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  1. As summer gets closer, the weather gets warmer and everyone itches to get outside. One of my personal favorite things to do on those hot summer days is to go swimming! So many people enjoy it and it is something that they do all the time, but the majority of people don't stop to think about all of the physics that is involved in it. And there is a lot!

    First, the most obvious is the difference in gravity. When you are just walking around normally, you stay on the ground. You never begin to float towards the sky because of the force of gravity on earth. The force of gravity is 9.81m/s^2. However, as you may know, when you are in a pool or the ocean it is very hard to stay on the ground because there is nothing pulling you down. But you are still on the earth... so how can that be possible? Although the force of gravity is the same, there is an additional force acting in the water called buoyancy. This means that when an object is put in water, it will displace the amount of water equal to its volume. This is why objects appear to be lighter when they are in water.

    There is also a lot of resistance in water. Water is about 1000 times more resistant than air and about 91% of a persons energy is lost through drag. Therefore, when swimming competitively, swimmers need to maximize their streamline. They can do this by wearing swim caps. As you can see, there is a lot of physics in swimming. So next time you jump in the pool, think about all of the physics that is going on! Thanks for reading :)

  2. Hello once again audience! Today I'm going to talk about a duo of absolutely awesome government assassins from The Avengers, Black Widow and Hawkeye (also known as Natasha Romanov and Clint Barton). Now you might be thinking, what's so super about these two people? They are just people, no super powers or anything. Well I can tell you that they are in fact super with their accuracy.

    Let's start with Hawkeye. Like his name says, his eyes are like a hawk's. But how precise is that?

    Precise enough to shoot a flying alien space craft without even looking! Hawkeye's power is this excellent accuracy with his bow and arrow.

    Next we'll move on to Black Widow. At first she seems like any other pretty girl. Wrong!

    She learned super self defense techniques with, like Hawkeye, excellent accuracy.

    Now, many superheroes seem completely unrealistic and could never be alive in real life. But Black Widow and Hawkeye are like real people. The government and other people have assassins just like the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in Avengers. The CIA, FBI, SWAT, you name it. These super characters aren't as fictional as they seem. Lil' Bretz singing off.

  3. Walking is something that we do every day, without thinking about it. Its seems very simple and straight forward. You just put one foot in front of the other and you move. But it is kind of complicated. It has a lot to do with forces. Newton's laws of motion are involved. So what do forces have to do with walking?

    Newton's third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction. This is relevant to walking because when you put your foot on the ground, you are applying a force to it. In doing this, the ground also actually applies an equal force onto your foot, in the opposite direction, pushing you forward.

    efthimiou-fig.5.jpg

    When running, you tend to take longer strides because you are applying a larger force to the ground, so the ground must apply a larger force onto your body. When a larger force is applied to your foot, you go farther, taking a longer step.

    Another law of motion that is at work is Newton's first law of motion. An object in motion stays moving, and an object at rests stays at rest unless an outside force acts on it. If people didn't apply forces to the ground, they obviously wouldn't move. This is because the ground then doesn't apply a force to the persons foot. They would stay at rest. But also, if it weren't for gravity, we would all float up into space the second we took one step. This is because the ground applies a force onto us, so we are set into motion. Gravity keeps this force from pushing us all the way into space.

    (there is also centrifugal force that wants to fly people off of the planet, but ehh.)

    funny-cat-on-fan-o.gif

  4. Forces are everywhere and i never knew how many forces act upon a simple object until this unit in class! A force is a push or pull acting upon an object as a result of its coming into contact with another object. For the purpose of this blog post, i will use a basketball rolling down a hill because that is simple, and hey, its getting late.

    So the forces acting upon this object are the normal force, applied force and gravity force. The normal force is the force of a surface acting back on the object so in this case it is the ground pushing on the basketball to keep it up. Secondly, the applied force is a force from a person or another object so there would be an applied force if i were to go up to this basketball and push it down the hill. Lastly, gravity force is what pulls the object to the center of the earth. This is equal to the weight of the object because it is found by multiplying mass times 9.81 N/Kg.

    There is also friction, which is exerted by the surface when the ball (in this case, basketball) rolls. Air resistance is another force most people don't think to consider, and this force is opposite of which ever direction the ball is rolling. As you can see, there are a lot of different kinds of forces, and i have nobody but mr. fullerton to thank for teaching me all of them!

