Physics of Follow Through Background Research

Joe Hest There is some information that provides a background to the question: What is the effect of stopping an object at the moment of impact versus following through? This information includes things like what rules of the universe apply and what prior work on this topic has been done. Also, what are any ethical questions, norms, and bias about the experiment? Also, are there any Conservation laws or theories that affect this topic. There are two rules of the universe that might apply to this project. The first rule is rhythm. This rule says that in a pendulum, swing is in everything. The measure of the swing to the right is the measure of the swing to the left because rhythm compensates. This rule applies to follow through because the amount of follow through is affected by the rhythm of the pendulum. So, if the rhythm is interrupted, the follow through will change. Another rule that might fit this topic is cause and effect. This rule says that every cause has its effect and every effect has its cause. The topic of follow through is related to cause and effect because the momentum is a cause that will have an effect on follow through. Prior work on this topic has mostly been about sports. For example, what is the follow through when a pitcher throws a ball, a football player throws a football, or a golfer hits a golf ball. A man named Robert Adair studied the physics of baseball. A lot of his book is about how the body moves when you throw a pitch or hit a baseball. He looked at how players are trained to move a certain way to improve how they throw or hit. Theodore Jorgensen studied the physics of golf. One thing he writes about is the use of force when swinging the golf club and how that affects a player.

This project is about physics, but follow through can also be used in other areas such as recovering after surgery. That would be doing therapy to heal your knee, or recovering after a heart attack. Other examples of following through would be doing your homework or following up in a job interview. Following through isnt just those examples, it can also pertain to anything you need to finish. There are some possible ethical issues with this topic. If you are studying sports, there could be injuries related to follow through. This topic also relates to momentum, so there could be situations where you have people in experiments that could be dangerous. You might study the momentum of carnival rides and people might get hurt. This topic is related to some traditions. There have been studies about sports follow through and momentum. There are also research traditions on the topics of rhythm, cause and effect, momentum, force, energy, and collision. There are some ideas we have about pendulums and momentum. These ideas might influence how we design or conduct the project and this could result in some bias in the project. For example, if there is the expectation that a pendulum will act in a certain way then that can influence the project. There is some Conservation laws or accepted theories that relate to this topic. One possible connection is the Conservation of Linear Momentum. This law of conservation says that an object or body in motion keeps its total momentum unless an external force is applied to it. The total momentum is the product of mass and vector velocity. All objects have mass, so if an object is in motion, it has momentum. Vector velocity is about the speed and direction of the object. Because follow through can be related to momentum, this law may apply to the topic.

A second example would be Newtons laws of motion which relates to the collision of objects. Specifically, Newtons third law of motion might apply. A collision is an interaction with two objects that have made contact with each other. In a collision between two objects (for example, a golf club that has momentum hitting a golf ball on a tee), both objects have forces that are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. For this topic, momentum can be affected by collision with an object. In conclusion, this subject is an untested one. There is little research out there on this important subject. There are many variables in this project that make it difficult to test. In the end follow through is a wide topic covering everything for surgery recovery to baseball.

Sources: The Physics of Baseball, Robert K. Adair, Harper & Row, New York, 1990. The Physics of Golf, Theodore P. Jorgensen, AIP Press, New York, 1993. ScienceBuddies.com The Physics Classroom, www.physicsclassroom.com, 1996 2012 Conservation law. Encyclopedia Britannica. Britannica Online Library Edition. Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc., 2012 Web. 3 Mar. 2012. <http://library.eb.com/eb/article - 90259387.