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Latest Entry
The Adventures of Cranston
Short Biography
Cranston was born with glasses on his face. These glasses grow simultaneously with him. He is a Nobel Prize recipient for Physics and is actually Newton's great great great great grandson. The resemblance is uncanny. He is pleased to present the first episode of his multi-faceted series.
Newton's First law: An object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. (Stay tuned for outside force...)
Static Equillibrium: The forces acting upon Cranston (Normal force and the force of gravity) are equal. Therefore, he remains motionless.
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Electricity and Music
Electricity and music both are connected not only through electric instruments but through our brain. In the second video it compares the brain to an orchestra and shows how even sitting down relaxed your brain is constantly moving. I also have had EEGs in order to monitor how my brain works during a seizure. Once I got to see a picture of my brain and all the electric currents going to all sorts of areas of my brain. The seizure would start in two different places in my brain then continue seemingly randomly until it ends.
We don't exactly know what causes my seizures but one problem my family has is that our brains always move to fast for us to do anything with a lot of the ideas we have. The first video on the other hand reminds me of my brother and how he was electrocuted at a young age. I wonder if we had any detectors connected to him how fast the frequencies would be going then. I think my favorite part of the video was when you could hear the sound because it added a whole different dimension to how your body can help transfer different frequencies.
With all the sound you could hear from his detector it makes you wonder what happens when you are using your cell phone. What frequencies go through your body? Can this really cause cancer? These questions and so much more are constantly being asked like how does are neurons know how to organize themselves in the brain when no one instructs them where to go. The brain is one thing I can't wait for the scientists to understand better so we can understand the miracles that happen inside us everyday.
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Physics of a Toaster
This is completely random, but as I was pondering ideas for a blog I discovered that there is a lot of physics involved in toasters! 
Most appliances that heat up, such as hair dryers, irons, and toasters, work by changing electrical energy into heat energy. Toasters are plugged into a source of electricity. From that source, the electric current runs down the wire and into the toaster. The inside of each appliance contains loops of different metals. The electricity does not easily flow through the metals. The metals slow down the electrons and hold up the current, which is resistance. Resistance is a measure of the tendency of a material to resist the flow of an electrical current, in physics. The higher the resistance, the hotter the metal will get. This happens because of the friction of the electrons.
The wires begin to heat up and glow because they are so hot. This heat is what toasts the bread.
Overall this is very random, but its cool to see how everyday appliances like toasters relates to physics!
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Latest Entry
The New Year
Well, its offically happened. I have accepted that summer is over and the days of sleeping in and golfing mid-week are over. I'm back in the swing of things. Grading papers, teasing students, harassing the chemistry teachers. I even have a new partner this year. For the first time, Eastridge now has two physics teachers! I'm enjoying having another person who understands me in the building to bounce ideas off of, and I think this will be a benefit to all students taking physics this year and beyond.
Looking forward to using all APLUSPHYSICS.com has to offer as well. Hope everyone has a great year.
---END TRANSMISSION---
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Latest Entry
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Physics
Just over a month ago, when I walked into physics class for the first time, I thought it'd be a drag like all the other science classes I had to take. I was that girl who's heart was filled with trombone, head filled with music and the only reason for taking physics was because my counselor made me; I had absolutely no interest in the course and that was the attitude I assumed would carry throughout the entire year. Why did I care what physics had to do with my life? What did it matter?
Then, probably a week ago, I found myself thinking more and more about physics. When I looked around me, I started wondering what type of physics is involved at what I was seeing. What physics is involved in a trombone slide? What physics is involved with the sound I hear when music is played? While walking home, I began thinking about the physics of airplanes, of cars, of myself--and tonight it finally hit me that physics is all around, that it's everything. I'm seeing things in a new perspective; I'm questioning more, I want to learn more. I don't view things the way they appear anymore--I look at something and wonder how physics is involved. Even though in class we're still working on free-fall, I can't begin to describe how much I've learned so far--and it's only October.
Last month, I was just another girl forced to take another class she didn't care about. Today, I'm a person who's seeing everything differently; who constantly questions things and constantly wants to learn more, all because of physics.
