High School Photo Winner's Showcase

School: Detroit Country Day School

Teacher: Dan Berger

I have seen pictures of people flipping water with their hair and decided to try it with orange powdered paint. The result is the picture named "Orange Wave", which I am entering in the contrived photo category. If an object does not have an outside force influencing it, it will keep moving at the same velocity (per Newton's 1st law of motion). Velocity implies speed and direction. The model flips her hair that is covered in orange powder, thus moving it in a circle. The force of her hair flip "turns" her hair in a curved path with the powdered paint sticking to it. The powder that is sticking to her hair is traveling in a circle. Thus, the hair is supplying a centripetal force. When the powder flies free of the hair, it is no longer influenced by the centripetal force and it continues to travel roughly in the same direction as when it left the hair. The circular shape forms because not all of the powder leaves the hair at the exact same time. This creates the cool fanning out effect you see frozen in time the instant the picture was taken. Gravity takes over from centripetal as the force most influencing the powder and pulls the powder down. The centripetal force of the hair was stronger than gravity before the paint let go of the hair. After the picture was taken, the paint no longer continues to travel in the same direction and just fell to the ground.