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View Full Version : I wish a physicist would study my hair and determine it's spring constant..



sunnehdai
12-19-2011, 03:27 AM
I was having a discussion recently with some friends of mine. And as a university student who's been taking sciency classes, I found a correlation with my hair to what we actually learn in class. I think it's unfortunate that scientists can study the most mundane things of the world but yet ignore things like our hair that is actually very interesting in the physics sense.

My hair and many other people's hair is made out of tiny springs. This has amazed my friends who most likely never examined a natural head of black hair before and its amount of shrinkage also baffles them too. In class, we learn that springs have material properties that have been discovered by physicists throughout history. For example, Hooke's law which states the amount of force that is applied to the spring is directly proportional to how much it extends. And as long as the force does not pass its elastic limit, then the spring would return back to its original shape. I realized the other day that the hair on the right side of my hair in the back has been pulled plenty of times past its elastic limit and thats why it never returns back to its compact shape after I pull on it unlike other parts of my head. HAND IN HAIR syndrome receives all the thanks for that.

Well anyway, I just found the science of our hair interesting and wish there were like studies done in our hair that I can read to see why it behaves in that manner it does and what causes us to have extremely curly hair.

http://www.thetech.org/genetics/ask.php?id=107 , Plus, I found this article that a Stanford geneticist wrote that explains why our hair comes out of the follicle the way it does (curly) as opposed to white people's hair. The article is just genuinely informative and backed with actual research. Supposedly our follicles are very thin and oval shaped which gives rise to the curly nature to our hair. Anyway, anyone that has time should give the article a read.

I'm serious guys, with all the products, protein and moisture balance, and random things people spend their time on doing research online and in real life, I do think that REAL scientific research on our hair is so lacking and so many aspects are waiting to be discovered which would make us truly understand our hair and in the process, learn the best ways to take care of it.

GalaxyGirl2012
12-19-2011, 04:47 AM
you can find it out yourself.


http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/math/4/e/a/4eacf246d52c116ff7ee00049d2a89e6.png x would be the distance you pull your hair
F would be the amount of force or pressure you use to pull the strand.

just divide F by x and then voila you have your k

Miss Dee Dee
12-19-2011, 05:35 AM
but you'd still need a reliable way to measure the force by which you pull your hair, which would have to also be a constant value, i.e. non-wavering, which is what our hands would do.

GalaxyGirl2012
12-19-2011, 06:29 AM
my suggestion would be to use some clampers and clamp down on a scale that would then tell you how much weight you are using (in pounds).

my suggestion would be to apply about 2.2 pounds of pressure (approx 1kg) since it's already established that 1kg creates a force of about 9.8 Newtons

then once you've established what exerting 1 kg of force feels like, apply that same force to your strands..

i doubt it's important about how "constant" or unwavering it is since it's just a guideline. if one is willing to assume that the all their hair (even though most people have multi textured hair) will have the same k for every single strand on their head, then why get squeamish about how shaky your hands are?

sunnehdai
12-19-2011, 07:17 AM
Lol guys, ya'll went in...

fuzzyhair
12-22-2011, 03:10 AM
Hair physics 103 is now in session!!! Get it yall.