

V-22 Osprey
by James
Haseltine
(US Air
Force) –
USAF, Public
Domain, via
wikimedia
commons

1. V-22 Osprey by James Haseltine (US Air Force) - USAF, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57561
Observations on Traditional Textbook
Design | 205
 Perspective

Fractal Tree by Rafael Ruggiero via Wikimedia Commons

2. Fractal Tree by Rafael Ruggiero [CC BY-SA 4.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia
Commons

206 | Observations on Traditional Textbook Design

Wishful Thinking

Boy studying
by Lewis
Hine [Public
domain], via
Wikimedia
Commons

Observations on Traditional Textbook Design | 207

55. OER at the 100 Level

Student-Textbook Interaction

Fewer Resources

• Interest by experts

• Impact < 50% of 200-level students think it

matters what textbook is used

Concepts before Context

Format Limited

208 | OER at the 100 Level

 56. Shifting Reference Frames

1. Relativity of Simultaneity Animation by Acdx [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/

copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Shifting Reference Frames | 209

 • Consider how New Student’s Learn?

◦ Context First

◦ Content Second

◦ Generalization Third

◦ Early and Often Feedback

• Consider New Student Preparation

◦ Set Expectations

◦ Prepare for Barriers

◦ Introduce Meta-cognition

• Just Ask: How would you improve the

textbook so that it would be more useful to

210 | Shifting Reference Frames

you?

◦ Index/Glossary

◦ More Examples and Reinforcement

Exercises

◦ Other

Shifting Reference Frames | 211

 57. Crowd-Source Content

Engage Students

• Edits and Feedback

• Solutions and Data

• Images

Engage the Community

• Edits and Feedback

1. "bigdata_0" by Open Data Project, NASA is in the Public Domain

212 | Crowd-Source Content

 • Images

• Artwork

Engage Colleagues

• OCCA, OE Summit, IJOER

• bodyphysicstext@gmail.com

Crowd-Source Content | 213

58. Initial Response

Community Response

• Mainstream Article
• UCC Marketing
• News-Review
• HECC
• KPIC Interview
• Featured in IJOER

Student-Textbook Interaction

200-level General
GS 104 Response
Physics

Found the book

90% 54%
interesting

Textbook as primary
>50% < 25%
resource

Opened more than

75% < 50%
once per week

40% Read chapters in full 12%

Don’t really use the

5% 25%
book

214 | Initial Response

How do you feel about OER?

a) skeptical
b) excited
c) mildly interested
d) waste of time
e) worthy of resource allocation

Initial Response | 215

59. What Else?

Pseudo-color thermal image of the ” San Joaquin River” by Airborne Science

Program, NASA

• Open Education

◦ DIY Monitoring and Sensors Workshop

• Collaboration Ideas

◦ Progressive Practice for Tactile Technical Skills

▪ Nursing
▪ Science
▪ Athletics

216 | What Else?

 ◦ Drone based water quality sensing

▪ CS
▪ Engineering
▪ NR
• Grants

◦ Open Oregon
◦ NSF S-STEM
◦ Wishing Well

▪ Fire Science
▪ Physical/Biological Sciences
▪ Engineering
▪ STEAM Hub and other Outreach

• Research Ideas

◦ Thermal properties of small streams from disparity in

thermal and chemical breakthrough curves
◦ Lagrangian frame tracking of downstream response to
thermal perturbation
◦ Effect of sensor size on Lagrangian frame data acquisition

What Else? | 217

PART IV
CASCADIA OER SUMMIT
2019

Student Centered Design Components in

Body Physics: Motion to Metabolism

Thank you

• Audience Artist’s conception of the elastic

• BCcampus/SFU behavior of body tissues. “Arm Coil” by
Sasha Lynch.
• OpenOregon
• Faculty & Librarians @
UCC and elsewhere
• Many Others

Cascadia OER Summit 2019 | 219

60. Calibration Questions
Follow along: https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bodyphysics/
Live Polling: http://etc.ch/cgAD

How familiar are you with OER?

I have

a) just heard about OER

b) known about OER for a while
c) considered using OER in my course (faculty)
d) have used OER in my course (faculty and students)

Calibration Questions | 221

 e) have considered creating OER
f) have created OER

Results

How familiar are you with the PressBooks

Platform?

