bdavis

Good thing we learned a lot of the physics of sound waves last year. I understand what you are saying and the arrangement of the orchestra now makes perfect sense.

Haha unfortunately most of my "4th of July"incidents were with kerbals

I have always wanted to try surfing! I will come out to Cali to visit you and we will go to the beach!

Haha if i were to grow my hair out it would be outrageously curly too! maybe I should do that too!

Everything completely and utterly true!

Mr. Fullerton is the man. And you are quite the model student yourself

Haha nice blog post man! very analytical and very true

Yea i agree! this was a challenging class but very rewarding in developing good habits and showing what habits we need to fix/break

Very true. The text book and independent unit work are very important work. and you helped your friends a lot

I think this is really cool man!

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.

We just recently finished a game in calculus. We called the game “tag” but it really was a game of assassin where we could get people out by shooting them with water guns. We had to be very stealthy because no one was supposed to know about it. To keep up with the stealthy behavior, shooting long range squirt guns would have been really effective to get people out without them realizing what hit them. In the beginning of the year we conducted a lab with q-tips and plastic straws. That lab demonstrated the concept of velocity and the relationship between displacement and acceleration. If we had water guns that had a longer nozzle with triggering mechanisms that would apply a constant force on the water from the beginning to the end of the nozzle, then the water would be accelerated over a longer displacement. F=ma and the longer an object is accelerated, the greater its velocity. Water guns with longer nozzles would be able to shoot water out faster and over longer distances if shot with an angle of appropriate trajectory. If they weren’t that noticeable, then it could have worked to our advantage. The best assassins have a good understanding of basic physics.

Yesterday in class we learned about Einstien’s theory of relativity and time travel. Our physics teacher explained to us how traveling in space or being on another planet can alter the amount of time you feel and your body experiences. If someone is in Space for 70 earth years, their body doesn’t age those 70 earth years if they are far enough away from the Earth’s atomsphere. We also learned about how the speed of light is the fastest speed that can be achieved in the universe: 2.998 x 108 m/s. We discussed how no object in the universe can attain that speed because as an object moves faster, it gains mass. The more mass it gains, more force is needed to accelerate the mass to continue increasing its velocity. No matter how small the initial mass is, it will become so big that there is not enough energy in the universe to apply a force strong enough to accelerate it to the speed of light. Furthermore, we also learned about how string theory applies with electron transfer. In theory, two electrons next to each other are connected by a “string” and they have opposing spins because no two electrons can spin in the same direction when they are next to each other. When one flips, the second one is supposed to instantaneously flip as well to maintain the different directions they spin in. It has only been proven to be true at a maximum of 13 miles across a river in Russia but physicists are still working on it. I find this concept fascinating and I really would like to know more about it.

Now it may seem like I am running out of ideas but planting a flower incorporates an important physics concept. When removing a flower from its packaging, a proper amount of force must be applied. If too much force is applied when removing a flower from its packaging, then it will therefore accelerate too much and the roots at the bottom of the package will separate, killing the innocent flower. When actually planting the flower, after digging an appropriate sized hole, you don’t need to shove it into the ground. By gently placing the flower into the subsequent hole and covering the surface with dirt is the first step to execute. Secondly, a firm yet gentle pressure must be applied to pack the soil down on top of the flower so the roots and stem are secured. If too much pressure is applied on such a small area, it will experience a greater force, thus accelerating into the ground more and crushing the roots. The stem will therefore become unstable and fall over. The flower will then shrivel up shortly after. In gardening, a lot of finesse is required so as to not kill the flowers. These two equations (force equals pressure times area and net force equals mass times acceleration) show how and why too much applied will harm the flower.

In light of the end of school, I want to review how my 4th quarter has been. My third quarter was slightly less than stellar taking into account my previous accomplishments and I feel like that was the “swift kick in the a**” that I needed to get right back on track. From then on in the 4th quarter, I turned things around, studied hard for my AP classes and did well on my exams. After that I focused on my other non- AP classes and increased my grades considerably. In physics, we started the Kerbal Space Program and that was a lot of fun but at the same time it was educational. We got to learn about the physics of flying a rocket and how to manage a business through our online write-ups. My partner Zach did most of the work because he thoroughly enjoyed it but I forced my way through in the end so I could get a taste of that experience. I will always regret doing these blogs late because that wasn’t fair to my family or my physics C teacher who was kind enough to accept them. Overall I feel like the 4th quarter went well but I still have some work to do before college.