HUMAN HORSEPOWER
A STUDY OF THE POWER OUTPUT IN A PUSHUP
In this investigation, students determine the power exerted while a "subject" does pushups. Some sample subjects include their classmates, members of sports teams and other volunteers. As shown in the teacher notes, all of the calculations can come from the motion detector and the results of measuring the subject's weight on their hands.
This is a worksheet that can be used to get students into the situation.
They are asked a series of questions about the calculations that need to
be made and how they can go about doing them. Using their responses, they
then go on to conduct the lab on a subsequent day.
This is a the worksheet that is used by the students as
they begin their investigation following the prelab day.
This document gives the background for all the calculations and procedures
to carry out this investigation. The experiment calls for using a Macintosh
computer with a ULI interface, Motion Detector and MacMotion program. Other
computer/interface/program combinations can be used to achieve the same
results.
Constructed by David Sopjes, July 1997