This is the first scene in my series of Physics Challenge scenes for kids and adults who do not understand basic physics concepts. I don't know how many more scenes in this series that I will create, but I'll make at least a few for now until I get tired of making them.
In this Inertia Challenge, you have to slow down and stop a swinging weight by engaging a thruster at just the right times in the arc. The challenge continues for 60 seconds, but you have to try to stop the swinging weight in as short a time as possible. After the 60 second timer reaches zero, the scene automatically stops, and then you can "undo" the scene and restart it to try again for a shorter Swing Time period.
My shortest Swing Time so far has been 14.7 seconds. Leave a comment with your shortest Swing Time!
UPDATE: The swing timer was stopping each time the red mass would pass by the bottom center point of the arc. Even though the time period is very small, it still made for an inaccurate timer. Now I've corrected it so that the only time the swing timer stops is when the red mass is at the bottom of its arc, AND when the angular velocity ("angvel") value is close to zero (in other words when the weight is truly very close to not swinging. I made the timer stop when it's "close" to zero. If I made the timer stop only when the swing is actually completely stopped, then it would probably never stop because every little shake or shimmy would prevent the timer from stopping.
UPDATE2: Improved accuracy of swing timer as suggested by s_noonan. THANKS S_NOONAN!
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