The physics of falling chimney stacks

The toppling motion of falling chimney stacks has been the subject of a number of studies which address the interesting phenomenon that brick chimneys usually break well before they hit the ground. Modern concrete chimneys, and wind generator towers, however, are strong enough to topple without brea...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Physics education 2021-09, Vol.56 (5), p.55023
Main Author: Hinrichsen, Peter F
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Angular velocity
Chimneys
compound pendulum
Concept Formation
Energy
Motion
Physics
rotational motion
Science Instruction
Scientific Concepts
Stacks
toppling motion
Video data
Video Technology
Windpowered generators
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Summary:The toppling motion of falling chimney stacks has been the subject of a number of studies which address the interesting phenomenon that brick chimneys usually break well before they hit the ground. Modern concrete chimneys, and wind generator towers, however, are strong enough to topple without breaking and many videos of their destruction are available on the web. Their angular motion can be investigated with 'Tracker', and then analysed in terms of the conservation of energy, of the applied torque, and of the angle as a function of time, all of which show good agreement with the video data.
ISSN:0031-9120
1361-6552
DOI:10.1088/1361-6552/abfecd