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SJamison

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Blog Entries posted by SJamison

  3. SJamison

    Lasers

    By SJamison,

    Through photon camp in which I attended last year there was a lot of talk about lasers. This is because while using optics you can do a lot with lasers this is because you are easily able to manipulate them. The three things that all lasers have are an energy source, a medium and a resonator. The energy source or source pump is used to provide the laser with the energy that it needs to be powered. The medium is what really separates lasers because it determines the strength of the laser or the power that it has. And the optics are used to adjust and fine tune the beam. Lasers are cool because that have a variety of uses: cutting, welding, drilling, and marking. They are very good sources of light that are easy to manipulate and have endless uses.
  4. SJamison
    @Cvankerkhove had a blog recently about the butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is basically the idea that every thing that happens has an effect on everything else so if one thing doesn't happen everything else could be different. This got me thinking about the idea of time travel and how things would change if you were to go back in time and interact with other people. With this idea in mind what would change? Would the time line that you went back to, continue on and basically start all over again by living out all of the changes that you made to it while the time line that you came from, continues to live out their time line? Or is their just one time line that is being altered? This idea of different time lines is kind of like alternate universes which is a cool concept and it makes me question the conciseness of us right now and how there could be multiple of you on different timelines.  
  5. SJamison

    Golf

    By SJamison,

    The key to golf is not only patience but to have a consistent swing. If you can hit the ball the same way with the same force overtime you can be accurate with how far you hit the ball just by changing clubs. Each club has a different loft and an angle associated with it. Knowing the angle and the force exerted on the ball allows for you to be able to calculate the distance that the ball will travel using kinematics because you are able to find the horizontal and vertical forces suing the angle and these are needed to solve. And using a combination of force exerted on the ball and angle you are able to get an exact distance by changing these values. This will only work too if you know the changes in elevation and the idea that the ball is perfectly inelastic and that it has no rotational inertia which we know isn't true. 
  6. SJamison

    whistle

    By SJamison,

    How does a whistle work? In order for the typical whistle to work you need air streams. In order to get the high pitched noise that you hear coming out of a whistle you need the air steams to interact or cross paths. This is done through the round part of the whistle, as you blow into the whistle the air travels through the loop and up again (as seen in pic below) this allows the air to cross paths with the new air coming in. At this point where the air stream crosses itself again becomes a high pressure point and the air that escapes is what makes the noise. Whistle pitch and frequency depends on the length of the whistle, the longer it is the lower the sound will be.  There are other types of whistles that work in a similar concept but vary slightly. The image below is the standard whistle that I am talking about.

  7. SJamison

    Monster truck flip

    By SJamison,

    In order for a monster truck to be able to do a front flip it needs for one of its points far from it's center of mass to come into contact with a fixed object. One way of doing this would be to get the truck into a wheelie or almost stand the truck up, then you need to hit a fixed object like a very steep jump. This will cause for the truck to begin a rotational motion and begin to do a front flip. This is because the impact of the tires on the fixed surface act as a torquing force which cause rotational motion. In the video below the truck hits a jump to get the car into a wheelie and then increases speed to hold the wheelie so that the trucks back tires come into contact with a dirt ramp which cases the truck to perform a front flip. 
     
  8. SJamison

    Dropping a gun

    By SJamison,

    In almost every action-comedy movie there is a person who happens to drop a gun and then it goes off. This however just does not happen every time a gun gets dropped. For a gun to be fired it requires the firing pin to be activated and to do so you either need to pull the trigger or get the hammer to release and come into contact with the firing pin. The chances of this happening are slim to none. In fact, a lot of gun instructors will tell you that it is safer to just drop the gun if it falls out of your hand rather than try and catch it. This is because well trying to catch the gun as it falls there is a good chance that you will grab the trigger in the process and discharge the weapon. Even though in all of the movies it looks super dangerous to drop a gun it really isn't as bad as what they make it out to be. However if you are dropping a gun I don't think it should have been in your hands in the first place. 
  9. SJamison

