sad sad day

Tomorrow is the last test that we'll have for AP physics B. This year has been loads of fun. Hanging out in Doc's room during frees, eating Doc's food, complaining about the endless supply of quizzes. Yup. Well, one thing I'm thankful for today, besides my mom of course, is the great preparation that Doc and this course have given me. I woke up today thinking about what to study and realized that all the tests we've taken, all the quizzes, and even our final exam have already helped me prepare in so many ways. If we didn't practice taking those past AP exam questions, I would be in a very bad situation right now. Of course there are still many MANY things that I do not understand and must study, but thanks to Doc he has made this weekend a lot less stressful than it could have been. My final physics blog topic is a difficult one to come up with, so I just want to talk about what kind of role physics plays in our lives. Chem and Bio were definitely fun courses, but to me, they felt a bit too abstract. Physics definitely felt more "real" to me, and as I learned more about it, I realized just how much physics there is around me. There is physics when I ride in a car, when I walk on the street, when I open a can of soda. There's physics all around the world, physics in space, and physics in things such as sound and light. Overall, physics just plays such a large role in my life, and probably in any life, that I can't imagine anyone not studying such an important subject. So good luck to everyone on the AP exam tomorrow.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=cIIwwCi2zwk

angles

Well today when i was on the tennis court and missing a lot of my volleys, i thought, "hmm, what does I need to do in order for the ball i hit to go where i want it to go." Then it occurred to me that the ball and racket could be thought of as a ray and a mirror. Physics teaches us that the incident angle is equal to the reflected angle when a light ray is shone on a mirror. Therefore if I just placed my racket's face so that the reflected angle would go in the intended direction, then my shots would be more accurate. This also leads us to the topic of refraction and indexes. Using snell's law nsintheta=nsintheta, we can determine the angle of reflection when a ray travels through two mediums that have different indexes of refraction, such as air and water, or air and glass.

physics

As I was driving home from my tennis match this weekend, a strange phenomenon occurred in my back seat. My water bottle began making a weird noise, and it sounded as if air was trying to escape from it. In a sense, that is kind of what was going on. I thought about why the noise was being made, and it occurred to me that, with the use of my physics knowledge of fluid mechanics, that as I was driving up the mountain, the atmospheric pressure was decreasing. However, the air inside my water bottle was still at the ground level's atmospheric pressure. Therefore, there was a greater pressure inside my water bottle than outside, causing the air from inside to flow out. This can even be expressed in bernoulli's equation. As I go up the mountain, my PE goes up, meaning that air pressure at higher elevations must be lower than air pressure at ground level.

How in the world do boats float?

Going to pearl harbor was a pretty fun experience, though it would have been more fun if it wasn't so hot and muggy. Anyways, the field trip was exciting because we got to ride on a boat and look inside submarines. While I was on the boat, I thought to myself, "Wow, there are a lot of people on this boat. How come this boat doesn't sink?" Then it hit me again. Buoyant force was the answer, something we recently reviewed in our packets. Buoyant force is the force that pushes up on a ship and is equal to the weight of the water displaced. Therefore, as long as the boat displaces enough water to counter the weight of the ship and its passengers, the boat will not sink. Once again, it is amazing how physics is hidden in almost every aspect of our lives, and how it makes our lives more convenient

DRIVING

So I got my permit a few weeks ago and have already gone driving many times. In my few hours on the road I have already experienced many of the dangers that I was taught to avoid. To be a good driver on the highway, one must be able to estimate the acceleration of the car (positive or negative), otherwise an accident could possibly occur. One time while driving on the highway at about 40 mph, I did not judge the speed of the car in front of me well enough, causing my mom to yell "stop! stop!". I quickly hit the brake, but realized that I needed to apply even more stopping power to be sure I would not hit the car. The car came to a sudden stop, and that's when it hit me (no not the car behind me). If i drew acceleration graphs of my car on the highway, or any car, it would basically be a series of intervals that show positive acceleration, negative acceleration, then stopping (when you come to a red light), then a repeat of those intervals. Driving has been tons of fun, and hopefully as I gain more experience I'll become a better driver.

OMG you've got to be joking

Okay so i was browsing the internet searching for a physics blog topic when i came across this video of a korean man shooting an arrow with incredible accuracy. Now i don't know if it was luck or if he is just a really good archer, but it doesn't matter because the video is still awesome. So when looking at the path of the arrow, a lot of physics comes into play. The arrow leaves the bow with a high velocity directed parallel at the ground, but due to gravity, the arrow will start to be pulled towards the earth, the longer it is in flight. The archer has to account for this effect and has to adjust his shot in order to get maximum accuracy. The arrow needs to be perfectly centered in order for it to go inside the tube. Even friction comes into play, between the bow and the arrow, and the tube and the arrow. Pretty much, this video is a good way to waste 3 minutes if you've got nothing better to do besides study for physics.

