Physics and Cleaning

    As I was cleaning my room today, I had to use a broom and a dust pan because I didn't have a vaccum. Although I would have liked to have a vaccum so I could tidy up faster, I enjoyed doing things the old fashioned way because it let me think about physics in a different way. I took the broom and I swept the dust into a dust pan. This may seem rudimentary but it does involve physics. When I took the broom, I was sweeping dust that had settled on the floor. I was able to remove the dust because of the moment of inertia at rest. To see this more clearly, I took my rug and I swept it very quickly from under my chair. The dust puffed into the air and I could see it settling back down the floor. If this sounds familiar, it is because this same concept is seen in a party trick where someone pulls a tablecloth under a bunch of items, yet the items stay in the same place as they were before even though the tablecloth was removed. This occurs because the force pulling down on the tablecloth, or in this instance the rug, is not enough to move the item on it, and the force of friction from the movement stays static as opposed to kinetic.