by KYW’s John McDevitt
A group of high school students from around the world, participating in a four week physics camp at the University of Pennsylvania, took a day trip to put what is learned in class into motion.
Surrounded by a priceless collection of antique racing cars at the Simeone Foundation Automotive Museum in Southwest Philadelphia about 30 teenagers working in teams navigated bowling bowls with brooms as they took part in exercises dealing with inertia.
Josh is from New York:
"If a ball is rolling straight and it has more inertia it’s harder to change the direction so it’s harder to go in a circle. So we think that it’s easier to use the lighter ball because it’s easier to change it into a circle."
Bill Berner is the instructor:
"This will give them a very real sense of the reluctance of a object to change what it is doing and this is ultimately the challenge of a race car. A race car driver has a vehicle with a lot of inertia and his challenge is to change speed and direction around a course with a bunch of other guys that are trying to do the same thing."
This is the program’s 11th year.