5 Sep
2011
5 Sep
'11
7:38 p.m.
John Sweeney wrote:
I get people to spin fast with a buzz-step by themselves first -
they never fall over even though no-one else is holding them up. If
they do the same thing when joined with a partner then the pressure
is low.
That's because a single person spins around in place. Around an axis
that is close to running through their center of gravity. Two people
instead spin around an axis (nearly) through their combined center of
gravity.
When you spin alone these forces still exist, but they are internal to
you and you don't notice them. They are also less, because there's
less of you and because you're closer to the center of rotation.
Jeff