Newton and small video cameras

Just to be clear, Newton probably didn't have a portable video camera. I do. I have one of these Flip Mino pocket cameras. Very nice. You can put it in your pocket. However, there is a problem with cameras like these (think of video from camera phones). The problem is the mass, it is too small.

Video from a camera phone or small portable camera looks too jerky (unless you are careful). Sometimes it is jerky to the point that it makes me feel barfy. The reason this happens is that with a small mass, a force can cause a significant acceleration. Let me draw a picture (you know I like to do that):

i-78b800d32baaee2d2b333cb5cb1fec6c-cameras.jpg

You can fix this problem. Try taping your camera phone to something with a large mass and making a video. With a large mass, you just can't make it jerky (but don't drop the phone). Of course, the trick I use is to prop my elbows against my torso. This effectively makes my whole body the mass of the camera. Also remember to pan slowly.

More like this

Seed's editorial policy is unusually generous in the latitude we ScienceBloggers get. Let's hope it's generous enough for this! Linked via Instapundit, I saw this interesting article about theft of and damage to speed cameras. As an strong supporter of civil liberties, this warms my heart. If a…
My current phone, a Google Nexus made by Motorola, is still working fine. I'm much more worried about Amanda's Samsung, which is a nightmare. The storage on that phone is used up by Samsung proprietary gunk that can't be removed, and she can't insert a microSD card because the phone will not…
These days, Dr. Oz seems to stand for everything I oppose in medicine: Fear mongering, quackery, making claims that he can't back up with science, and, of course, filthy lucre. On second thought, I'm not against filthy lucre per se. In fact, I wouldn't mind having some of it myself. However, I also…
Here's more proof that there's "one born every minute" and that "nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public" (yes, I know I'm mixing quote sources): A man named Monte Bowman is selling a product called Photoblocker that is designed to be sprayed on auto license…