    Turbo = Fun

    By SJamison,

    A turbo system in a car is a pretty simple but genius idea. It uses the gas exhaust from a piston engine to spin the turbine in the turbo system which then pumps more air into the cylinders of the car, allowing the car to burn more fuel each second. As a result of a turbo system, your car will burn more gas but because of this the turbo will provide the car with more power due to the increased revolutions of the pistons. By installing a turbo in your car you will be able to increase your cars over all speed. But without an anti lag system in your car there will a turbo lag meaning that when you press on the accelerator it will take a few seconds before you feel the full effect of the turbo.  
  10. SJamison

    Spoiler

    By SJamison,

    So on the back of super cars you often find a spoiler. As a kid I always thought that a spoiler was just to make the car look cool but in fact it does serve many purposes depending on the positioning and type of spoiler used. One use of a spoiler is to push the air around behind the car as the car pushes through the air this reduces the drag force on the car. This application of the spoiler can improve gas mileage. Another reason why spoilers are seen on super cars is because when traveling a very high rates of speed it is often very difficult to control the car. By adding the right type of spoiler it can use the air that you are traveling through to push the back end of the car down, creating more downward pressure, this is know as counter lifting. This gives the car more grip that allows the car to have more power and control thus increasing performance. The car below is the mclaren p1, this is a car that makes use of a spoiler in order to keep it on the track and increase performance.  

  11. SJamison
    So as we all know there is no gravity in space so, what would happen when you want to wring out a wet towel there? I fond this question very interesting when talking with friends so I thought I would take a deeper look into it. When you have a very wet towel and go to wring it out, the water is not just going to fall off like it does on earth. Instead because of the  waters surface tension and lack of gravity in space, the water will float around the surface of the towel  forming a tube shape around it. The water will stay like this until further actions are taken. I found this very interesting because you don't think of gravity effecting such small actions like wringing out a wet object until it is no longer present. After looking at this it would be cool to see how they get the water out of something super wet in space since you cannot just wring it out. The video below shows what happens when you try to wring out a towel in space. 
     
  12. SJamison

    MRI machine

    By SJamison,

    So recently I had knee surgery, about four months ago on my right knee. Everything was going well and good until a few days ago. Come to find out I messed up my knee again but wait there's more, this time it was both of them. My right one definitely has another tear in the meniscus and the surgery is scheduled.  But, the left knee, however, we were unsure of so i had to get a MRI done. During this I was curious to see how it worked but come to my amazement so was the guy operating it. Despite this I decided to research how it worked. I found out that an MRI machine is just a strong magnetic field ranging from .5-1.5 Tesla. An MRI machine uses this magnetic field to arrange hydrogen atoms in the body along the axis of the machine. once this is done the nuclei produce their own magnetic field that can be detected by a scanner and then form an image.  I thought that this was really cool and the person to come up with an invention of this sort must have been absolutely brilliant. From this machine I hope that it gives me some good news so that I don't need three knee surgeries in a years time frame.  
  13. SJamison

    Human strength

    By SJamison,

    A human body has the ability to release a huge amount of strength through its muscles. The reason that a person is unable to unlock all of this strength at any given time is so that muscles do not get strained or torn in the process. This is a cool safety feature of the body so that people do not over exert themselves and end up crashing. In order to produce large amounts of strength it takes a lot of energy and using muscles to their max for a long period of time can be very harmful to the body. However, in some cases when on an adrenaline rush people are able to tap into this strength in order to do things that seem to be humanly impossible. There have been incidents were people have lifted cars or moved heavy objects in order to save or do something. This shows just goes to shows how powerful the human body is.   
  14. SJamison
    So I recently came a crossed an article that said drinking warm liquids on hot days will actually cool you down faster than a cold drink. I found this really strange because I would have thought that a nice and cold refreshing drink would cool you down,however, like normal I was wrong. I thought that was really interesting so i decided to look into it. I found out that this is actually true. When drinking a hot liquid on a hot day it will cause you to sweat more than than usual, cooling you down. This is cool because with sweat being a natural cool down for the body it is cool how you can manipulate your body temperature so that you can do it more. Drinking a warm drink consistently allows you to produce about a 100 ml more sweat than if you were to drink a cold drink(A warm drink being 50 degrees Celsius and a cool drink being about 1.5 degrees Celsius) So if it a hot day and really want to cool down i suggest that you go grab some nice and hot tea even though a cold glass of water would sound better (which I will probably still drink on a hot day)
  15. SJamison