  5. After taking this class we now can all answer the question that stumped us at the beginning of the year; What is physics? its everything. The crazy part to think is that its actually true. Anything anyone could ever think of has to do with physics. Tomorrow we take our final for this class, struggling to remember every little thing we can. The crazy part is that taking that test is physics.

    If we're lucky, we'll drive to the test. How does a car run? and electric circuit. physics. Along the way you probably have to pick up a friend or two, and you use your cell phone to tell them you have arrived. Another electric circuit. Hopefully before all of this you showered, and thanks to gravity the water fell down on you instead of floating. After that you stumble around your room trying to find clothes that match thanks to all the colors we are able to see on the spectrum.

    Arriving at the school, you have to have an acceleration from sitting in your car to get into the testing room. Although some will be moving at an incredibly slow constant pace, trying to avoid the test. Sitting in your test you will put a force on the chair, which will then push up on you at the same force to keep you in that chair. Thanks to the florescent lights we will be able to see our test.

    So while you're studying, don't say you don't know much about physics! Because everything you do, even going to the test is physics!

    Best of luck!

    that-physics-test-we-took-today-created-by-aliens.jpg

  6. ericaplukas
    Latest Entry

    As summer is so close to us, many of us go to amusement parks. Seabreeze is right around the corner from us and as you know, the Jack Rabbit is one of the oldest roller coasters! As i day dream about being on the coaster instead of studying for physics, i cant help but think of the physics that have to do with a roller coaster.

    There is much to think about when one thinks of a roller coaster! The mass of the cart and the people inside of it play a major role in understanding the concept of force. Force= mass X acceleration and the mass a person usually tries to find consists of the people as well as the cart.

    Another factor in thinking about a roller coaster and physics is the energy that the cart uses when traveling up and down the hills in the track. Two type of energy are used, potential energy and kinetic energy. As the coaster gets higher in the air, gravity can pull it down a greater distance, this is the potential energy increasing.he potential energy you build going up the hill can be released as kinetic energy..the energy of motion that takes you down the hill. Once you start cruising down that first hill, gravity takes over and all the built up potential e­nergy converts to kinetic energy. Gravity applies a constant downward force on the carts causing the switch in energies.

    Physics can also be fun!! Enjoy summer and think about the physics in everything you're doing!! =]

  7. rrand14
    Latest Entry

    Well, this has been one year that I will never forget.

    At first i was really nervous to start physics, not knowing what to expect, if i could handle it or if it would just go over my head.

    Im not a huge math person but i have always enjoyed science and having a better understanding of the world around us. Luckily, this class became the perfect fit for me.

    Regents Physics quickly opened my eyes to a new world where EVERYTHING has an explanation and most things you cant understand on the first try.

    This class has taught me skills i can use in the future, from taking responsibility for my work, working in a group, studying and asking questions to better my understanding.

    Mr. Fullerton has been so incredibly helpful the whole year. I never felt uneasy having to ask lots of questions. He treated me as an adult and allowed me to learn my own lessons. He shaped me into a person that i am happy to be. After i studied really hard for the midterm and still felt discouraged about my performance, Mr. Fullerton gave me a call to tell me that i passed and how proud he was of me. It really brought up my confidence in this class and excited me for the second half of the year. His constant support and motivation are super helpful in a class like this. Also, his access to review tools and organization allow anyone to understand. Plus his books are awesome!

    My favorite project of the year was the Ipod Speakers. This is mainly because i learned so much about how sound waves work and it challenged me to push myself and not give up if i didnt understand right away.

    I am also glad that my eyes were open to the origins of the universe in video format, its quite entertaining.

    I am so glad that i had the confidence to make it through the year, to meet new people and to discover a new understanding of myself. Thank you for the lessons and for the memories. Good luck on finals!

    :ass: (Sorry Mr. Fullerton, i had to.)

