How to Use Physics to Escape an Ice Bowl

I don’t know Who invented this crazy challenge, but the idea is to put someone in a bowl of carved ice and see if they can get out. Check it out! The bowl is shaped like the inside of a sphere, so the higher you go, the more intense it becomes. If you think icy sidewalks are slippery, try climbing up icy sidewalks.

What do you do when faced with this kind of problem? Of course, you create a physics model. We’ll start by modeling how people walk on level ground, then we’ll apply it to a slippery slope. There are actually three possible escape plans, and I’ve used this model to generate animations so you can see how they work. So, first things:

How do people move?

When you walk from your front door to the mailbox, you probably don’t think about the mechanics involved. You solved that problem when you were a kid, right? But that’s what scientists do: We ask questions no one has ever wondered about.

Speaking of which, have you ever wondered why snow is slippery? Believe it or not, we don’t know. The simple reason for this is that there is a thin, water-like layer on its surface. But Why? That liquid film exists even below the freezing point. Physicists and chemists have been debating about this for centuries.

Anyway, to start moving, there has to be a force in the direction of motion. This is because changing speed is a type of acceleration, and Newton’s second law states that the total force acting on an object is equal to the product of its mass and its acceleration (F = Ma). If there is an acceleration, there must also be a net force.

So what is the force that is driving you forward? Well, when you take a step and push off with your back foot, your muscles are applying a backward force onto the Earth. And Newton’s third law says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that the Earth exerts an influence Ahead-The force directed back toward you is what we call friction force.

The magnitude of this friction force depends on two things: (1) the specific material in contact, which is captured in a coefficient (μ)—usually a number between 0 and 1, with lower values ​​being more slippery, less fun. and (2) how hard these surfaces are pushed together, what we call the normal force (n).

Normal force is a strange concept for people new to physics, so let me explain. General This means perpendicular to the contact surface. It is an upward pushing force that prevents you from falling through the floor under the force of gravity. If you are standing on level ground, these two forces will be equal and opposite, canceling each other out, so there will be no vertical acceleration.

One final note: There are two types of friction coefficients. One is where you have two stationary objects, like a beer mug on a bar, and you want to know how much force you can apply before you can move it. that limit is set steady friction coefficient (μ_S).

Then, when the bartender slides your mug down the bar, frictional resistance – which determines how far it will go – is determined by kinetic friction coefficient (μ_Of). This is usually low, as it is easier to keep something running than to keep it running.

So now we can measure the static (F_F.S) and kinetic (F_FK) Friction Force: