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  1. Ever since I was little, I've been interested in thunder and lightning. The lightning would always crack across the sky and that would be followed by a boom of thunder. When i was young, I neve knew why these things happened or anything about sound and light. But now as a student of physics, I know some interesting facts about these occurances.

    Light and sound are both a very big part of our everday life. Without them, life would be very different. Light travels faster than sound. That's why you experience lightning before thunder. Light can travel at about 299792458 meters per second. While sound travels at about 340.29 meters per second. This difference in speed is huge. There is supposedly nothing that can travel faster than light.

    If you put a lamp in a vacumn, you'd still be able to see the light it produces. If you put your iPod in a vacumn and played your favorite song, no sound would be produced. This is because sound cannot travel through a vacumn, but light can.

    To this day I'm still intrigued by thunder and lightning, but knowing the science behind them is pretty cool too.

  2. Abbeys Blog

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    alf095
    Latest Entry

    Speakers can cost hundreds of dollars to go with an awesome sound system but you can make your own as well. In order to do so you just need to learn the physics behind doing so. First electrical energy from the ipod tranfers and converts into magnetic energy which then converts to sound waves and hit against our ear drums which then converts again so we can understand them. A simple speaker can be made using a business card, wire, aux cord, a bowl and a magnet. Once you set everything up the cup in the bowl creates a louder noise and the cylindrical paper makes the noise clearer. Vibration moves up throufh the cords to the paper dishes and helps create sounds. To make everything sound better its usually better to put it on a very solid object for something to vibrate against. So next time you need a quick fix for a speaker, just use household objects.

  3. The gymnast on the balance beam does work and power to jump on the beam and do cart weels. The rhythmic dancer's ribbons go through centripetal force. The force is center seeking which causes the constant change in direction. When the gymnast jumps to the rings he does work and power too.

  4. On March 16, 2014, fezziksphysics referenced my post, and I was interested to know someone else's perspective on their learning style and how they understand material. I definitely agree that the VIP charts became much easier once I understood and applied what I had learned. This part of physics reminded me of math, I just needed to do the problems a couple of times to truly understand them. I also really liked how she wrote down all the formulas, also!

  5. http://motherboard.vice.com/read/americas-new-particle-collider-is-one-foot-long

    The Cern particle collider is 17 miles long, the Chinese have announced work on a 49 mile long particle accelerator.

    But, using plasma - a foot long particle accelerator has been invented. it's not perfect, but it will be improved upon.

    Yes, you can now do particle acceleration experiments in the size of a large sandwich.

  6. Many of us enjoy looking at optical illusions, but why do our eyes lie to us?????

    Although each illusion has it's own reason, and scientists still don't know all the reasons, it comes down to one thing. Our brain makes assumptions.

    Our brain uses context of our surroundings to make split second assumptions. This is helpful in everyday life and back when we were hunters and gatherers and needed to make split second decisions in the wild. Our eyes don't show us what's really there just what we need to see. It uses the surrounding environment to make conclusions. This is done by using shadows, surrounding colors, and past experiences.

    optical illusions are just a case of your brain telling you what you should be seeing, not what is actually there.

  7. So far this year, I have to say my favorite lesson this year is went we were working with the machine that shocked us when we touched it. I thought this was enjoyable becaue it was very funny to watch people get shocked when they went to touch or even kiss the Van de Graff Generator. I think the created a very enjoyable setting to learn about how proton, and electrons interact between each other, and what pain they an create when they or not ground. I personally tried touchig the machine and I quickly pulled my hand away because it hurt so bad! But some people were brave enough to go ahead and kiss the thing... I would never. I also found it so fascinating how we all could hold hands as a class and send one huge shock through all of use. I never knew soemthing was possible. But his wwas my favorite demonstration for a class period. I thought it also helped expand my knowledge on how proton, neutrons and electrons interect!

  8. The European Organization for Nuclear Research known as CERN was founded in 1952. Since then more than 80 countries have been contributing to the research done in the particle accelerator and trillions of dollars have been invested. Many argue that the money spent could have been invested in humane projects rather than spending it on research of tiny particles in huge machines under the ground that go through multiple countries. But most of us don’t know the great benefits the research provided us in the past years which greatly justifies this investment. The research provided the discovery of cancer therapies, monitoring nuclear waste, helps to save tons of electricity in power transmission, the discovery of the MRI, and the greatest of all a better understanding how our Universe works.