  8. Christina H.
    Latest Entry

    When your in the shower belting out songs so know one can hear you i bet you have never thought that singing would have anything to do with physics. Well youre wrong! It totally does! People can not only hear your singing but they can also feel it! By singing, your voice creates vibrations that form into waves. Sound can be represented in wave form. The amplitude of the wave (the height of the wave) is represented by how loud you are singing. The amplitude is the degree of displacement of teh vibrator. Singing at a louder pitch create more vibrations, while singing at a soft pitch doesnt create as much vibration. This can be heard and felt in a car also. Depending on what the volume and the bass in the car is set at a person sitting in the car can feel the vibrations. Usually you cant feel the wave vibrations of a voice that isnt amplified unless you are on a surface that can allow waves to pass through it easily. For example, you can feel vibrations through would very well.

    So next time your mom or dad say stop singing you can tell them i am just practicing my physics :thumbsu:

  9. When light is hitting you it is actually waves or particles of matter. This is because light is matter and light is waves.

    Young's double slit experiment is what can prove light is a wave. He projected light through walls with two narrow slits in them. The result on the wall behind is interference patterns which shows that when the waves of light go through the slits they interfere and cross each other. This also shows diffraction which is the bending of waves around obstacles or spreading of waves when they pass through an opening. Another thing that proves light is a wave is red and blue shifts. When a star is moving very quickly at us it appears to us bluer than it actually is because the wavelength decreases.

    The Compton effect proved that light is a particle because it shows that light has momentum.The photo electric effect is when light is shined at a thin piece of metal the photons knock electrons out of the metal. This shows that electrons are pieces of matter because they have momentum.

  10. redsoxnation18
    Latest Entry

    Now that physics has come to an end, I understand a ton of information that will now always spark into my mind on a daily basis just by doing normal things. For instance when ever I throw a baseball I can't he but to think about different factors in projectile motion, like why does the ball fly the way it does and how can I get the ball to go the farthest with the right angle. Physics is everywhere and in everything and if you know a little physics then you will notice it a lot.

    This year we learned about all kinds of physics concepts and we did all kinds of experiments. Some of my favorite topics were the topics that made me think like quantum physics. I also loved our projectile motion unit because at the end of the unit we got to build catapults.

    My catapult was a mixture between a spring firing catapult and a trebuchet. The way a trebuchet works is by heavy weight dropping to rotate the catapult arm swinging a long sling and propelling an object. Instead of the weight, my group decided to use springs and bungee cords to put the arm and sling into motion with great force and it truly worked better than we expected.

    The first test shot went over 60 meters, but being the way I am, I had to see if it would go farther. Joe F. and I changed the sling release angle to as close to 45 degrees as possible to see if it would make the softball go farther. We also experimented with other objects like apples and baseballs. The apples flew very inconsistent and the baseballs flew very far, much farther than the softball because off the less air resistance. We also tried making a baseball wet and heavy to see if it would change the distance but it didn't change much at all.

    On the day of launch my group, Roxy, Joe, Andrés and I broke the school record and launched a softball a whopping 82 meters. I didn't now that it was going to go that far. I learned that if you put in 110% effort, anything is possible to achieve. This was a very fun and memorable part of my physics year. Thank you Mr. Fullerton for a great year of physics class!

  11. rtsully829
    Latest Entry

    I'm sure you have heard about, read about it book and even seen it in movies. Well I am hear to give you a basic overview, it is very complicated once you really look into it. I'm hear to shed light onto this for all of you. (All with out the use of a flux capacitor or a Delorean.)

    tumblr_lurwloteu81r0o16yo1_500.jpg

    I'm going to talk about the types into the future or into the past. Lets start with the future. In some ways this is on display everyday. The clocks on the GPS satellites need to be adjusted due to fact that when you are moving

    time moves slower thus you age slower. In theory, you could send someone out into orbit for say 20 years, he would only age 20 year when family member and friends on earth would age 30 or 40 years. And the faster you move the slower time would move but you would run into the problem that the faster you move the more massive you become.

    r-BACK-TO-THE-FUTURE-DELOREAN-large570.jpg

    Something I think that cool about time travel into the past is in some ways we see it all the time too, ever night to be exact. When you look at a star, your not seeing how it looks now, you seeing how it look 100, 200, even 1000 years ago. Now don't be worried, I know you though it would be slightly more interesting and let me try my best to make it so. Einstein's law of causality does kind of put a damper on the idea that you could step in a machine and just go back due to, in simple terms, cause and effect. Everything happens causing something else and something else to happen and we can't upset that. Now don't give up your dreams just yet. some physicist do theorize that if we could push past light speed time could flow backwards.