I have

a) Never touched Pressbooks

b) Adpoted a Pressbook or Used the online viewer
c) Developed content with Pressbooks

Results

What are you most interested in hearing

about?

a) Pressbooks features used in Body Physics

b) Observations and data on student-textbook interaction
c) Pedagogical thoughts behind Body Physics design
d) Overall process of creating an OER textbook

222 | Calibration Questions

Results

Calibration Questions | 223

61. Observations on
Student-Textbook Interaction
From
buzzfeed via
foodbeast

What percentage of 200-level physics students

used the textbook as their primary study
resource?

a) > 75 %
b) 50-75 %
c) 25-50%
d) < 25%

224 | Observations on
Student-Textbook Interaction
 Results

How often did most 200-level physics students

open the textbook?

a) Less than once per week

b) 2-4 times per week
c) 5-7 times per week

Results

Observations on Student-Textbook Interaction | 225

62. Survey of 200-level Physics
Students

Anonymous Survey

Overall Usage

• < 12% read end-to-end

• 25% Don’t use at all!
• > 50% open the textbook less than once per week!

Specific Usage

• 23% use the textbook as primary resource for HW

• 17% use the textbook as primary exam study resource

Textbook Usefulness

• < 54% find the textbook interesting

• < 50% think it even matters what textbook is used

226 | Survey of 200-level Physics

Students
A Textbook Paradox?

• 74% think using the textbook more would be the best way to
improve performance….

Survey of 200-level Physics Students | 227

 63. Observations on
Traditional Textbook Design

Mass Marketing

V-22 Osprey
by James
Haseltine
(US Air
Force) –
USAF, Public
Domain, via
wikimedia
commons

1. V-22 Osprey by James Haseltine (US Air Force) - USAF, Public Domain,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=57561
228 | Observations on Traditional
Textbook Design
 Perspective

Fractal Tree by Rafael Ruggiero via Wikimedia Commons

2. Fractal Tree by Rafael Ruggiero [CC BY-SA 4.0

(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], from Wikimedia
Commons

Observations on Traditional Textbook Design | 229

Wishful Thinking

Boy studying
by Lewis
Hine [Public
domain], via
Wikimedia
Commons

230 | Observations on Traditional Textbook Design

64. Audience Observations

Does the textbook you currently use fit into

any of the previous categories?

a) Mass Marketing
b) Perspective
c) Wishful Thinking
d) more than one of the above

Results

Audience Observations | 231

65. Physics OER at the
100-Level

< 50% of 200-level students think it

matters what textbook is used

Challenge Accepted.

232 | Physics OER at the 100-Level

66. Backward Design

Backward Design

Course Outcomes

Elementary concepts of physics including motion, forces, energy and

momentum, and thermodynamics. Registration-Enforced Prerequisite
MTH 060. 3 lecture, 3 lab hrs/wk.

1. Apply knowledge of the SI units, metric prefixes, and unit

conversion factors in solving physics problems.
2. Analyze, rank, compare, and make predictions about qualitative
physics scenarios involving motion, forces, energy, momentum
and thermodynamics.
3. Analyze and solve quantitative physics problems involving
motion, forces, energy, momentum and thermodynamics.
4. Demonstrate proficiency with laboratory equipment,
computer software, and experimental procedures for
gathering, recording, analyzing and graphing data.
5. Apply the basic scientific method.

Backward Design | 233

Unit Learner Outcomes

Learner Outcomes

1. Identify tension, gravity, normal, and friction

forces.[2]
2. Identify classes of levers and explain advantages
and disadvantages of each in terms of mechanical
advantage and range of motion.[2]
3. Apply lever and equilibrium concepts to solve for
forces and find mechanical advantage in scenarios
involving levers. [3]
4. Apply normal force and friction coefficient
concepts to calculate static and kinetic frictional
forces.[3]

Practice and Assessment Exercises

Outcome 1

1) For each object below, draw a free body diagram:

• A car hanging from a crane (there are two forces).

• A car skidding to a stop (there are three forces).
• A car with the parking brake set being pushed on by a
someone, but not moving (there are four forces here, but two
of them are the same type).

234 | Backward Design

2) A person stands on a scale. What type of force is pulling them
down? What type of force is provided by the scale to hold them up?

Outcome 2

4) Consider the following items:

• Pliers
• Tweezers
• Shovel

(a) For each case, draw a stick figure of the tool and label the
fulcrum, effort, load, effort arm, and load arm.
(b) State the class of lever for each item above.

(c) For each item above, state whether the tool is providing
mechanical advantage or increasing range of motion.

