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Objectives - You Need To Balance Two Forks With A Toothpick in A Glass Without Water
Objectives - You Need To Balance Two Forks With A Toothpick in A Glass Without Water
Objectives – You need to balance two forks with a toothpick in a glass without water.
Materials Used:
• Two Forks.
• Any kind of Glass
• One toothpick
• Lighter
Procedure:
First, you need to bind these two forks together tightly and make sure it will not separate
after you bind them.
Second, punch the toothpick in the middle of the binded fork and make sure it is steady
already.
Third, balance the binded fork and toothpick in a glass until you successfully manage to
balance it.
Fourth, burn the tip of the tooth pick until it reaches the point of the glass.
And Voila!
You just made a balanced fork with toothpick in a glass.
2 guided questions:
Conclusion:
What are the physics behind the two forks and a toothpick balanced on a glass-edge
trick?
There is a lot of physics going on here, as with anything. The most complicated physics
is what’s going on microscopically while the skewer burns. Slightly less complicated are
the equations governing the stress across the skewer, flexing it under the weight of the
forks. Equally complicated would be the mechanisms of friction and pressure which act
to lock the fork tines and the end of the skewer together without slipping, locking the
three objects into one solid aggregate object, and which keeps said object from slipping
along the rim of the glass and falling into it.
The simplest mechanism here is gravity. Although we don’t know why gravity works, we
do know it how it works, and that it accelerates everything (which is at the same
distance from the attracting body) equally. As a result, for considerations of average
acceleration under gravity, all objects can be replaced by a point mass located at the
object’s center of mass (which, in this case, happens to be the part of the skewer
directly above the rim of the glass). Because gravity pulls all parts of the object down
equally, it does not rotate. Because the glass pushes up on the center of mass (which is
the point around which rotating objects rotate), it imparts no rotational moment and,
again, the object does not rotate. Since the glass pushes the object up with the exact
force gravity pulls it down, it neither falls nor rises. All forces are in balance.
Generalization: Real life application
This fork-skewer system no more defies gravity than I do by sitting in this chair.