MIRAGE QUIZ/BLOG

So basically, the mirage device is basically made of two concave mirrors with each other's focal points in the center of the other mirror. So if an object, like a strawberry for example, is placed in the center of the bottom concave mirror(which is the focus), light rays bouncing off the strawberry will hit the top concave mirror and then bounce off parallel to the axis. These parallel light rays then bounce off the bottom mirror, and when parallel rays bounce off a concave mirror they all intersect at the focal point, which is at the top of the mirage device. Therefore this device produces a "mirage" at the top due to the use of physics, mirrors, and focal points. What goal does this accomplish? You can trick your friends out by putting money inside the mirage device and leaving it on a table.

FUN IN THE PHYSICS ROOM

Last week during Period 8, one of Doc's favorite periods, we were spinning some rulers on a gatorade bottle. We thought it was cool because the ruler could turn all the way around without falling over. In order to make sure the ruler wouldn't fall over as soon as we put it on, we had to make sure the center of mass was placed over the fulcrum which was the gatorade cap. After that, we applied a force to cause the ruler to spin. Due to friction between the cap and the ruler, it did not go as fast or as steady as we had hoped. For funsies, we decided to put a second ruler on top, just to see what would happen. We tried spinning them in different directions , as well as in the same direction, but found no luck either way. The set up of our experiment reminded me of a helicopter, something that uses a lot of physics in order to work. Thanks DOC.

RAILROADS

On saturday, I woke up early to grab some breakfast and read the newspaper. On the front page was an article about potential mass transit systems that would be built in Hawaii. I took a look at these types of rail systems and found that almost every type used some sort of electromagnetics. The railcars were elevated by large magnets which prevent friction, and also make it easier to accelerate the large car. I realized that to move something as heavy as a railcar, it must take an enormous amount of electromagnetics-based knowledge, which is something all the physics B students of Iolani should have by now since the test is tomorrow( something I am still working on)!

is spiderman scientifically feasible?

I thought that Dr. Hayashi's talk was definitely one of the most interesting talks i've been to in a long time. Her talk really showed me that there are so many oppurtunities after high school and that all you have to do is find what is best for you. I thought that she was an extremely intelligent person because she obviously knew a lot about biology, especially about spiders. Her comment about how much more there is to discover in the world around us also encouraged me to work hard in finding a field of work that suits me best. I also thought she was a good speaker and lecturer, and that she could serve as a role model for many aspiring scientists at iolani.

physics

so this weekend was the superbowl, but i'm not going to blog about it cause i'm sure a lot of people will. instead, I will blog about my desk. I realized today that under my desk I have a ton of wires that are all mixed together and tangled. It suddenly hit me that our study of electrodynamics was happening right under my nose! The wires connect from my computer to my modem and then to a power outlet. The power outlet distributes the electricity to different sources via wiring. Inside the wiring trillions of electrons are moving to supply me with the lighting and power that I need. The wiring is also made up of conductive materials on the inside to help the electrons move more easily. Physics continues to reach more and more areas of my everyday life!

SLIPPERY WHEN WET

This past saturday, it was EXTREMELY windy and rainy at my house. When I went outside to throw away trash at night, I almost slipped but managed to regain my balance just in time. This made me think about how when the ground is wet from rain, the friction between the ground and any surface decreases. Factors like water tension, if it is really wet outside, can play a factor in the dangers of driving (or even walking) in wet conditions. My shoes simply did not have the friction to keep my foot from slipping, but luckily I did not fall.

pHySiCs

so today we were driving on the road and we happened to pass a gas station.  When I saw people filling up gas I immediately though about car engines and how they work.  Gas molecules are put inside the valves of the engine where they are ignited by an electrical spark.  The pressurized gas combusts and pushes the piston which does work.  This is all related to our recent study of gases and thermodynamics.  I also thought about how high gas prices were and how the world would be in a better place if car engines were 100% efficient.  We could probably travel more than twice as much if that were possible!  

physics, you're everywhere

Well since I was sick last week, I didn't come to school at all and now I'm a little behind so I got to catch up and do my homework diligently (psh yea right).  Anyways, on my trip to California I got to go snowboarding with my relatives.  At first I was excited because I knew snowboarding would be a lot of fun, but after falling about five times on my hands/face, and then another five times on my butt and backside, it became less fun.  When I first put snowboard to snow I thought about the physics behind how a snowboard worked.  A snowboard has a pretty large surface area to ride on, and that helps distribute pressure so that you can slide more easily.  Going over smooth patches of snow allows you to go faster, where as lumpy patches can sometimes trip you or slow you down.  The material that the board is covered with also reduces the friction your board creates with the snow (what little there is, but snowboards still need to be waxed every so often)  Other things involved physics such as how air pressure was less at the top of the mountain than at the bottom, and how hot chocolate transfers heat to your body when you drink it to warm yourself up.  "Another fun day of physics!" I thought as I left the mountain, and that is how I ended my vacation, got sick, and came home to miss two days of school.  Physics, see you tomorrow!