Outcome 3

5) When a person raises their heels off the ground, the foot acts like
a lever.
(a) Typically we consider the foot as a second class lever, but
if we treat the ankle bone as the fulcrum, the tension in the
calf muscle as the effort, and the normal force from the floor
as the resistance, what class of lever is this system?
(b) Calculate the tension applied by the calf muscles ($F_A$)
to lift a person with weight of 637 N.
(c) Calculate the force in the ankle joint between the foot
and the lower leg bones ($F_P$). [Hint: Both the normal force
from the floor and the calf tension point upward. In order for the
foot to be in static equilibrium, the force of the lower leg pushing
down on the foot must cancel out both of those upward forces.]

Backward Design | 235

 (d) Convert your final answers to pounds.

The foot acting as a lever arm. Image Credit:

OpenStax College Physics

6) The head and neck are also a lever system.

(a) State the class of this lever system.
(b) Calculate the force of tension in the neck muscles
($F_M$) to hold the head in the position shown in the diagram.
(c) Calculate the force on the head-neck joint ($F_J$).
(d) Convert your final answers to pounds.

1. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Aug 3, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.42

236 | Backward Design

 The head and neck acting as a lever system.Image
Credit: OpenStax College Physics

Outcome 4

7) Find a value for the kinetic coefficient of friction between ends

of a bone in a synovial joint lubricated by synovial fluid. State your
source.

2. OpenStax, College Physics. OpenStax CNX. Aug 3, 2018 http://cnx.org/

contents/031da8d3-b525-429c-80cf-6c8ed997733a@11.42

Backward Design | 237

 8) If the normal force between bones in the knee is 160 lbs, what is
the kinetic frictional force between the surfaces of the knee bones?
9) A car with 10,000 N weight is sitting on concrete with the
parking brake on,
a) What is the normal force on the car from the concrete?
[Hint: Is the car in static equilibrium?]
b) What is the maximum horizontal force that can be applied
before the car begins to skid? List your sources for the friction
coefficient.
c) After the car begins to skid, how much force is required to
keep it moving?
d) If you apply only 120 N of horizontal force to the
stationary car, what is the static frictional force at that time?

238 | Backward Design

 67. Shifting Reference Frames

1. Relativity of Simultaneity Animation by Acdx [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/

copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Shifting Reference Frames | 239

 • Consider how New Students Learn

◦ Context First
◦ Content Second
◦ Generalization Third

◦ Early and Often Feedback (Flipped)

• Consider Student Preparation

◦ Prepare for Barriers

◦ Set Expectations
◦ Introduce Meta-cognition

• Just Ask: How would you improve the

textbook so that it would be more useful to
you?

◦ Glossary
◦ More Examples and Reinforcement Exercises
◦ Other

240 | Shifting Reference Frames

68. Additional Features
Improving and Leveraging
Digital Literacy

Videos

A YouTube element has been excluded from this version of the

text. You can view it online here:
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/bpsupmat/?p=435

Additional Features Improving and

Leveraging Digital Literacy | 241
GIFs

The Human Femur. Image Credit: Anatomography via Wikimedia

Commons

Personalized Data

Everyday Examples: Landing after a Jump

You naturally tend to bend your knees when landing after

242 | Additional Features Improving and Leveraging Digital Literacy

a jump, rather than keep your knees locked and your legs
rigid. The reason is that rigid legs bring you to an abrupt
stop, but bending your knees allows you to spread the
landing out over a longer time, which we now know
reduces the average force.

The force vs. time graphs show the normal force applied
to a person when landing on one foot after stepping off
from a 0.1 m height as seen in the previous GIF. The graph
on the left was the more rigid leg landing (it didn’t feel
good) and the graph on the right was a bent-knee landing.

Additional Features Improving and Leveraging Digital Literacy | 243

 Notice that the stiff-
legged “hard” landing
nearly doubled the peak
force applied to the body.

Force vs. time data for a

stiff-legged landing (red) and
crouching landing (blue).
Interactive
Simulations

Phet Physics
Buoyancy
Simulation

244 | Additional Features Improving and Leveraging Digital Literacy

Multimedia/Digital Data Acquisition
Activities

Simulation Building
Activities

https://gfycat.com/ Video tracking a projectile

HollowVengefulFlamingo

Numerical Modeling Activities

Numerical simulation of body

temperature vs. time during a cold
weather survival experience

Additional Features Improving and Leveraging Digital Literacy | 245

69. Initial Response

Student-Textbook Interaction

200-level General
GS 104 Question
Physics

Found the book

90% 54%
interesting

Textbook as primary
>50% < 25%
resource

Opened more than

75% < 50%
once per week

40% Read chapters in full 12%

Don’t really use the

5% 25%
book

Community Response

• Mainstream Article
• UCC Marketing
• News-Review
• HECC
• KPIC Interview
• Featured in IJOER

246 | Initial Response

 70. Crowdsource!

1. "bigdata_0" by Open Data Project, NASA is in the Public Domain

Crowdsource! | 247
Engage Students

250+ Edits

Survey Data and Feedback

Solutions and Data

Data adapted from rubber band stress-strain data originally acquired by

Umpqua Community College Students: Brittany Watts, Ashlie DeHart, Hanna
Wicks and Juan Martinez.

