Solved cryptogram
A spinning skater pulls her arms in and spins faster, and nothing pushed her to do it.
Physics Facts, sourced to NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.
Solve it yourself
This fact is a cryptogram here: 68 letters over 17 different ones, graded medium.
Or go to the puzzle’s own page first.
What it means
Angular momentum is conserved, and it is the product of how the mass is spread out and how fast the spin is. Draw the mass toward the axis and the spread falls, so the rate has to rise to keep the product fixed. The energy for the extra speed comes from the muscular work of pulling the arms in against the outward pull. The same bookkeeping explains why a collapsing cloud of gas ends up as a rapidly spinning star.
The claim comes from NASA Scientific Visualization Studio.
- SourceNASA Scientific Visualization Studio
- CollectionPhysics Facts
- Difficultymedium
- Length68 letters, 17 of them different
Nearby in the collection
The facts either side of this one.
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