Going Down the Mountain
Gravity is a snowboarder's best
friend. It is what allows boarders to freely glide
down a mountain without the need of external propulsion
(like their skateboarding brethren). How does gravity
work you may ask? It's fairly simple. The
equation for the force of gravity is F=mg, F being the
downward force of gravity in Newtons, m being the mass of
the object in kilograms, and g being the acceleration due to
gravity (9.8 meters per second squared). However, in
this case, gravity is working at a slant. Therefore,
the equation is tweaked slightly. g is now
g*sin(theta) to accommodate for the angle of the
slope. Because of this, the steeper the slope, the
more acceleration due to gravity, therefore a greater
downward force applied to the snowboarder.