248 | Crowdsource!
Images

Photograph of a 1 mm x 3 mm rubber band during stress testing. The band

runs through the slots in the gray weights and the hook attached to the bottom
of the band is just visible through the slot in the lowest group of smaller (0.98
N) weights. The 119 N of force is applying 1.3 x 1013 Pa of stress, causing a
strain of 660 %. Photo credit: Umpqua Community College student Samual
Marsters.

Crowdsource! | 249
Engage the Community

Edits and Feedback

Diagrams

Top: Forces on the head from the neck (black) and on the neck from the head
(red) during rapid forward-back motion of the head. Bottom: Sites of whiplash
injury. Image Credit: This image is a derivative of Whiplash Injury
by BruceBlaus, via Wikimedia Commons

250 | Crowdsource!
Artwork

Engage Colleagues

Artist’s conception of the elastic

OCCA, OER behavior body tissues. “Arm Coil” by
Sasha Lynch.
Symposium, OE
Summit, IJOER

bodyphysicstext@gmail.com

Crowdsource! | 251
71. Original OER Motivation

GS 104 students at Umpqua

Community College

Accessibility

• Free webview and digital

file exports.
• Screen Reader Ready
• Low-cost hard copies
through independent
printers. GS 104 students at Umpqua
Community College

252 | Original OER Motivation

PART V
PHYSICS FROM THE
STUDENT PERSPECTIVE

Project Description

Outline

In groups of two, you will create one chapter of an open textbook

for 100-level non-science majors.
You will have the choice of whether or not your final product is
shared openly. This choice will not affect your grade.
Your chapter will introduce a topic we have covered this term in
the context of a real-life example. You should check out what an
example of such a chapter would look like.
Your work should be in your own words and reflect the way you
personally understand the material being covered.

Details

You will need to include at least one ancillary feature, such as a link
to a relevant video, simulation. These must be linked, or preferably
embedded in the chapter.
You must include at least one image that helps a reader to
visualize the content you are writing about.
You must use at least one diagram to help explain your topic. The
diagram must include a caption and alternative text.

Physics from the Student

Perspective | 253
 You will need to have at least one worked out Example problem.
You will need to have at least one Reinforcement exercise or
question for students to reading the book to answer for themselves.
You will need to provide the answer/solution to this problem to
your instructor, but it will not appear in your chapter.
Any problems, images, diagrams you use must be either your own
or found in the public domain or open source, meaning they can
be used without permission under a creative commons copyright
licence. Wikimedia commons is good place to start. Often
information on government websites sites under public domain. If
you are unsure about a copyright, check with your instructor or a
librarian.

References

All sources of information including must be cited using footnotes,

including ideas, text, images, diagrams, example problems,
solutions, etc. Follow these guidelines to avoid plagarism.
Use the open attribution builder to maintain consistency in your
citations.

Accessibility

Your chapter should follow a standard heading structure. All images

and diagrams should contain alternative text. If colors are important
to understanding an image or diagram, those colors should be black,
blue, pink.

254 | Physics from the Student Perspective

Platform

We will use the Pressbooks platform to create our chapters. The

Pressbooks editor looks like a typical word processor such as
Microsoft Word or google docs and makes embedding videos,
images, and citations really easy with a couple of mouse clicks.
Additionally, pressbooks makes adding alternative text and
captions to images easy.
Equations are more difficult to render in Pressbooks. If you are
interested in learning Latex typesetting code I’ll help with that.
Otherwise use an online program which creates an image of your
equation that you can embed in Pressbooks. The equations can be
converted later (by me).
You should get an invite to our book soon. In the meantime you
can work in another word processor and easily import to
Pressbooks later.

Timeline

Outline (Week 6)

Your group will submit a basic outline/plan of your chapter before

the end of week 6 of the term.

Revision (Week 8)

Your group will go through at least one revision process which

involves meeting with your instructor to discuss a complete rough
draft of your chapter. Working with your instructor, you will apply

Physics from the Student Perspective | 255

the rubric found below to your draft in order to identify strengths
and weaknesses in your draft and prioritize improvement efforts.
This draft will not be graded, but will fulfill the revision requirement
in the rubric. The revision meeting must happen before the end of
week 8.