    Well there it is in a few minutes, time travel. Now to fully understand the science and theory behind it you would need to read a book and be much smarter than me. It is something very cool to think about. Stephen Hawking as talked about the idea of time traveling tourist if you want to look into that. But to save you the time. But if someone knocks on your door claiming to be your great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandson, maybe you should listen.

  12. A car is the main thing people use to get around. But people usually just get in and go, and then hit the brake either at a stop sign or a stop light. Then they hit the gas when that person is able to go. But driving a car has a lot more than just hitting the gas and brake. There is a lot of factors that have to deal with physics involved.

    First, there is many forces acting on a car when it is at rest and when it is moving. Some of those forces are the normal force, which is the car itself. Also, there is a force of friction when the tires are in contact with the ground. Then the force of the ground acting back on the car. Next, once you hit the gas and get going you start to have a velocity. The Faster that you go the more your velocity will pick up, and once you start going the same speed you velocity will start to level out to a constant speed. Lastly, there is momentum when driving. When you have a bigger momentum, it will take longer for you to stop and likewise for a smaller momentum. To find these things you can do your own time trails. and then your reference table and plug in the numbers to solve it.

  13. Unfortunately we can't dodge the physics regents exam BUT the good news is we can dodge dodgeballs in gym class. So yes, that was really corny intro sentence but, you'll thank me later the next time you go to participate in this scary sport :-)

    Remember the 5 D's:558904_10152725860590114_493561457_n.jpg

    Just kidding, that's from one of my favorite movies: dodgeball.

    But physics believe it or not has everything to do with dodgeball- throwing, catching, running.

    When you throw the ball you are inacting a force, velocity, distance, final velocity and accelaration.

    When catching the ball you are stopping a force through momentum and every force has an equal and opposite force. Your gravity keeps you on the ground and in place when the ball is being thrown at you so that you have the ability to catch it.

    When you are running- you are using kinetic energy and velocity. KE=mv^2.

    Funny how physics is everywhere!

    Good luck on your exams everyone!

  14. Now that physics has come to a close, I think my last blog post should be about what topic interested me the most throughout this past year! Although physics by far was not my favorite class, there were definitely units that were actually quite amusing. Through this year we have learned about friction, kinetic energy, waves, potential energy, newton's laws, and tons of other things. But the one that stood out from all the rest was electricity.

    In the electricity unit, we had many cool labs that were very interactive, and I learned many things that I never knew about before. For example learning about conductors was pretty cool, learning about what materials allows charges to move easily and which ones do not was expressed in one lab where Mr. Fullerton laid out different types of conductors and my group had to figure out which one's where conductors and which ones were resistors. This was fascinating to me because I never knew how many different conductors there were and how to really tell the difference between a resistor and a conductor. A resistor is said to be the flow of charge itself. Conductivity and resistance definitely goes hand and hand, without one another neither would exist.

    Coulomb Law-looks at forces created between two charged objects. As distance increases the forces and electric field decreases. In order to show this successfully, Mr. Fullerton arranged magnets at different tables and we experimented by bringing the magnetics closer together then separating them further and further apart. By doing so, we could see that the closer the magnets are to each other the greater their force and vise versa, which was appropriately explained throughout Coulomb law.

    AC & DC current- this topic was very interesting to me because I never learned about it before and it was actually quite interesting. There are said to be two different types of current in the world, one being direct current which is a constant stream of electrons in the same direction repeatedly, and alternative current which are charges that reverse direction. What was also interesting to me was the electrons can only flow if there is a current, I thought that electrons just always continued to flow but in reality they need a current. AC currents are used more around the world then DC current because its cheaper and easier to increase and or decrease the amount of energy. Most of the appliances in our homes are used with AC, DC is very unlikely to find. However you can also change DC to AC with some power converters as well.

  15. Working out is the act of building mucsle and exercising your body. In preforming acts of runnig lifting or endurance, you engage in a variety of physics topics including friction, resistence, energy, forces and momentum.

