Thread: momentum and force calculations

Originally Posted by sprk001

Hi,

i have had a incident where a piece of glass has smashed due to someone wedging there foot on a revolving door and i need to find out the forces that have been placed on the glass!

the revolving door leaves weigh 100kg each and there are four on this door, the door was travelling at approximately 8 revolutions per minute.

so total weight moving is 400kg but it the one door leaf has been stopped by the persons foot then the force applied by the other 3 door leaves still moving at the out side edge of the door and at approx 600mm from the centre.

the diameter of the door is 2600mm

i hope someone can help as this is a little to advanced for me

Dave

You need more information. You can calculate the change in momentum of the door, and thus the average force required to stop the door, but you need information about how much stress the glass can take before it breaks.

-Dan