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 carved-out ice bowl and see if they can get out. Check it out! The bowl is shaped like the inside of a sphere, so the higher up the sides you go, the steeper it gets. If you think an icy sidewalk is slippery, try going uphill on an icy sidewalk.

What do you do when faced with a problem like this? You build a physics model, of course. We’ll start with modeling how people walk on flat ground, and then we’ll apply it to a slippery slope. There are actually three possible escape

→ Continue reading at Wired - Science

More from author

Related posts

Advertisment

Latest posts

Schools in China are making AI part of the curriculum

While debate rages in the U.S. about the merits and risks of AI in schools, it a state-mandated part of the curriculum in China,...

A Greek star catalog from the dawn of astronomy, revealed

Surrounded by metal pipes and tangles of cables, two researchers point to bright orange squiggles on a computer screen. The squiggles are a poem...

Placebo-related brain activity boosts antibody counts after a vaccine

Positive thinking may boost the body’s defenses against disease. Increasing activity in a brain region that controls motivation and expectation, specifically the brain’s reward...