    For working out, the act of building mucsle demonstrates an example of resistance and or friction. When lifting heavy objects or moving in a forceful manor, it requires you to condemn in motion that essentialy tears the musles cause the force required is working out your mucsles and you gain strength when they grow back allowing you to deliver a greater force.

    In terms of energy, chemical energy is converted, therefor conserved and then transfered to the body in a new form of mechanical energy which allows you to move things and or run and exercise to get in shape. Continueing to expell energy requires more energy to keep up your endurance and allowing maximum potential to work out. By having stored energy or potential enrgy, you have the ability to move and then its transfered to kinetic energy in your work out secssion.

    In terms of momentum, bigger and more heavy objects when being lifted contribute a greater momentum against your body inhibiting a greater level or degree of diffuculty for bigger objects and will make more of an impact for you. Because of the more intensive strain it provides. Lesser momentum makes it easier to life and "no pain no gain" implies you will not see great results.

    Working out is an action that delivers wide diverse physics topics which are good to understand so you know what is happennning to yourself durring work outs.

  16. Our year has come to an end. College is in the near future and rapidly approaching with each passing hour. At the beginning of the year, I walked into physics c excited but not really sure what to expect nor was I sure how difficult the material would be. As the year progressed, I realized that the tests were hard and I needed to study harder than I ever needed to before. After I failed two out of the first four tests, I was motivated to do well on the next one. The first rotational exam came and I got the highest grade in the class. I proved to myself and my classmates that I could excel if I put the work in. The rest of the year I did decently on the remaining tests and spread my attention towards my other AP classes as well. Electrostatics and magnetism in the second half of the year was very difficult for me. I tried extremely hard to grasp the vague concepts; visualizing the actions of subatomic particles was difficult but by the time the AP exam came, I felt like I understood it better than I ever had. Going into college, I hope to take more physics courses because it intrigues me. But at the same time, I will also take the lessons I learned with me: don’t procrastinate, read the text book, ask a lot of questions, and take the initiative to study a little each night before each test so I don’t stress myself out and go into each test confident and prepared. College will be hard but I am ready to work hard in order to achieve the success I envision. I will discover the cure for cancer, buy my physics c teacher a silver Porsche, and I am ready to take the next step in education and in life.

  17. This is by far one of my favorite tricks to do along with butterfly kick and butterfly twists, (they link up really easily) but a parafuso actually shows how well the human body takes linear momentum and converts it to angular momentum but adding the upward force.

    The ginga (pronounced like jinga) is the building and wind up guard of this martial art. it has the leg back on one side and the arm back on the other. This basically gives range of motion to throw parts of the body into motion with more anticipation and control. But the first thing you'll notice is the 180 turn before he jumps. This turn causes the initial linear-angular transition as the hips are bent forward. Next he throws his arms into the angle to gain momentum from their mass, and the legs are swung around until either both can land (regular) or the first leg to take off is tucked back and you over turn the kick into a 540.

    This trick is done 'perfectly' when the middle of the kick can be as far back as if one were lying down, where the transition from linear to angular momentum would be the most efficient, and also where the most height can be reached by the kick itself, allowing the momentum afterwards to carry through to the next motion.

  18. 1.) Don't catch senioritis too early

    2.) Don't wait til last minute to do your blogs

    3.) Watch the videos on Aplusphysics.com

    4.) The book is your friend

    5.) Try on the four minute drills

    6.) Look at notes from AP-B

    7.) Find a friend who knows what they're doing

    or

    8.) Teach your friends what to do

    9.) Stay ahead on independent units

    10.) Don't freak out and have fun

  19. Momentumous
    Latest Entry

    It's rather crazy to be writing my last ever physics C blog post... I feel as though this day has always seemed so far away.

    Now that I'm all reminiscent and whatnot, what better to blog about than a reflection on the course?

    First and foremost, it was hard. At least for me. I felt as though all year I was struggling to grasp everything that everyone seemed to get so easily and had to fight ten times harder to get to the same point. The course frustrated me countless times, and I've never done so poorly on so many exams before in my life.

    With that in mind, I have absolutely no regrets. Despite poor exams, I learned so much in this class. From how to deal with frustration, to how to develop better studying habits and techniques. I have a far better understanding of what does and doesn't work for me to do well, and taking Physics C has made me feel more ready for college than any other class I've taken, hands down.