Peer Feedback (Week 9)

Your group will work with at least one other group to exchange
peer feedback. You will take notes on the feedback you receive and
add brief comments about what changes you make in response to
that feedback. These will be submitted to your instructor to fulfill
the Presented to Peers requirement in the rubric. This must happen
before the end of week 9.

Final Submission (Week 11)

Your group will submit a final completed chapter in electronic

format before the start of week 11.

Project Grading

Your final will be graded according to the following rubric, which

the class developed together.

256 | Physics from the Student Perspective

 Project Rubric

Lacking
Ready for Needs Minor Needs Major
Basic
Inclusion Improvement Improvement
Structure
(4pts) (3pts) (2pts)
(1pt)

Researched Researched
Researched
Topic (> 4 Topic (> 1 No Research
Topic (> 2
content refs) content refs) refs
content refs)
Submitted Submitted No outline
Submitted
outline outline Created
outline
Created Created page
Created
Process page page Did not
page
Presented Did not Presented to
Presented
to peers Presented to peers (no
to peers
(submit peers (no notes)
(submit
notes) notes) No
notes)
Revision No Revision (no
Revision
(submit Revision (no notes)
(no notes)
notes) notes)

No textual
errors < 7 textual > 7 textual
and equation and equation
No equation errors errors > 2 content
Accuracy
errors errors
No No content < 2 content
content errors errors
errors

Relevant
Image
Relevant Irrelevant
Image Image
Neat, No Image
Helpful
Helpful Not Helpful
Diagram No Diagram
Effort Diagram Diagram
Relevant No Video
Relevant Irrelevant
Videos No
Videos Video
Complete, References
Complete Missing
correctly
References References
formatted
references

Relevant
Not Relevant
Relevant
100-level
appropriate Not Relevant
Broken into
Broken broken into
Example multiple
into multiple Incorrect
steps
multiple steps Solution
Correct
steps Correct
Solution
Correct Solution
Solution

Physics from the Student Perspective | 257

 Relevant
Relevant Not Relevant
100-level Incorrect
Exercise
appropriate Correct Correct Solution
Correct Solution Solution
Solution

258 | Physics from the Student Perspective

Glossary
1st Law of Thermodynamics

Any change in the internal energy of a system must in the

process of exchanging heat, doing work, or both.

3rd class lever

a lever with the effort between the load and the fulcrum.

Achilles tendon

a tough band of fibrous tissue that connects the calf muscles to

the heel bone

Archimedes’ Principle

The upward buoyant force that is exerted on a body immersed

in a fluid, whether fully or partially submerged, is equal to the
weight of the fluid being displaced by the body

BMI

Body Mass Index (BMI) is a person’s weight in kilograms divided

by the square of height in meters. BMI can be used to screen for
weight categories that may lead to health problems but it is not
diagnostic of the body fatness or health of an individual

Barriers

Objects, events, or conditions that hinder access.

Bloom’s Taxonomy

Blooms Taxonomy

Glossary | 259
Bloom’s Taxonomy

A framework for categorizing educational goals.

Carnot efficiency

the maximum theoretical efficiency that a heat engine could

achieve when operating between two set temperatures, as
permitted by the Second Law of Thermodynamics

Cognition

The mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and

understanding through thought, experience, and the senses

Computer modeling

using a computer program that is designed to simulate what

might or what did happen in a situation

Empirical models

mathematical explanation of the relation between measured

values that is used for making predictions

Energy

A quantity representing the capacity of an object or system to

do work.

Energy pathway

the process of transferring chemical potential energy stored in

food to useful work and thermal energy

Entropy

A measure of energy dispersion in a system.

260 | Glossary
Feedback

1) information about reactions to a product, a person's

performance of a task, etc. which is used as a basis for
improvement.
2) the modification or control of a process or system by its
results or effects, e.g., in a biochemical pathway or behavioral
response

Glossary

The glossary feature includes rollover definition capability.

Green House Gas Effect

Elevation of Earth's temperature relative to the atmosphere-

free condition caused differential absorption of UV, visible, and
IR light by specific gases and particles present in the
atmosphere.

Heat

An amount of thermal energy transferred due to a difference in

temperature.

Heat death

the degradation of energy quality associated with a

spontaneous processes.

Hyperthermia

The condition of having a body temperature well above the

normal range.

Isolated system

a system for which neither thermal energy or particles are

allowed to leave or enter.

Glossary | 261
Latent heat

the thermal energy required to change the phase of a substance

(or released by the substance when it changes phase)

Learning management system

a software application for the administration, documentation,

tracking, reporting, and delivery of educational courses,
training programs, or learning and development programs

Melting

changing phase from solid to liquid.