    Underwater Explosion

    By SJamison,

    When an explosive goes off under water the shock wave carries a lot further than it would if it were on land and in the air. This is cool because water has a higher density than air so this mean that it is harder to move or has higher inertia. And we know that inertia is a measure of how restive something is to acceleration. This means that after the explosion goes off the shock wave from that will carry further through the water with smaller deceleration. From this we know that this shock wave will be carried without losing speed and keeping it's high kinetic energy. As a result of this if you are anywhere near an explosion in the water you will be feeling most of the energy from the explosion. This energy from the explosion depending on the size could have enough energy to shatter every bone in your body. I would suggest getting out of the water if you were in this situation but, chances are you would be to late.  
  16. SJamison

    The Helmet

    By SJamison,

    It is better to not get hit in the head but sometimes it just ends up that way. Hockey helmets are designed like most helmets with the ability to absorb most of the energy from impact. The thing that I believe separates a hockey helmet from a standard football helmet is the fact that the top of the line hockey helmet rotates a little around your head without jerking your head in the initial impact. (I don't Know enough about football equipment to speak on behalf of the equipment) However, most injuries that occur to the head are caused from the initial jerk of the head when the brain remains still for a moment while the head moves. As this movement happens it yanks on blood vessels and nerves causing strain on the head and if bad enough an actual brain bleed or a concussion. This is why I wear the top of the line helmet now because previously having a really bad concussion and now I must wear it to prevent future ones. With this helmet no one is safe from every hit but with the ability to rotate a little around your head it gives you a slight edge over other helmets.  
  17. SJamison
    When a person is jumping from a high distances to the ground or other hard surfaces it is important to maximizes the time that you are decelerating. This is vitally important because the thing that causes injury is the force that is applied to you over short periods of time. If you can spread the force out along a period of time the impulse over time wont be a as big thus your body will not have to absorb all of the energy at once allowing for a safe landing. This also allows for the body to be able to absorb greater forces. One way to increase the time to stop is by bending the knees. This is very important because if you don't you will feel the force all through your body
  18. SJamison

    Bullet proof glass

    By SJamison,

    Everyone calls it bullet proof glass but in reality nothing is bullet proof. The term for it is bullet resistant because if something is shot enough, one will find its way through eventually. Bullet resistance glass is a combination between very thin sheets of glass and even thinner sheets of tough plastic made of polycarbonate. This is able to work because as the bullet hits the glass it breaks the thin sheets of glass and the energy from the bullet is absorbed by the plastic layers. To make this effective you increase the number of layers to absorb more energy. The ratio between glass to plastic is normal 3:1 were the layers of plastic are 1-3 mm thick and the glass is 3-10 mm thick. This is crazy to think that by layering glass and plastic it is able to stop a .308 caliber marine sniper bullet, one that will knock you off your feet entirely.  In this video you can see that this glass is only successful for two shots from a .308 rifle at close range. So if you are in a car with a sniper shooting at you and have this glass between you and the bullet, I would suggest driving pretty fast. 
     