  9. As I was desperately researching different topics to write about, I came across an article describing how physical therapy relates to physics. As a former physical therapy patient, I know the painful and difficult tasks required to heal. According to the article, Torque, electromagnetic force, and gravitational force are relevant to physical therapy. Also, physics itself is obviously applicable to the movement of the body through all the forces of nature. Torque applies to physical therapy as the body bends, stretches, and moves throughout a persons life. Electromagnetic force is present within processes of the human body and any electromagnetic forces outside the human body may effect it. Lastly, gravitational force becomes relevant to any motion the body makes.

  10. heather_heupel
    Latest Entry

    Ever since I had an MRI on my knee (worst experience ever) I wanted to discover what was really going on. Sitting still for 32 minutes really makes you start to think about everything. I wondered what the machine was really doing. I had to take off all of my jewelry, or clothes that may have metal on them and until 9 minutes into it did I realize I left my ring on. I only noticed because it was vibrating and made my hand feel weird. I pulled the emergency cord and told them what was wrong and they allowed me to keep it on because that part of my body was not in the tube.

    I found a really good video that started off by explaining the waves, amplitude, frequency, phase, etc. The concepts are kind of hard so I had to keep re-watching parts of the video. I also still need a lot of explanation. What I did pick up was this is one of the times electrons aren't as important as the Nucleus. Using the technology and creating the clear pictures, tumor tissues could be differed from normal tissues. It became the quickest (although not very quick if you're actually in one) screening tool to detect these defaults in the human body. To make an MRI picture, they use 3D space to focus the image of the ligaments.

    This was a very hard topic to research especially since it is only my first year of physics but Mr. Fullerton I'm sure could easily understand it;

  11. Nearing the end of the year 2013, a new Disney movie came out, sending society into fanatic obsession. This movie was of course, Frozen. Frozen tells the story of Queen Elsa and her struggle to contain her gift. The majority of the movie is her sister, Ana and her entourage tracking down Elsa to try to help her. Well trolls, evil fiances, and talking snowmen later, the world is completely addicted. I still am, quite frankly.

    While I watched this movie a hundred times, I wasn't just belting along to every song in the movie, I was baffled at how realistic it was compared to other animated movies. They made the characters 3D, they used a real reindeer to crate Sven, and they spent years making it perfect. (I'm not actually sure how long it took them, but it did take a long time to perfect.) Anyway, they are now in the works of making a second and...oh right! Physics...

    Well when I watched the movie after I entered my junior year, physics came into my brain. The animators took a lot of time to make sure that the movie followed physics, which I can't say for many animated films. Especially in action scenes, I noticed how they applied how objects would fall in free fall, also how all three of Newton'd laws were used correctly. Another way it followed physics was with their use of projectile motion as well as the other aspects of kinematics. When objects were moving around the screen and giving lines, the Doppler Effect was slightly apparent. This only scratches the surface at all the tech team to create a timeless classic.

  12. When I was playing the trumpet the other day in band, I realized that I was using physics. As I blow into the trumpet it creates vibrations that move through the air ways of the instrument. The waves come out through the other end of the trumpet and generate a sound. if I apply more force when I create the vibrations then I would be increasing the amplitude. If I press down certain keys then I can change the path that the air waves take and change the pitch of the wave which would change the frequency.

  13. thatnewjunior
    Latest Entry

    On a slightly-longer-than-necessary-immediate-family-only-two-week trip to the Adirondack Mountains over the summer past, I learned how to waterski on one ski. Once up on two skis, the forward velocity of the boat makes the water 'act' as it would if you had fallen on it from a very high position: it 'hardens' beneath you, making it possible for you to basically stand on your skis, on the water. Once you get going and find yourself advancing in a relatively straight line, you slowly add pressure to one foot, and begin to slide your other ski off by lifting your heel. More often than not, you will fall once your weight leaves the ski you are trying to get rid of. But eventually I succeeded in keeping upright after dropping a ski! Next summer's task: getting up on only one ski to begin with!

  14. ErikaRussell
    Latest Entry

    Finally the weather begins to warm up which mean it's time for flip flops! As I walked through the commons the other day wearing my flip flops, I noticed how slippery the tile floor was... luckily I did not fall! Then I thought about wearing flip flops in the winter and how often I would fall due to the slippery ice, not to mention my feet would be very cold. I came to understand just how important friction is in the winter because, without it, we would be sliding and falling all over the place. The soles of winter shoes, for example, tend to be very grippy and have lots of ridges in them. These ridges provide the shoes with a less likely chance to fall over on the ice because they create more friction. Also, there are snow tires many people buy for their cars during the winter because the roads get very icy and these tires provide more friction between the car wheels and the ices, which will prevent the car from potentially getting into an accident. Good thing car tires manufacturers as well as shoe companies took into consideration all the physics that goes into creating more friction because otherwise people would be falling and getting into car accidents more frequently. And on the bright side, we don't need to worry about this for a while since spring has finally arrived!

