THE PHYSICS OF A TRAMPOLINE ARTIST

The following simulation was developed by Professor Arun Srinivasa of Texas A&M University. 

See below the simulation is of a tampoline artist suspended in the air. The purple arrow is the force of gravity on the man. when you press the run button(The blue triangle on the right hand side of the simulation), he will fall down and begin bouncing from the hard floor. 

BEFORE YOU PRESS THE RUN BUTTON

Answer the following question

Q1: Notice that the man starts out at a height of 6 units from the ground. Do you think that when he bounces, he will

(a) go higher than 6 units?

(b) lower than 6 units?

(c) will jump back exactly six units?

Q2: Which way will his velocity point when he is falling? up or down?

Q3: Which way will his velocity point when he is bouncing up?

Q4: What about his acceleration vector?

NOW RUN THE SIMULATION (pausing or rerunning) :

Watch his velocity vector (green arrow) and acceleration vectors ( black arrow)

Q5: Did he do what you expected? what did you not anticipate? 

Q6: Does he bounce back to the same height every time?

Q7: Give a physical rationalization as to why he doesnt bounce back every time.

Q8: What is the correlation between how fast he tumbles and how high he jumps

Q9: Now give a better answer than Q4 (hint : consider the total energy)

Q10: Why does this man not jump higher that his initial height? how is that possible for a human to jump higher and higher each time? (hint: can this trampoline man do work?)