What is Worship - the Conservation of Angular Momentum and the Figure Skater

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Here is a nice simple explanation of the conservation of angular momentum, with simple math. 

Many people wonder what worship is. Worship is not going to a building and singing once a week.

Do you know when I experience worship? Actually many times a day. But there is a time when I never fail to gasp in awe and wonder. It is every time I see a math equation that describes a physical reality.

Even more so, do I marvel when I see that the manipulation of the math continues to describe reality. For example in the equation for the conservation of angular momentum, L=mvr, with r being the distance between a massive object and a smaller object executing spin around a fixed point.

when you do simple algebra to get v=L/(mr)  it means that when you decrease the distance r the velocity of the spin increases.

That is why when an ice skater pulls her arms in, her spinning speed increases.

I cannot help but marvel at how the relationship between the terms can be expressed in different ways and  the result is still true.

Another example is E=mc^2      Many people do not know that Albert Einstein first wrote the equation as m=E/c^2    Increasing the energy increases the mass a little. That is why when you click the spring on your ball point pen, the energy in the spring makes the pen a tiny bit heavier.


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