    What's more, that class constantly has me thinking about physics. ALL the time. In all honesty, everything can be related to physics, it's just a matter of whether or not you take the time to notice it.

    I wish I had tried just a little bit harder sometimes, and done better on my tests, but I'm happy with all that I've learned both about physics and myself. Shout out to the fantastic teacher, Mr. Fullerton. I couldn't have done it without you!

  20. I've always wondered about black holes. In the area of one, gravity prevents anything -even light- from escaping it.

    black-hole-surrounded-by-debris.jpg

    How does something like this exist? Well, when gigantic stars collapse at the end of their 'life' black holes can form. Because the object is so dense, it sort of bends space and it's gravity attracts things close to it. The closer to a black hole, the more space-time is deformed. Theoretically, if someone could survive going to a black hole, while they get closer and time seems normal to them, anybody that could observe this happening would see the person slowing down considerably, possibly even looking as if they aren't moving (if you could see them at all.) Black holes are able to grow larger by taking in many stars and maybe even other black holes. When this happens, they are called supermassive black holes. There are 4 sizes of black holes. From smallest to largest: micro black hole, stellar black hole, intermediate-mass black hole, and supermassive black hole.

    White holes, on the other hand, are only hypothetical. They are the opposite of black holes. They wouldn't be able to be entered from outside of it. However, light and matter could come out of it. This would essentially be like a worm hole if on the other side there was a black hole or entrance of some sort.

  21. DavidStack
    Latest Entry

    Well this is kind of bittersweet, finally being done with blog posts but also realizing that high school is completely over, as is Physics C with a fantastic teacher. I've learned so much during the year, from angular analogs to retarding forces to induction to the sheer brilliance of Walter Lewin's ability to draw a dotted line; it's been quite a year. I've appreciated this blog posts as much as I've hated them, mostly because they forced me to truly learn the stuff that I write about. And now when I struggle with physics in college, I'll always be able to go back to APlusPhysics and ask for help. I encourage anyone and everyone to take Physics C - it's certainly challenging but I can't see how you could regret it. So, farewell APlusPhysics, I'll likely come crawling back in no time at all.

  22. CharlieEckert
    Latest Entry

    So I was reserving my last blog post for my momentum video I made last year. Unfortunately I couldn't find it last night. I went to Mr. Powlin today to get the video but it wouldn’t upload to the site, or to my email or Google drive for some reason. I’ll try to find the video again tonight, but if I can’t just picture me getting shot bare skin with an airsoft gun.

  23. Guys, we have just finished the hardest classes in the school. I think I speak for all of us that senior year was quite stressful, but a great relief as well. We gained knowledge that far surpassed any other year. With Physics and Calculus placed 2nd and 3rd period conveniently, I think we all became morning people! To be honest, I never expected leaving to really effect me the way that it is currently. I am truly going to miss all of my high school friends. We have all toughed out our years, pushing ourselves to new limits, and helping each other along the way. With heavy hearts, we all must say goodbye and move on to our next years of school. We will spread out across the country to take our education beyond that of what we have seen thus far. I will miss my teachers as well, who have helped me reach my potential and helped me to my current grades. I feel ready for college now and whatever life pushes my way. I wish you all the best of luck in your future careers, and I hope we will be able to stay in touch, if we don't see each other in the newspapers making a difference to the world. So long nerds of 2013!!

  24. jfrachioni
    Latest Entry

    i thought because i started my bloggery with a prediction and outlook of the course, that i should end it all with an analysis of the year. my thoughts on Mr. Fullerton as a teacher are that he is great at explaining things, and teaching in general. the course is very difficult, and he makes it easier to handle. i also think independent units are a good thing, and that they should be continued. as for blogs, i definitely think writing can help cement understanding of physics concepts, however my opinion is that there are less painful ways of doing so than writing blogs. although I only took half a year of calc, i found the material i learned in that half was more than enough to carry me through this course, yet a whole year would have probably provided me with an even better understanding of this material. i think there should be more projects, contests at the end of the year, and less kerbal, although the kerbal program was extremely educational and interesting, so the best thing may be a balance of the two. all in all, its over and im looking forward to college.

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