Fire Breathing, Sword Swallowing, and Other-Defying Circus Science
DEATH DEFYING CIRCUS ACTS Welcome to the circus The world's most death defying stunts are about to make you ooh ahh gasp and even cringe A man will walk across a wire 30 feet 9 1 meters in the air A woman held up only by her hair will spin as she hangs from a rope Five motorcyclists will speed around the inside of a giant ball shaped cage at tremendous speed How are these daring stunts possible They all conform to the laws of nature Physics chemistry anatomy and even math can be used to describe the world's most death defying circus acts From sword swallowing to glass walking there's a lot more science at work here than you probably ever realized
DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME Circus acts are a blast to watch but DO NOT try them yourself Performers spend years training They practice every day Performing a circus act without the proper training and correct safety precautions could result in serious injury Instead simple activities that you CAN TRY are included in these pages They will help you understand the science behind the circus They are safe easy and fun
HIGH WIRE WALKING The circus is about to begin High above the center ring you see a long thick wire stretched tightly between two poles At one end of the wire a circus performer slowly begins to walk across it You hold your breath as he performs hops and turns on the wobbling wire You breathe a sigh of relief when he makes it safely to the other end
DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME TRY THIS INSTEAD What keeps him from tumbling down The tightrope walker must carefully manage something called his center of mass Any everyday object has a center of mass If you stand perfectly straight your center of mass is located about halfway up your body When a performer steps onto a tightrope he must keep his center of mass balanced directly above his feet If he leans too much one way or another gravity will pull him to the ground Try this experiment to see center of mass at work Take a crisp dollar bill not an old wrinkly one Fold it into a V Balance it on its side on a table Then balance a quarter on top of the corner edge of the V The quarter will stay there because its center of mass is balanced evenly on the corner of the V Now very slowly spread the two ends of the bill away from each other making the V wider If its center of mass is in the right place the quarter will not fall off even after the dollar bill is completely straight If the quarter does fall off try again CIRCUS FACT Nik Wallenda set the record for the longest tightrope walk on August 11 2015 He walked along a wire strung 10 stories in the air for 1 576 feet 480 3 meters center of mass the point in an object around which its mass is evenly distributed gravity an attractive force that exists between any two objects including between Earth and everything on it