Metacognition

awareness and understanding of one's own thought processes

Multitasking

Splitting attention between more than one task at a time.

Natural convection

Transfer of heat due to fluid movement caused by thermal

expansion of the fluid

Newton

the SI unit of force. It is equal to the force that would give a

mass of one kilogram an acceleration of one meter per second
per second

Newton’s Law of Cooling

Observation that the rate of change of the temperature of an

object is proportional to the difference between its own
temperature and the environmental temperature

262 | Glossary
Newtons

Physical models

mechanistic explanation of how a physical system works

Relative humidity

a measure of how many water molecules are in the vapor phase

relative to the maximum number that could possibly be in the
vapor phase at at a given temperature. A relative humidity of
100% means that no more water molecules can be added to the
vapor phase.

Spontaneous process

a process which occurs naturally on its own, without the need

for work to be done in forcing it to happen.

Stephan-Boltzmann Law

The total radiant heat energy emitted from a surface is

proportional to the fourth power of its absolute temperature.

Study strategy

a thoughtful and specific process for self-directed learning.

Systematic errors

an error having a nonzero mean (average), so that its effect

is not reduced when many observations are averaged. Usually
occurring because
there is something wrong with the instrument or how it is used.

Thermal power

rate at which chemical potential energy is converted to thermal

energy by the body, batteries, or heat engines. Also, rate at

Glossary | 263
 which thermal energy is converted to electrical energy by a
thermal power plant.

Universal Law of Gravitation

every particle attracts every other particle in the universe with

a force which is directly proportional to the product of their
masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance
between their centers

Work

A quantity representing the effect of applying a force to an

object or system while it moves some distance.

absolute zero

A lower limit of temperature corresponding to the minimum

possible average kinetic energy of atoms and molecules.

acceleration

the change in velocity per unit time, the slope of a velocity vs.
time graph

acceleration due to gravity

the rate at which an object changes velocity when gravity is the

only force acting on the object

accurate

refers to the closeness of a measured value to a standard or

known value

air resistance

a force acting opposite to the relative motion of any object

moving with respect to a surrounding fluid

264 | Glossary
analyze

examine methodically and in detail the constitution or

structure of information for purposes of explanation and
interpretation

apparent weigh

apparent weight

the reading on a scale that is used to measure the weight of an

object that is submerged in a fluid

approximation

a rough value obtained without making a measurement by using

prior knowledge and assumptions.

assumption

ignoring some compilation of the in order to simplify the

analysis or proceed even though information is lacking

at rest

not moving

average speed

average rate at which distance was traversed, equal to total

distance traveled within a time interval, divided by the time
interval

average velocity

the average of all instantaneous velocities that occurred within

a certain time interval, equal to the displacement divided by the
time interval

Glossary | 265
bedrock

hard rock exposed or buried at the earth's surface

biased

prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group

compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair
or inaccurate.

bipedal

(of an animal) using only two legs for walking

buoyant force

the upward force exerted by any fluid upon a body placed in it

buoyant force

cantilevered

any rigid structure projecting from a support, especially one

in which the projection is great in relation to the depth of the
structure

center of gravity

a point at which the force of gravity on body or system (weight)

may be considered to act. In uniform gravity it is the same as
the center of mass.

center of mass

a point representing the mean (average) position of the matter

in a body or system

266 | Glossary
chain-link method

a specific method for unit conversion that is designed to aid in

reducing mistakes.

coefficient of friction

compression

reduction in size caused by application of compressive forces

(opposing forces applied inward to the object).

conclusion

a judgment or decision reached by reasoning and logic based on

results provided by analysis of data

condensation

Process of vapor changing phase into a liquid.

constant

not changing, having the same value within a specified interval

of time, space, or other physical variable

convection cell

cyclic fluid flow caused by natural convection

conversion factor

a number that relates two different units of measure for the

same quantity and allows conversion between the two units

crust

the relatively thin layer of rock that makes up the outermost

solid shell of our planet

Glossary | 267
data

collection of values measured during an experiment

density

relation between the amount of a material and the space it takes

up, calculated as mass divided by volume.

