Torque Dummies

As we started learning about torque in rotation and such with equlibrium and what not, I had a hard time thinking up stuff to talk about in this blog. After watching the Steelers lose today (total bs), I thought of football practice this week. Many teams have those football dummies all lined up on a sled, which they practice blocking. The thing about the blocking dummy is that it is all about torque.

See, if the lineman push the sled on one side, the sled will rotate since the torque makes it go one way. If the players all lineup on each dummy and push with equal force, the sled will not rotate and will just move forward. The reason is because of all the forces acting on the sled cancel out, since they are oposite of the center of rotation, so the sled has no net torque. Also, if a player pushes the middle dummy, there will be no rotation, since the radius from the center of rotation will be zero, so there won't be any torque. If, of course, the center of rotation is in the middle of the sled. So if the player lines up on the outermost dummy and pushes, the radius will be greater and there will be rotation. Of course, football sleds are only for practice, since in the game the opposing line won't have a center of rotation or be dummies. Hopefully the Steelers practice hard the rest of the season...Go Steelers!