chandelier

i was in my living room today, watching my brother play halo 3, when i noticed something about the chandelier that hangs in the living room. It is held by one ornate cord, which has tension because of the force of gravity exerted on the chandelier (which is mass times the acceleration of gravity). The tension in the cord-if it was assumed to have no mass-would have the same amount of force as the force of gravity to keep the chandelier at equilibrium and stay at rest. Unfortunately, in the real world, because everything has mass, the force of the tension in the rope and the force of gravity, although should be very close in number, are not exactly equal.

the great thing about the chandelier is that is also has the property of potential energy. If, for some bizarre reason, the tension in the cord that held the chandelier up broke, the force of gravity would force the chandelier to fall at a negative acceleration 9.8 meters per second. If we measured the height of the chandelier and the mass of the chandelier, we could easily obtain the velocity of the chandelier when it hit the ground because all potential energy would have been converted into kinetic energy (assuming that air resistance is irrelevant and no work is added into the system).

that's my physics epiphany for the day. ☺ see ya in a few weeks.