derivation

a sequence of steps, logical, mathematical, or computational,

combining one or more results to obtain another result

dew

water that condenses on cool surfaces at night, when

decreasing temperature forces humidity to 100% or higher

displaced

pushed out of original position, typically in reference to fluid

pushed out of the way by an object placed in the fluid, or an
object being displaced from its equilibrium position

displacement

change in position, typically in reference to a change away from

an equilibrium position or a change occurring over a specified
time interval

displacement method

method for determining the volume of an object by measuring

how much water it displaces

effort

referring to a lever system, the force applied in order to hold or

lift the load

268 | Glossary
elastic region

the range of values for stress and strain values over which a
material returns to its original shape after deformation

equilibrium

a state of having no unbalanced forces or torques

final velocity

the value of velocity at the end of the time interval over which
motion is being analyzed

force

any interaction that causes objects with mass to change speed

and/or direction of motion, except when balanced by other
forces. We experience forces as pushes and pulls.

force of gravity

attraction between two objects due to their mass as described

by Newton's Universal Law of Gravitation

forced convection

transfer of heat due to the movement of fluid molecules driven

by external factors other than thermal expansion.

free body diagram

a graphical illustration used to visualize the forces applied to an

object

friction

a force that acts on surfaces in opposition to sliding motion

between the surfaces

Glossary | 269
fulcrum

the point on which a lever rests or is supported and on which it

pivots

gravity passes

heat capacity

The amount of energy required to raise the temperature of an

object by one temperature unit.

histogram

A graph of relating how often a value falls within a certain range.

hydrostatic weighing

a technique for measuring the mass per unit volume of a living

person's body. It is a direct application of Archimedes' principle,
that an object displaces its own volume of water

hypothermia

The condition of having a body temperature well below the

normal range.

hypothesis

a proposed explanation made on the basis evidence that can be

supported or refuted by the result of experimentation

inelastic collision

a collision for which kinetic energy is not conserved

irreversible

a process that is not a reversible process in which the system

270 | Glossary
 and environment can be restored to exactly the same initial
states that they were in before the process

kelvin

SI unit of temperature

kinetic friction

a force that resists the sliding motion between two surfaces

latent heat of fusion

the thermal energy required to melt a unit mass of a substance

latent heat of vaporization

Thermal energy input required to change a unit mass of liquid

into vapor.

law

a statement, usually in the form of a mathematical equation,

that summarizes, but not explains, the results of repeated
experiments or observations that describe some aspect of the
natural, usually within a certain range of application.

lever

a rigid structure rotating on a pivot and acting on a load, used

multiply the effect of an applied effort (force) or enhance the
range of motion

lever classes

There are three types or classes of levers, according to where

the load and effort are located with respect to the fulcrum

Glossary | 271
linear thermal expansion coefficient

Material property that relates the fractional change in length

experienced by an object due to a unit change in temperature.

magnitude

the size or extent of a vector quantity, regardless of direction

mass

a measurement of the amount of matter in an object made by

determining its resistance to changes in motion (inertial mass)
or the force of gravity applied to it by another known mass from
a known distance (gravitational mass). The gravitational mass
and an inertial mass appear equal.

measurement error

Measurement Error (also called Observational Error) is the

difference between a measured quantity and its true value. It
includes random error (naturally occurring errors that are to be
expected with any experiment) and systematic error (caused by
a mis-calibrated instrument that affects all measurements)

measurement units

a unit of measurement is a definite magnitude of a quantity,

defined and adopted by convention or by law, that is used as
a standard for measurement of the same kind of quantity. Any
other quantity of that kind can be expressed as a multiple of the
unit of measurement.

metastable equilibrium

a state in which a slight disturbance results in a restoring force

that maintains stability, but a sufficiently large disturbance
moves the system into an unstable region (or different
metastable region)

272 | Glossary
method of significant figures

using the number of digits provided in a measurement value to

indicate the measurement uncertainty

metric prefix

a unit prefix that precedes a basic unit of measure to indicate a

multiple or fraction of the unit

model

a representation of something that is often too difficult (or

impossible) to observe or display directly

nervous system

the network of nerve cells and fibers which transmits nerve

impulses between parts of the body

net force

the total amount of remaining unbalanced force on an object

net torque

remaining unbalanced torque on an object

non-conservative forces

forces that do non-conservative work, which is work that does

not transfer energy only among kinetic and potential forms
(mechanical energy)

normal force

the outward force supplied by an object in response to being

compressed from opposite directions, typically in reference to
solid objects.

