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Dr Hugh Hunt
Department of Engineering, Cambridge
University
Fellow of Trinity College
Abstract - "Boomerangs, Bouncing Balls and Other
Spinning Things"
Spinning things are strange. Why does a spinning top
stand
up? Why doesn't a rolling wheel fall over? Why is top-spin so
effective in tennis? How does a falling cat always manage to
land on its feet? How can the Hubble Space Telescope turn
around in space? What do ice-skaters do to spin so fast?
We'll look closely at the common threads that link all spinning
things, and that means we'll have to talk about gyroscopes.
Don't worry, there won't be any maths! Everything will be
demonstrated live with lots of toys and videos. We'll even throw
a few indoor boomerangs.
Biography
Dr Hugh Hunt is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of
Engineering at Cambridge University and a Fellow of Trinity
College. He took his first degree in Engineering at Melbourne
University Australia. He has accumulated an impressive
collection of boomerangs, many of them homemade. He uses
these to inspire students in the study of Dynamics and
Mechanics.
He has a good boomerang
website at:-
http://www2.eng.cam.ac.uk/~hemh/boomerangs.htm
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