"'To get it to flip, linear force isn't enough,' one of their researchers said. 'We need a pivot point. 'For the pancake to flip, it must rotate. This comes from torque, which happens when the pan pushing slightly off the pancake's centre of mass, giving it angular acceleration.'"
"'The secret to a flawless pancake flip is physics,' their researcher says. 'Put simply, at rest, there are only two forces acting on the pancake - gravity and the equal normal force from the pan.'"
"'Flicking the pan upward, we push the pancake with an upward net force and acceleration,' she continues. 'This demonstrates Newton's second law. The upward net force causes an upward acceleration.'"
Perfect pancake flips rely on Newton's laws of motion and use a pivot point to generate rotation. At rest, gravity and an equal normal force act on the pancake; a net force is required to change that state. Flicking the pan upward applies an upward net force and acceleration, launching the pancake as a projectile under gravity. Linear upward force alone will not produce rotation. Pushing the pan slightly off the pancake's centre of mass imparts torque and angular acceleration, producing controlled spinning that improves the chance of a picture-perfect landing.
Read at Mail Online
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