  15. ASayasone
    Latest Entry

    I remember being brought to the batting cages a couple times over the summer when I was younger. Not being interested in baseball at all, and still not being that interested, it was still a fun experience. In a batting cage, it's yourself, a bat, and this machine which shoots baseballs. The entire purpose is for you to try and hit the baseball, and there's net surrounding you so the baseball doesn't escape once you've hit it. So at a batting cage, there's a bunch of physics, such as how the baseball will travel towards you at a certain velocity, and then you'll swing the bat at a certain velocity with a certain force, and if you've aimed correctly, both the bat and baseball will come in contact and apply a force onto each other. After that, the ball travels in the opposite direction which it had been thrown at. If you had wanted to find its velocity for whatever reason, you could have someone time when the ball had been hit, and the time it stayed in the air and finally hit the ground, already knowing the acceleration, and measuring the distance, you'd use an equation such as vf=vi+at or vf^2=vi^2+2ad. One thing I learned from the experience is that you should also wear gloves because the force from the ball can hurt your hand after you've hit it, this being because of friction between the bat and your hands.

  16. piglet&WINnie_fan42
    Latest Entry

    Sound is produced when something vibrates.. The vibration causes the medium around it to vibrate. Vibrations in the air are called longitudinal waves, which can be heard by humans. Sound waves consist of areas of high and low pressure called compressions and rarefactions. The wavelength and the speed of the wave is determined by the pitch or frequency of the sound. Wavelength, frequency, and speed can be determined if you know the other two. The equation speed equals frequency times wavelength is the equation used to do this. Since sound travels at 331 m/s at standard temperature and pressure. Also, longer the wavelength, the lower the pitch. The height of the wave is known as the amplitude. The amplitude determines how loud a sound will be - as amplitude increases loudness increases.

  17. If you have ever gone laser-tagging, then you will know that the space in which you are in has many mirrors. Why? well light can reflected off of surfaces that are flat and smooth very well. This is an example of specular reflection. However not everything reflects even if a large amount of light is concentrated upon it. Why? well it is simply that some surfaces are too rough to reflect light and so you cannot use everything around you to get your opponents.

  18. The moon does some strange things if you haven't noticed! And something very strange is happening this Saturday, April 4th! A so called, "Blood Moon", is to occur that will be the shortest of the century, these are very rare occurrences that are very interesting to examine.

    The blood moon occurs only when the sun, moon and earth are lined up perfectly with the earth in the middle. The earth as it lines up with the sun casts a large shadow which then envelopes the moon as it passes into the earths shadow. As it does this the moon becomes darker and eventually a reddish hue. The moon is turning red for a certain reason because the atmosphere of the earth filters out the blue light of the sun leaving only the red light to shine on the moon giving it it's signature red moon color.

    This blood moon occurrence happens to be a special one though, that is because usually a blood moon occurs twice a year, but when it occurs four times, like it will this year, it is known as a tetrad.

    So if a blood moon is when the moon is blood red, a blue moon is when the moon is blue right? Surprisingly no! A blue moon has nothing to do with the color of the moon unlike the blood moon. So what is a blue moon? Well it is a confusing tail.

    Originally the idea was traced to the "Maine Farmers's Almanac", which stated a blue moon was the third full moon in a season that contains four full moons instead of three which is a rare occurrence. But the idea was misinterpreted by another author who stated a blue moon is the second full moon in a month with two full moons, this was published and adopted as common knowledge.

    Now when you're friends start talking about the lunar cycles at the lunch table you can contribute useful information into the conversation. Enjoy your Saturday night which I'm sure you'll spend doing something other than watching the moon!

    Blue moon information from space.com

    Picture from toonpool.com

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    fminton20
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    Walter Lewin was a professor at MIT for 49 years. He became quite prestigious, not just on campus but online as well with his online video courses. In 2013 he began to create online versions of his classes for people to take as well. And in October 2014 it brought him sexual harassment charges. Immediately after said charges were brought, Lewin was fired and his videos were taken down from the internet. I don’t believe that his videos should have been taken down off the internet.

