Hovercraft Lab

I was unable to ride the hovercraft, but the students who were able to ride it said that it was strange how well the hovercraft retained the motion of the initial push. If someone was pushed unevenly, the rider would spin until they stopped, or an outside force acted upon them to stop spinning. A hovercraft allows the rider to experience being in a relatively frictionless environment. Unlike a skateboard, or sled, in order to stop, someone had to physically stop the rider, rather than relying on friction to slow the hovercraft down.

When the rider had equilibrium, it basically meant that they were either in a constant state of velocity (not accelerating forwards or backwards), or they were at rest. Inertia was shown though this exercise when it was difficult for the starter or stopper to push the hovercraft. The hovercraft did not want to switch from being at rest to being in motion, and vice versa. When the hovercraft was at equilibrium, it had a net force of 0N, meaning it was neither being pushed or pulled. When the hovercraft was either being stopped or started, it had a net force higher than 0, because it was not at a state of equilibrium.

In this lab, the acceleration seemed to depend on how much the stopper pushed (to accelerate backwards in order to stop) and how much the starter pushed (to accelerate forwards in order to move).

The hovercraft had constant velocity after the starter pushed them. The net force was at 0N, and moving, there for both having equilibrium and constant velocity.

Depending on how much mass the person had, they were either harder or easier to stop. It was shown that the higher the mass of someone, the harder it was for them to start moving, or to stop. Mass is directly related to inertia, meaning the higher mass an object has, the harder it will be to change from being at rest to not, and vice versa.