Hovercraft

Today in class we rode hovercrafts across the gym floor. If you have never been given the opportunity to ride one it is almost like floating on a cloud. In comparison to other moving objects such as a sled or a skateboard, the hovercraft moves at a constant speed, this is particularly due to the fact that it has zero friction. Once the individual pushing the hovercraft lets go, it continues to move at that same speed until someone stops it. An interesting fact that I learned while pushing and stoping the hovercraft was that some things resist changes in its state of motion, this is a result of its mass. The people with more mass have more inertia; therefore, the hovercraft was harder to start and stop. Objects that contain more mass have a greater tendency to resist change in motion. Anther thing I learned was that the hovercraft only has a net force of zero when it is stopped and when it is moving at a constant velocity. While the hovercraft was stopped it had no forces acting on in to move. Likewise, when the hovercraft was moving at a constant velocity there was an equal amount of newtons on both sides of the hovercraft causing it to move and not slow down. For any object with a net force of zero it is also in a state of equilibrium, this is because it's acceleration is 0 and there is an equal balance of newtons pushing on the object on both sides. Based on this lab, acceleration depended on the person putting force on the hovercraft in order to make it move.