Related papers: The weight of a falling chain, revisited
This work investigates the dynamics of a one-dimensional homogeneous harmonic chain on a horizontal table. One end is anchored to a wall, the other (free) end is pulled by external force. A Green's function is derived to calculate the…
We studied an interesting experiment that showed a half-buried chopstick lifting a full bottle of granules off the table. In Janssen theory, the friction force provided by the container wall helps alleviate the weight of the granules. How…
The thermally assisted detachment of a self-avoiding polymer chain from an adhesive surface by an external force applied to one of the chain ends is investigated. We perform our study in the "fixed height" statistical ensemble where one…
We consider the rupture dynamics of a homopolymer chain pulled at one end at a constant loading rate r. Compared to single bond breaking, the existence of the chain introduces two new aspects into rupture dynamics: the non-Markovian aspect…
The dynamics of a simple pencil with a tip laid on a rough table and set free to fall under the action of gravity is scrutinized as a pedagogic case study. The full inquiry is anticipated by a review of three other simplified movements…
The fascinating and anomalous behaviour of a chain that instead of falling straight down under gravity, first rises and then falls, acquiring a steady shape in space that resembles a fountain's sprinkle, has recently attracted both popular…
In this paper we investigate the discrete version of the classical hanging chain problem. We generalize the problem, by allowing for arbitrary mass and length of each link. We show that the shape of the chain can be obtained by solving a…
A small and light polystyrene ball is released without initial speed from a certain height above the floor. Then, it falls on air. The main responsible for the friction force against the movement is the wake of successive air vortices which…
We investigate the gravity driven rapid failure of a granular step composed of non-cohesive steel beads. The step is initially held together with electromagnets, and released when the current is switched off. We visualize the surface and…
Paper strips, e.g. confetti, descending to the floor begin to rotate around the horizontal axis after a short time. This slows down the vertical velocity compared to free fall and adds a horizontal velocity component. The frequency of…
When grains are added to a cylinder, the weight at the bottom is smaller than the total weight of the column, which is partially supported by the lateral walls through wall/grain frictional forces. This is known as the Janssen effect. Via a…
The quantum version of the free fall problem is a topic often skipped in undergraduate quantum mechanics courses because its discussion usually requires wavepackets built on the Airy functions -- a difficult computation. Here, on the…
Deformations of heavy elastic cylinders with their axis in the direction of earth's gravity field are investigated. The specimens, made of polyacrylamide hydrogels, are attached from their top circular cross section to a rigid plate. An…
The hanging chain is a very instructive system for demonstrating more advanced methods and ideas for the analysis of normal modes of one-dimensional systems, beyond the standard ordinary (horizontal) string. Accordingly, the normal modes of…
The gravitational Poynting vector provides a mechanism for the transfer of gravitational energy to a system of falling objects. In the following we will show that the gravitational poynting vector together with the electromagnetic Poynting…
Let $\s^1$ be a circle in Euclidean plane. We consider the problem of finding the shape of a planar curve which is an extremal of the potential energy that measures the distance to $\s^1$. We describe the shape of these curves…
In classical physics, calculating the slack of a hanging chain is a problem that has attracted interest. This study aims to solve this problem through experiment and theory. When the length and distance of both the ends of a hanging chain…
Linearized gravity is considered as an ordinary gauge field theory. This implies the need for gauge fixing in order to have well defined propagators. Only after having achieved this, the most general mass term is added. The aim of this…
Neste artigo discutimos uma nova demonstracao experimental da independencia das propriedades dos corpos (massa, composicao quimica, forma, etc.) na queda livre. Eh uma das experiencias mais simples, porem uma das mais importantes da…
In this paper we review the theory of the ``falling chimney'', which deals with the breaking in mid-air of tall structures, when they fall to the ground. We show that these ruptures can be caused by either shear forces, typically developing…