Glossary | 273
null hypothesis

default position that there is no relation between two measured

quantities

order of magnitude

designating which power of 10 (e.g. 1,10,100,100)

order of magnitude estimation

the process of approximating a value to obtain a result you

expect to at least be within one order of magnitude of the
correct answer.

origin

location where the position is zero

perpendicular

at an angle of 90° to a given line, plane, or surface

pivot

the central point, pin, or shaft on which a mechanism turns or

oscillates

pounds

a unit of force equal to 4.44822 Newtons, or the the weight of a

0.4536 kg mass on Earth's surface

precision

refers to the closeness of two or more measurements to each

other

274 | Glossary
preponderance

the quality or fact of being greater in number, quantity, or

importance

principle

principles summarize rules created and followed by scientists

when formulating hypotheses, designing experiments,
analyzing results.

qualitative

describing what happens, but not how much happens

quantitative

describing what and how much happens

radians

radians (rads)

a unit of angle, equal to an angle at the center of a circle that

produces an arc length equal to the radius

random error

random errors are fluctuations (in both directions) in the

measured data due to the precision limitations of the
measurement device. Random errors usually result from the
experimenter's inability to take the same measurement in
exactly the same way to get exact the same number

reactive force

a type of force supplied by an object in response to application

of a different force on the object. Friction is a reactive force

Glossary | 275
resistance

the force working against the rotation of a lever that would be

caused by the effort

restoring force

a force that tends to move a system back toward the

equilibrium position

results

information acquired by analyzing data

rotational equilibrium

a state of having not net torque and no change in rotational

motion

rupture

the sudden and complete failure of a material under stress

scientific method

a method of procedure that has characterized natural science

since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation,
measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing,
and modification of hypotheses

scientific notation

a way of writing very large or very small numbers. A number is

written in scientific notation when a number between 1 and 10
is multiplied by a power of 10.

significant figures

each of the digits of a number that are used to express it to

276 | Glossary
 the required degree of accuracy, starting from the first nonzero
digit

skinfold method

method for measuring body fat percentage using specially

designed calipers to measure the thickness of skinfolds that are
pinched from several specific locations on the body as inputs to
empirical equations

specific gravity

the ratio of the density of a substance to the density of a

standard, usually water for a liquid or solid, and air for a gas

specific heat

A material property that determines the amount of energy

required to raise the temperature one mass unit of the material
by one temperature unit.

stability

a measure of the displacement from equilibrium an object can

experience and still move back toward equilibrium

stable equilibrium

a state in which a body tends to return to its original position

after being disturbed

standard scientific (SI) units

a system of physical units ( SI units ) based on the meter,

kilogram, second, ampere, kelvin, candela, and mole

static equilibrium

the state being in equilibrium (no unbalanced forces or torques)

and also having no motion

Glossary | 277
static friction

a force that resists the tenancy of surfaces to slide across one

another due to a force(s) being applied to one or both of the
surfaces

strain

the measure of the relative deformation of the material

stress

a physical quantity that expresses the internal forces that

neighboring particles of material exert on each other

support base

region defined by lines connecting points of contact with the

supporting surface

tension

the force that is provided by an object in response to being

pulled tight by forces acting from opposite ends, typically in
reference to a rope, cable or wire

test conditions

an item or event of a component or system that could be

verified by one or more test cases, e.g., a function, transaction,
feature, quality, attribute, or structural element

theory

an explanation of an aspect of the natural world that can be

repeatedly tested and verified in accordance with the scientific
method using accepted standard protocols

278 | Glossary
thermal equilibrium

a two systems are in thermal equilibrium when they do not

exchange heat, which means they must be at the same
temperature

thermal expansion

The increase change in volume of an object resulting from a

change in temperature.

thermal radiation

Electromagnetic radiation spontaneously emitted by all objects

with temperature above absolute zero.

thermometer

a device that measures temperature

tipping point

the point at which an object is displaced from a region of stable

equilibrium

torque

the result of a force applied to an object in such a way that

the object would change its rotational speed, except when the
torque is balanced by other torques

torques

translational motion

motion by which a body shifts from one point in space to

another (up-down, back-forth, left-right)

Glossary | 279
uncertainty

Amount by which a measured, calculated, or approximated

value could be different from the actual value

under water weight

apparent weight when submerged in water

uniformly

in a way that is the same in all cases, across a defined set of

space and times

unit analysis

act of ensuring that the units resulting from a calculation match

the type of quantity calculated.

unstable equilibrium

a state of equilibrium such that when the body is slightly

displaced it departs further from the original position

vectors

a quantity having direction as well as magnitude

velocity

a quantity of speed with a defined direction, the change in

speed per unit time, the slope of the position vs. time graph

volume

a quantity of space, such as the volume within a box or the

volume taken up by an object.

280 | Glossary
weight

the force of gravity on on object, typically in reference to the

force of gravity caused by Earth or another celestial body

wind chill effect

Increase in rate of heat loss from objects that are warmer than
air caused by the flow of air across the object surface.

work-energy principle

the change in kinetic energy of an object or system is equal to

the net work done on the object or system

Glossary | 281