Here are a few ideas about project topics. See me for more information if any of them look interesting; alternately, suggest your own.

▪Analyze tennis ball-racquet collisions (in volleys, for example): how does the location of the collision on the racquet affect the bounce. Many other tennis-related projects are possible.

▪Analyze a dive (or other complicated athletic maneuver: track body parts before the dive and while in the air. Analyze moment of inertia, angular momentum, and torque/forces on takeoff.

▪Rope squirter: analyze the motion (Wonderlab on 4th Street has one of these; I have a few videos).

▪Chain of collisions: surprising things happen when a sequence of collisions occurs between bodies of decreasing mass: analyze energy transfer in a chain of collisions.

▪Effect of surface texture on motion through the air (motion of a wiffle ball): how does the orientation of the ball affect the motion?

▪Three dimensional tracking of a moving object: set up two cameras and figure out how to triangulate the position.

▪Optimal strategy for a basketball free throw: analyze successful and unsuccessful shots; simulate in software.

▪Driven Harmonic Oscillator (breaking stuff with vibrations? the Mythbusters couldn't get this to work)

▪Measuring power while accelerating a bicycle in different gears

Here are some examples from last year:

▪Analyzing jumps of a ballet dancer: found forces on takeoff and landing.

▪Optimizing power while climbing a steep hill on a bicycle

▪Efficiecy of various simple machines lifting a weight

▪Vibrations of a rubber band

▪Diffusion of dye in a gel

Guidelines

An important part of this course are the projects that will be carried out by teams of students (three or four would be a good number).

Each project should involve as many of the following as possible:

1.Preparing a project proposal

2.Calculations/Simulations of expected behavior

3.Experimental design (what are you going to measure? how are you going to measure it?) and (optionally) construction

4.Data-taking

5.Data-analysis

The labs we carried out early in the semester will give you an acquaintance with the tools (simulation, data-taking and analysis, presentation) needed for the projects.

Important!: Get organized and start work on defining a project and team as soon as possible. Our goal is to have some data by Thanksgiving break. You are free to design your own project but you need my approval. You will be given help and guidance throughout, but ultimately the success of your project depends on you and your team mates.

Presentations: Each group is expected to make a final presentation to the class the last week of the semester.