Science of the Gravitron! Scitech at the Perth Royal Show #physics #science #education)

So that's me and I'm clearly questioning my life choices. Reminded of the giant ice cream I had for lunch. Contemplating the unbreakable laws of physics that govern the universe and the force of gravity. And how I don't think that's going to stop my lunch from coming back up. So how did I get here? We're gonna have to go back to the start. Usually on Toy Teardown I'd be pulling apart a toy and seeing how it works but today I'm going to be exploring the science of something much much bigger. I want to answer a physics question that's been bugging me for years. How does the Gravitron make you stick to the wall? Gravitron! What do you think happens inside the Gravitron? From my understanding you get stuck to the wall and you can't move. The Gravitron will spin really fast. And then you got stuck in one place. It was very interesting. Yeah. I couldn't understand how it all worked. Yeah. What direction do you think the force is coming from? Um, the centre and out. I don't know, from below? Pushing you against the wall it feels like you're kind of tilting sideways. Or it's to push it back. So everyone seems to say something similar about the Gravitron. You get forced backwards, you stick to the wall and you can't move. So I'm super excited to try it out myself after I have my lunch. Thank you. Alright, let's go! Finally, time to get on the Gravitron. Feeling a little nervous. And here we go. Alright, we're spinning and I'm kind of enjoying it. I'm feeling a lot of like force backwards. Moving is weird. Like I am stuck to the wall. I have to do this for science but I'm starting to question my decisions. How long have I been on here for? Time to get off now. Alright, it's over. Okay, I just need a second. Nice and easy. Alright, maybe another snack will help. Okay, so no matter how many times I went on the Gravitron, I felt the same thing. Being pushed outwards. Even the fairy floss was telling me that. But something was still missing. And then it clicked. Even though it feels like the Gravitron is pushing you outwards, it's actually a force inwards toward the centre. I know, right? Pretty shocking, huh? I mean, the fairy floss was good. But I'm still hungry for answers. Time to explore Newton's laws of motion. Newton's first law, inertia. Inertia is when things that are at rest stay at rest and things that are in motion will remain in motion unless they're affected by another force. Kind of like when a train speeds off and you almost stack it. Or when you might lose your sunnies on a rollercoaster. Newton's second law, force equals mass times acceleration. Inflatable hammer, easy to lift, not the right tool. The more heavy something is, or massive something is, it requires more force to change its motion. Newton's third law, action and reaction. Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. When you push, you get pushed back. So now we know how the laws of motion work, but what is that feeling you get on a gravitron? So people call that feeling centrifugal force, only it's not really a force. Now, the real force at work is called centripetal force. I like to think of it like this. Imagine you're getting a dizzy whizzy and the person lets you go. If it was a force outward, this is the direction you would fly. Looks super weird, right? And it breaks the laws of motion. This is the direction you go. So the only force is actually pulling you inward. It's the same thing that happens in a car. Are we there yet? Take a sharp corner and it feels like your body is being pushed up against the door, but it's not. It's just your body wanting to move in a straight line and the car door is actually pushing you inward, squashing you up against it. So why do you feel stuck to the wall in the gravitron? It's not some kind of magic or fake gravity or anything like that. It's centripetal force. It's the walls pushing on you, your body's friction up against that wall and the reason you feel stuck there is your body's inertia. Sometimes science can feel a little bit confusing in the beginning, but if you understand these laws of physics, you can build really cool things like rollercoaster rides and amusement rides and you can feel like you're defying gravity.