PaperBoy

Nowadays, renewable energy becomes more and more of a problem. Rather, the fossil fuels we use to create energy are the problem, and renewable energy is the solution. We’ve tried wind, solar, water, nuclear, and plant energies as alternatives to gasoline and coal. But, one extremely promising form of energy yet remains: fusion. We currently use only fission to create energy, which is the process of dividing large molecules by shooting various particles at it. However, this process has many dangers. It creates large amounts of radioactive waste, can lead to meltdowns, and can be used to create milder atomic weapons. Fusion, on the other hand, does none of these things. So, why don’t we use it? Well in short, we can’t. Fusion takes an enormous amount of heat to create: about 100,000,000 degrees Celsius. The Sun can do it because while it only manages to reach 15,000,000 degrees C, it also has the added benefit of immense amounts of pressure in its core. We currently experiment with using magnetic fields to create pressure and gamma rays to heat materials into plasma, but the most energy we’ve ever gotten out of a single experiment was 16 megawatts. Though it may not be much, we’ve improved greatly, and 25 years ago we thought fusion would be impossible on Earth. With time and money, we may yet learn how to control this miracle energy source.

Einstein had some pretty crazy theories about the universe. One of his most famous may be that no object may accelerate up to or beyond the speed of light. However, few know the implications of this startling discovery. One instance put across is the idea that when an object moves faster, it actually gains more mass. This is because all particles in the universe are said to exist within a field called the Higgs Field. This field is responsible for the mass of all objects in existence. The Higgs Field is an energy field, and when an object passes through it at a certain velocity, it gains mass accordingly. Because the speed of light is the maximum speed a particle can move at, it can be seen as infinite velocity. Therefore, for a particle to move at the speed of light in the Higgs Field would mean that this particle gains infinite mass. So, what would happen if two particles approaching the speed of light hit each other head-on? They would each have near infinite mass and velocity, and therefore momentum, so who would win? It’s the age old question: “What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?” Or I guess in this case, what happens when an unstoppable force meets and unstoppable force?

That sounds a lot like the Schrodinger's Cat Theory. Are they the same thing?

Everybody loves a good hero. But, are they realistic? Some of our favorite crusaders - Batman, Link, Green Arrow - use grappling hooks to get around. I wonder if they’d work like in the games and movies. Let’s say Batman is trying to get into Arkham Asylum to teach some no good-nicks what he thinks of this whole “rehabilitation” thing. He needs to get two floors up, which is about 6.6 m. And, like in the movies, he needs to rocket up that distance, let’s say at about 6 m/s. The average man weighs 70 kg, but Batman is pretty buff, so we’ll make it 75 kg. We can calculate the work needed to be (.5)mv^2 + mgh, which here equals 6205.95 J. We also know v = d/t, so that means t = d/v = 1.1 s. And, power = W/t = 5641.77 W. It’s pretty safe to say a handheld motor like the ones we see in the media couldn’t make over 5.5 kW of pull. A mounted artillery grappling gun could, and are used by the US special forces for stealth missions. However, until our technology evolves a bit more, Batman will just have to learn to actually fly.

Rochester winters are famous for their snow, and the next one isn’t far off. The more the merrier I say, except when it's that really dense, slushy snow that clogs up your driveway. Unless of course, you're using it to peg some random stranger with. But what if it breaks up like mine always do? Will it still hit the mark? Let's say we have a nice big snowball, separated into three chunks. The dense center has a mass of .02 kg. The next, slightly less dense section has .01 kg, and the outer ring is fluffy snow with .005 kg, for a total of .035 kg. It's thrown from a teenage boy's arm height - let's say 1.2 m - at a small child's head - about .5 m high. The child is 6 m away. The snowball is thrown at exactly 15.88 m/s horizontally so that it may hit the target perfectly. But, after 2 m, .005 kg breaks off, and after another 2m, .01 kg breaks off too. Using conservation of momentum, knowing each piece breaks off at the current speed of the snowball, we find the speed in the x-plane to be 15.88 m/s again! Repeating the same procedure for the next 2 m, we again find that the speed of the snowball hasn’t changed. Thus, the snowball hits its target perfectly, and the scientists involved get a stern talking to from an angry mother. Complete success!

