Question

Now investigate how rotation affects the path of your pencil line. Again, begin with the cards in the 'cross' position and your pencil point at X. As you slowly pull the lower left tab of the loose card (B) towards you, slowly move your pencil point away from you along the cut-edge while drawing its path on (B). The loose card is rotating counterclockwise as you do this. The line you drew is ________.

a) Straight
b) Curved
c) Zigzag
d) Looping

Answer 1

The line drawn on the rotating card (B) as it is being pulled while rotating counterclockwise will be curved, similar to the Coriolis effect observed in rotating systems.

Step-by-step explanation:

When a student draws a line on a rotating card, as described in the question, the rotation of the card affects the path taken by the drawing instrument. If the student pulls the lower left tab of card B towards them while moving the pencil point away and the card rotates counterclockwise, we can deduce that the resulting path will be curved. This is analogous to the described scenarios where an object moves in a rotating frame, such as a ball moving on a merry-go-round. In those examples, the ball follows a curved path due to the counterclockwise rotation, which is related to the physical principle known as the Coriolis effect. Therefore, the line drawn on the rotating card (B) will be curved.