After recently seeing a video of a man doing a loop on a swing, it occurred to me that swinging in that manner is pretty counterintuitive to the things I learned in physics class.
Basically, how do we make it go higher without an external force to push us, and without pushing ourselves off of anything? I’m stuck thinking that you can’t lift a chair that you’re sitting on, so a swing should work the same.
My first thought was it must be something to do with how you generally swing your legs, but in the video I saw, the guy on the swing didnt use his legs in that way at all as he was standing on the seat of the swing.
So, in simple terms what actually is happening there, and where does that momentum come from?
In: 9
Momentum cones from your movement. You’re actually adding momentum by moving your muscles, which in turn gets energy from biological sources (ATP). So you are actually using energy from your cells to gain momentum.
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