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For the Love of Books by Christina Tran

3rd Place - Contrived Category

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School: Glenbard West High School

Teacher: Nicholas Szarzak

For this photo, I stacked some of my favorite books on top of a small candle into the shape of a heart. The stack of books began with three books directly on top of each other, placed on top of the candle so that the candle supported the three books under their center of mass. This set-up is similar to that of the lever, with the candle being the fulcrum and the three stacked books being the bar. In order to have the stack of books remaining at a state of static equilibrium, additional books were then added to the stack two at a time, one on each side of the candle, with both books having approximately equal masses so that the candle continues to be under the stack?s center of mass. This also ensures that the force of the books on either side of the candle are equal, creating a net force of 0N and keeping the acceleration of the stack at 0m/s^2. With this method, the heart will not break.

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