     
  19. SJamison

    The kronwall

    By SJamison,

    Kronwall is one of my favorite defenseman in the NHL. The reason for this being his huge hits that he has (shown below) and this great defensive play. The reason for hit great hits is because he combines his massive self with a good amount of speed to completely wreck players. The main reason this is so effective is because of a fundamental aspect of physics which is the idea that momentum must be conserved. Since he catches his opponent off guard it allows him to build speed and use his mass to collide with the other played and cause for him to continue on in his original direction. Even though his speed gets slowed significantly from this it is because he has just collided with another massive player. But, since he has more speed and a better center of mass this opponent gets "Kronwalled"       
     
  20. SJamison

    Falling down the stairs

    By SJamison,

    So last night it was very late and dark and my mom decided to leave a basket at the top of the stairs. I think you can see where this is going from the title. So going down stairs was very fast. And getting up the only thing that I could think about is what just happened in terms of energy. The first thought that I had was how much potential energy I had at the top of the stairs. The next was how much transferred into kinetic energy from falling down the stairs. Then I thought about the mid way point where I had kinetic energy, potential energy and a little rotational energy.  I found this funny because physics changes the way you think, you can be sitting on your butt at the bottom of the stairs and still be thinking about how it relates to physics and then realize you have an EM exam on Friday!
  21. SJamison

    Stomping in the snow

    By SJamison,

    When you are walking in the snow have you ever noticed that when your foot lands in light, fluffy snow your footprint is actually bigger than it is and you can see the extra space with your foot still there? This happens because when you are bringing your foot down it traps a pocket of air between your foot and the ground. As a result of this once your foot hits the ground that air pocket is dispersed thus it causes for the snow around your foot to move even though you are not touching it. This can be pretty satisfying when you are walking home in the freezing cold with nothing to do.  
  22. SJamison
    With this wonderful weather comes wonderful roads. From driving, it can be a very dangerous with the coefficient of friction much smaller making roads very slippery. Thinking about our previous unit with rotational and transnational motion it can relate a lot with a car in the snow. When starting up the tires often spin when very slick out causing for more rotational movement rather then the wanted transnational. And then as you get going you begin to build more transnational rather than rotational. So for every one out there driving be careful!!!  
  23. SJamison

    A flexible pencil???

    By SJamison,

    Why does a pencil or any linear object look like it is bending when you wiggle it? I was very curious of this today and was wondering why? The answer to this question is that in the way you are wiggling it you are rotating around its center in such a way that our eyes perceive that the ends of the pencil is moving faster even though the angular velocity is truly the same through out because it is truly a rigid object. The reason for this is because when an eye is viewing a fast-moving object the formed image can be modeled as the image of points that appear to have different velocities on the same object. The reason our eyes do this is the same as when transitioning front light to dark. It takes time for our eyes to focus and adjust to our surroundings so by our eyes focusing on the fulcrum or our fingers in this case, it cases it ends to blur.
     
  24. SJamison

    Skating

    By SJamison,

    So with the hockey season starting today I thought that i would do a blog about hockey. Thinking about skating in hockey and why you need to get your skates sharpened, this is to allow for there to be enough friction to propel you forward. This is just like running were you need friction between the ground and your feet to be able to drive forward by pushing back. The only difference is that in hockey you need the skates sharp to cut into the ice in order to drive yourself forward. This is showing Newtons law where if there is a force in one direction there must be one in the equal and opposite direction. Being able to gain traction is hockey is key to being able to be fast that's why you angle your blades on the ice instead of straight on as you can see in the video below. You can also see how the players you there sticks to go into the turn to help get around the turn more compact instead of having it out wide which would slow you down. 
     
  25. SJamison

    Knee surgery

    By SJamison,

    So in the past month I have recently had Knew surgery to remove a torn meniscus. This surgery was relatively quick only lasting about an hour. Knee surgery has come a long way from where it use to be. They use to have to open up the whole knee but now you only walk out with three little holes in your leg. All the thanks goes to physics and the ability to manipulate things using modern knowledge of optics and modern technology. During this surgery they were able to take out a torn piece of meniscus with a viewing tool, a small scalpel, and water to flush it all out. This makes the surgery relatively easy and allows you to walk a day or so after and be back playing sports within two weeks. I am very thankful for physics for it got me back to hockey before the season began. 

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