Tension with Toreadors; When Things Go Terribly Wrong.

We've encountered several kinds of problems in Physics.

First, we learned that on Earth, one's weight (mass times acceleration due to gravity) is always always always present and always always always straight down. Yet in many of the problems we've tackled, we dealt with objects at rest. That's because when a block rests on a table, a car rests on the ground, or when a croissant rests at the top of the Eiffel Tower, a normal force is exerted on the object--with its vertical component equal in magnitude, opposite in direction to its weight, thus keeping the object at rest.

More recently, in our rotation unit, we were presented with a problem in which the object at rest happened to be a person suspended in the air. Instead of normal force opposing weight, the force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction was friction. I seem to recall failing that quiz, but really, that wasn't my point.

Today I encountered another potential physics problem. One where instead of normal force or friction opposing weight, four tensions do. At rest, the horse is supported in the air by the tensions affixed from the four corners.

Also worth mentioning is that the object is in stable equilibrium. When a force disrupts the horse, it will quickly return back (without any outside help) into a state of zero movement. This is demonstrated in our clip today:





If you're looking for an explanation for the sound effects, I can't say that I understand them either. Sorry.




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Somewhere down the line, we will study about electricity. Until then, the random tendency of all the lights in my friend's house to sporadically turn off without any reason or warning remains unexplainable:






This is what happens when things go terribly wrong.


I want my minute and a half of life back.