    I do understand why MIT would believe it was right to remove the videos. Lewin’s reputation was intertwined with that of the institute, once people find out about the charges it reflects negatively on MIT as a college. MIT wanted, “a complete separation from Walter,†(The Tech). if it’s found out that instead of defending Lewin, that MIT fired him and cut off all ties they had with him, it would look good for the college, because they took action against something that is frowned upon in society. So MIT’s rash decision to remove all videos and fire Lewin is completely understandable, but maybe not so well thought through. MIT was just trying to watch their own skin and are trying to prevent, “any further inappropriate behavior,†(The Tech). By removing the videos MIT is guaranteeing that there are no ties with Lewin at all, and there is almost no way to find the videos now, and will be forever deleted at the end of this semester at MIT.

    But removing the videos also may not have been a great idea for MIT to do. I understand getting rid of Lewin’s online classes. But Lewin’s videos, “have reached millions,†(The Tech). Lewin’s videos have helped not only the physics students at MIT, but people all around the world, learn physics by this brilliant man. He created demonstrations and lectures that, although I have not seen them, look as though they made it quite interesting to learn. By deleting the videos, MIT is taking away a valuable way to study and learn physics, for students who may not understand it sitting in a lecture hall. Although MIT is keeping them up till the end of this semester, what about the students who may need them later on in life? Or other students across the globe who have used Lewin’s videos to enhance their learning. Lewin’s videos have nothing to do with the sexual harassment charges, so if you delete the online classes that’s fine because that is where the charges began that’s fine and understandable, but taking away videos that were created to help students learn, is only hurting the students who may have relied on Lewin’s videos. Not only that, but Lewin is a brilliant man and MIT is deleting his work. Although what he allegedly did is wrong, it is also wrong to permanently destroy someone’s lifetime work.

    In conclusion I believe that Walter Lewin, accused of sexual harassment, should not be allowed to continue to work at MIT and give online classes, but I do not believe that his lecture videos should have been deleted. His lecture videos offer a different way for students to learn the material especially if they don’t grasp it in class. I personally know from experience that online videos to help learn actually help me learn the material so much better. Although I understand the reasoning behind MIT firing Lewin and not wanting his name associated with theirs, I also understand that Lewin is a brilliant man and his work has influenced so many lives across the globe help to learn physics from “swinging from a ball†(The Tech). Lewin’s videos should not be deleted because they help kids learn and the alleged accusations did not take place within these videos and have nothing to do with students, except for helping them learn the material that’s being taught to them.

  19. Guest Elliott56
    Latest Entry

    Most of the forces currently known to man have their opposites. Magnetism for example will have a North Pole acting opposite to that of a South Pole. For this reason I began to think of a possible opposite to the force of gravity. Although gravity is not very well understood today, it is widely accepted that mass causes gravity and creates the force that pulls two objects together. This type of force is often modeled as a large mass creating a dip in the fabric of space-time causing other objects to slide in towards it. This can be seen as such:

    http://www.ws5.com/spacetime/162571main_GPB_circling_earth3_516.jpg

    Keeping these principles in mind I began to think about what sorts of affects antimatter might cause. For example, could antimatter, containing the property opposite to that of mass, have opposite affects on the fabric of space-time, acting as a suction from above creating a hill, pushing other clumps of antimatter away from it. Upon research on the subject I found that antimatter is, contrary to my predictions, often believed to have an attracting force similar to gravity acting between itself and both matter and other antimatter.

    Instead, an alternative proposal for an antimatter is known as dark energy. This mysterious force described in the links below has a repelling affect opposite to the attraction created by gravity. This force, strange as it may seem, is actually believed to strengthen as distance between objects increases due to the fact that the farther apart galaxies become, the faster they accelerate away from each other. Although not yet confirmed, this new force seems like it would have little application to the types of anti-gravity we would like to see here on earth for it seems to only have a noticeable affect at great distances. Sorry, no flying hover boards yet...

    http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astronomy/cosmic_darknrg_020115-1.html

    http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2004/12/text/

  20. The fun 3D game that we all love has 3 basic components that rule over it and make up the PHYSICS OF MINECRAFT. We had talked before about the game during class and after my recent Star Wars post I decided to go in and explore not only a classic but one of our old school favorite games and how the game runs. In order to then satisfy Mr. Fullerton I went through the internet and found all the information I needed to tell you about the Physics behind the game. We can see in the game three basic kinds of physics that are implemented in the everyday game play: the movement of objects (land, weapons), the movement of fluids, and the electrical signals of Redstone which can than create circuits and electrical devices.

    1. Movement of Land, weapons, people, objects....etc

    For this first component you can describe the overall category as the movement of entities. As we search and break down the information we find that entities are labeled to be players, vehicles (boats, minecarts..), dropped items(weapons, food...), projectiles(snowballs, eggs, arrows, fireballs...), and than the classic falling sand and gravel.

