 .gif made by Austin Head special thanks to Stephen Hillenburg |
In
this episode, Sandy is getting ready for hibernation by
doing all kinds of crazy activities with Spongebob.
While sandboarding down Sand Mountain, she manages to
catch on fire due to water resistance. We are going to
look at the equations for work and heat transfer to
understand the physics of Bikini Bottom. |
W = (FF + Fa)
×
d
Using the above equation, we can
plug in the force of friction (Ff),
the force of air resistance (Fa),
and
the distance that she has traveled (d) to be able to solve
for work. To make things interesting we will assume that
she is above water, it's 30 degrees Celsius, and her suit
is made of cotton doused with 1 kg of lighter fluid. Lighter fluid has an auto ignition point of 230 degrees
Celsius.
Q = mcΔT
We find that it would take 344 kilojoules of work to cause her lighter fluid soaked space suit to catch on fire. When we divide by a distance of about a quarter of a kilometer, we find that the force of friction plus air resistance must be 1.38 kN, an unbelievable amount of force acting on an Eastern Grey Squirrel that weighs about 0.5 kg. It ends up being 282 times the force of gravity acting on her.
