PIRA 1F20.25 Measuring
Inertia: Smashing Concrete Blocks on top of Chest
The Photo below shows the demonstration used by the University of Texas at
Austin.
Instructions / Notes:
Demonstration includes 2 heavy concrete blocks, three boards with nails, sledge hammer & a face shield.
This demonstration requires a faculty volunteer and two demo staff members, one to wield the hammer and the other to catch broken concrete.
The faculty member lays down on two of our smaller nail boards.
Then a third nail board is placed on his or her chest.
The face shield is placed over the faculty member's neck.
Two concrete blocks are carefully balanced onto the top nail board.
Very soon there after, a senior demo staff person will then stand on a stablestool - and - smashes the stacked blocks dead center with the sledge hammer.
A second demo staff person should be standing near the front of the table, ready to catch any tumbling block fragments.
By courtesy of the University of Minnesota, a drawing dating to the early days of the internet.
The video below is of the demonstration in actual use at the University of Texas at Austin.
Last Updated 02/18 - University of Texas at Austin Physics Dept.
- All Rights Reserved.