    This category describes to us how gravity and other forces move about solid objects within the world. Just by playing the game it is obvious to us that gravity has been implemented within the game and we can see from the falling of leaves, players jumping, the arc on arrows, the dropping of items, the falling of sand/gravel, and from all of this we have a sense of gravity but as this is a classic game we can see some obvious flaws that occur. One such phenomenon that occurs is how blocks can float in space without blocks under them. If you build a block on top of two other blocks, than destroy those two other blocks, that top block will not fall but it will stay as you can see as you cut down trees. If you cut away at a tree from the bottom the entire tree will not fall, but instead it will float in space as you continue to chop away at it. Also only sand and gravel are affected by gravity. We can see that while underground mining for goods that if you hit away at coal or at stone nothing but the minerals will fall down and you can collect them, but if you break some rock and there is sand above the sand will drop like water and smash into you.

    So the properties held by these solid objects which do apply to physical laws, include that all of these objects have a volume. Whether it be a block of leaves, bark, stone, or an arrow or sheep these solid objects have a volume that no other object can than take a hold of. It is shown that most objects are made by 3D blocks and that two solid objects cannot occupy the same space at one time. Also these solid objects have positions, velocities, and rotations. Positions constitute the same principles as these solids having specific volumes and thus specific locations in the world. The moving objects such as people, arrows, sand and gravel follow gravity in their motion. We can see that there is a gravity effect on all of these objects which pulls them to the ground, that from this force there is an arc on an arrow or how you can't jump up and than fly. Also we see how objects in the game stay in motion until opposed. An arrow won't stop moving till it hits the target or the ground, such as a the sand won't stop falling until it hits the solid ground.

    We can see that solid objects can not pass through other solid objects because of the ideas behind volume and position, and also water moves objects around. We can see that any of these solid objects are affected by the flow and current of fluids such as water or lava. In the game when you fall into a river, waterfall, or a flow of lava(on peaceful) you will be pushed along and carried with the stream and current due to the unbalanced force pushing against you. Obviously though we can see some flaws within this though. If you are at the bottom of a waterfall than your character can defy gravity and swim vertically up the waterfall, traveling up steam, against the current, and vertically upward all things which are not only hard but some impossible to do.

    2. Movement of Fluids

    For the most part fluids follow the basic laws of reality but in some circumstances we can see that fluids in the game go against the natural laws we have in place. Fluid like the solid substances is affected by gravity and will flow downstream and pick up velocity the steeper the slope is. It can be walked through and you can occupy the same space as a box of water or lava occupies, and there is a flow and current in the water based on to where the water flow that affects the character and pushes them into a certain direction.

    With water we can also see the flaws. As shown earlier you can swim upstream even when the water is flowing straight down vertically. Also water and lava do not have definite volumes that at some point can max out. Water and lava can continuously grow and expand through empty space to no end. If one block of water is placed than its initial volume can grow continuously, say 19 blocks, that one block of water than has a volume 19x its original and under certain conditions can still grow and expand out word. Unfortunately in the real world this isn't possible at some point water can not grow anymore and its original volume can not just grow and change. Also if there is a waterfall you can use solids to block the water. If you place a rock in a space of water the rock will than take up that volume of space in the game and the water either adapts out word or it just disappears decreasing the volume (which is itself not possible) if you keep doing this process for a waterfall in a cave eventually you can block off all water. If you than though break that last block you placed water will again not flow out but the water has in fact completely disappeared. Instead of condensing the water where the volume would remain constant just stuffed in a smaller space, the volume of that cube of water disappears from the world and when you block all of it off that entire water source is than gone forever.

    3.Redstone

    Redstone is the mineral in the game used to create wires, circuits, and thus power in the world. Through redstone dedicated players (with no lives) can create large complex circuits that can open doors, turn on lights, activate mine carts, even create computers. Through the use of redstone circuits electricity is created in Minecraft and with that the possibilities within the world are expanded. Redstone is a mineral that is unique to the world and it has properties that are thus unique and allows it to create circuits and the flow of electricity which allows you to than do whatever you would like whether it be complex activities or simple lever mechanisms.

    Physics can be found in any game and by diving in and exploring the world of Minecraft we can find the physics which control the world, and also how the world disobeys the concepts of reality as well.

  21. Blog darkassassin

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    all right im going to try and hyperlink this video into this if it doesnt work just cut and paste into the url. http://www.flixxy.com/golf-ball-slow-motion.htm. this is an awesome video!!! i wonder what the impulse is? i will get back to you guys with that!

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