Balancing broomsticks to a t!
Abstract
A classic question from rotational mechanics asks, "Is it easier to balance a broomstick heavy side up or heavy side down?" Measuring the time a student can balance an asymmetrically weighted meter stick in two orientations is a straightforward exercise that can be used to introduce or review the t' framework, which guides lab students in comparisons of results and iterative improvement of their measurements. As a two-year college physics program, many of our students attend from other institutions, so while t' is taught in the introductory mechanics labs, there is no guarantee that a student in a following lab course will be familiar with the material. To address this, the t' concepts are reviewed in the first session of subsequent lab courses. The broomstick experiment is a quick and fun implementation.
Versions
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BibTeX
@misc{marasco2026balancing,
title = {{Balancing broomsticks to a t!}},
author = {David Marasco},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2611.06942},
eprint = {2611.06942},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06942},
note = {CC BY-NC-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Balancing broomsticks to a t!
AU - David Marasco
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/02
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2611.06942
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2611.06942
AB - A classic question from rotational mechanics asks, "Is it easier to balance a broomstick heavy side up or heavy side down?" Measuring the time a student can balance an asymmetrically weighted meter stick in two orientations is a straightforward exercise that can be used to introduce or review the t' framework, which guides lab students in comparisons of results and iterative improvement of their measurements. As a two-year college physics program, many of our students attend from other institutions, so while t' is taught in the introductory mechanics labs, there is no guarantee that a student in a following lab course will be familiar with the material. To address this, the t' concepts are reviewed in the first session of subsequent lab courses. The broomstick experiment is a quick and fun implementation.
ER -