Here is a nice 1-D kinematics problem disguised in a musical (drumming) context. We think the novel perspective of the problem can enliven the study of the basic equations that describe motion under constant acceleration.
References
1.
Another example of 1-D kinematics in novel circumstances is the effect of the slowing of Earth's rotation. Earth's rotation is slowing at approximately 1.7 ms/day/century. At the end of a century, by how many seconds will a clock that has not slowed at this rate differ from a clock that did slow at 1.7 ms/day/century?
3.
We thank Mary R. Holbrow for providing the musical notation used in Fig. 1.
4.
An audio clip can be found as [supplementary material] available under the “References” tab at TPT Online, http://dx.doi.org/10.1119/1.4947149 .
5.
Some background and a more thorough analysis of these and related questions can be found in the MIT master's thesis at http://web.media.mit.edu/∼holbrow/mas/CharlesHolbrow_MAS_Thesis.pdf.
© 2016 American Association of Physics Teachers.
2016
American Association of Physics Teachers
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