Mechanics and the Human Body: development of a hypermidia tool to study the dynamics in natural human actions

Abstract

Computing the speed at which a car travels the distance between two cities, estimating the time required for a body in free fall to touch the ground, or observing the influence of the Moon on the phenomenon of tides, are examples of everyday life that easily reminds us of the Physics. However, it is not common to pay attention to the fact that as movement actions performed naturally by the human body, such as getting up and walking, they are also actions performed by the laws of physics. This article creates the creation of a hypermedia tool built to show how Physics is able to explain the simple and everyday movements of our body. The development of the tool, built with the aid of the PowerPoint text editing and presentation software, sought to explore the multimedia resources of navigation, sound and image, for the presentation of issues and contents, as well as the critical analysis of demonstrative videos of natural human actions, such as sitting, running and jumping. The observation and discussion of actions that are so common in hypermedia has the potential to provide us with an insight into the different physical concepts using the human body as a laboratory and, therefore, expand the ability to observe and reflect the concepts, while seeking to understand the world around us.