Any way you slice it, it's still bologna. By that I mean if you get hit with this bullet no matter what you will be turned into deli meat.

I'm sure everyone reading this knows what a sniper rifle is. You know: long barrel, cylindrical scope, big long bullets, used for long range and heavily armored targets. But, what you might not know is how powerful one is. The standard NATO sniper rifle bullet is the .5 BMG. Made in 1921, the most powerful version of that cartridge is about .052 kg, and leaves the rifle at 882 m/s. p = mv, so p = (.052)(882) = 45.86 Ns. That big fat hunk of copper has about 50 Ns of life in it. Now, the average adult human head weighs about 4.5 - 5 kg. Seen as how I'm writing this I'll use myself as the test subject. I'm not quite an adult yet, so let's say 4.5 kg. One day, a friendly physics teacher near you sees just way too many tests in one day, pulls a standard issue sniper rifle out of his attack and takes a pot shot at some weird kid. Naturally my head pops of like a tootsie pop in that owl cartoon. Assuming the bullet finds a warm new home in my cranium, that's 10.08 m/s it pulls my dome along with. The average height of a 17 year old male teenager is about 1.75 m. Assuming that the bullet is fired horizontally, we can use kinematics magic to find that my head hits the ground 6.02 m away from my toothpick body, and rolls whocares m afterwards. Doesn't sound fun does it? That's why I'm proud to present to you our newest innovation in protective headgear: the tank hat. This simple helmet is made of solid 6" steel and can protect you from bullets, mortar, bullies, and apples. Teach Newton a thing or two today! --Warning, tank hat does not protect against .5 BMG Armor Piercing rounds. Don't be rude to IHS Physics teachers for your own good--

Recently I discovered something about Position vs. Time graphs that I found fascinating. Did you know there are far more than 2 derivatives of the relationship? Acceleration and velocity hardly scratch the surface! Here's a list for all you position fanatics out there: Derivative: Name: -5 Absounce -4 Abserk -3 Abseleration -2 Absity -1 Absement (Absition) 0 Position (Displacement) 1 Velocity 2 Acceleration 3 Jerk 4 Jounce (Snap) 5 Crackle 6 Pop 7 Lock 8 Drop Can you believe it? Mainstream cereal somehow found its way into physics class other than on a food tray. Though, in all honesty, the derivations and integrals become increasingly less useful. Few practical equations even have enough exponents to avoid from becoming 0. It makes sense if you think about it: each time a derivative is computed the exponent of all the variables is decreased by 1. Therefore, you'd need an x^8 to even see a Drop vs. Time graph that isn't a constant zero. And those look like big goofy bowls, why would you want one of those? In the end I guess it's not as climactic as I first assumed, but still pretty cool that position goes way beyond its most common boundaries. If you wanna find out more for yourself here's the link I found: http://wearcam.org/absement/Derivatives_of_displacement.htm --This blog is in no way affiliated with Kellogg's Rice Krispies(c) and does not confirm or deny the existence of tasty rice breakfast cereal--

Wow, I've never heard of anyone wanting to be an astrophysicist other than me. That's really cool! Maybe we'll cross paths again in the workplace. Don't you quit on me! P.S. Don't worry about the math, nobody's totally ready for it. It's calculus, we'll learn as we go!

I'm an AP Physics C student who loves to be silly and goof around whenever I can. I enjoy physics, mathematics, astronomy, programming, engineering, swimming, definitely not cooking, listening to music, and Super Lawn Chair Fighters 3000. My favorite music genres are rock, alternative rock, and heavy metal (though there aren't many good heavy metal bands in my opinion, just a lot of screaming). Since I was maybe 9 years old I've wanted to be an astrophysicist, and that hasn't really changed. I'm taking this class to further my knowledge in an area i truly enjoy studying, unlike most of school. Even if I don't end up using it for a career, it's still a very conceptually crazy course. I hope to actually start learning some cutting edge physics this year, instead of been-there, done-that. I'm excited to start learning physics again in general, though I'm still a little scared I might not be able to keep up. I'll make it! Adios.