And it's awesome.
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Latest Entry
Car Crash Web Quest
Gunnar Miller' date=' Nick Nolan, Kaiya Williams[/font']Car Crash Web quest
The car crash web quest included two vehicles a Subaru (200kg) which was at rest and a Cadillac (300kg) which ran into the Subaru. The first objective we tried to solve for was the velocity of both vehicles after the crash. We were given the acceleration of both after the crash which was -3m/s^2 for the Subaru and the Cadillac’s was -2m/s^2. The distance that they went after the collision was also provided Subaru (24m) and the Cadillac (2m). we knew the car cars came to rest after the crash so Vf=0 for both. Once we knew we had three of the five solving for Vi would be simple. We used the formula Vf^2=Vi^2+2ad we plugged in and did two separate equations for both vehicles and the Subaru’s initial velocity was 12m/s and the Cadillac’s initial velocity was 2.83m/s.
Next we were required to find the momentum immediately following the collision with our physics knowledge of the formula Momentum=(mass)(velocity) or P=mv we had both vehicles masses and velocity’s prior to the crash. The way we solved was as follows Cadillac: P= (3000kg)(2.83m/s)=8,490kg*m/s Subaru: P=(2000kg)(12m/s)=24,000kg*m/s. after finding these two momentums it played a huge role in solving the rest of the lab.
The next part was finding the Momentum before the collision this was a very simple step in the lab we knew that before the collision the Subaru was at rest so the momentum of the Subaru was 0kg*m/s knowing the law of conservation of momentum we knew the total momentums of the vehicles after the crash would equal the momentum of the Cadillac before the crash. This lead us to add 24,000kg*m/s+8,490kg*m/s= 32,490kg*m/s.\
Finding the velocity before the crash was similar to the problem before we knew the Subaru’s velocity was 0m/s because it was at rest. To find the Cadillac’s velocity before we derived the formula Vs=(msuv)(vsuv) + (mwagon)(vwagon)/ msuv = 32490kg*m/s /3000kg= 10.83m/s. Knowing the speed limit was 35km/hr so we converted 10.83m/s to 38.99kh/hr so we knew that the Cadillac was speeding before he hit the wagon.
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Latest Entry
Cooper Rd. Speeding lab
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Are Cars Speeding on Cooper Road?
Ray, Ben, Julia, Madison, Damian
For our speeding lab, we had to determine if the cars driving north on Cooper Road were speeding or not. We were given a measuring tape and a stopwatch and were left to figure the rest out on our own. We had to describe the kind of car and have at least two sets of data for each car.
First we figured out that there are 15.6 m/s in 35 miles per hour so that we would have a baseline for our calculations. To determine a cars speed on Cooper Road, we extended the measuring tape 15.6 meters and timed how long it took for the car’s front wheels to go from the start of the measuring tape to the end of the measuring tape. We recorded the data for ten cars and wrote a brief description of each car so that we could compare our results with Mr. Fullerton’s radar gun.
After recording the speeds of the cars on Cooper Road we went to are data and compared it to what was recorded with the radar gun. Overall are data was not that off what the radar gun recorded however what data that was off was usually lower then what the radar gun got. In reflecting on this lab we could have had more people timing the cars which would have resulted in more accurate averages. With the timing there could have been someone standing at the beginning of the measuring tape saying “GO” so that the timing would begin at the same time and “stop” once the car got to the end of the measuring tape. Another way we could improve this lab would be through having Mr. Fullerton at the same spot as us recording the cars speed because some cars continue to accelerate as they continue. A final problem we had was that are timing system was very close to the traffic light so not all the cars we recorded were at full speed by the time they reached us.
Are results concluded that there is not a speeding problem on Cooper Road. Our data showed that the average speed between 10 cars going north on Cooper Road was 34.902 km/hr which is below the speed limit of 56.3 km/hr. which is equivalent to 35 mph. We had no one over the speed limit or even very close to it which was a positive conclusion from the data. So no we concluded that there is not a speeding problem on Cooper Rd. if there is anything there is a problem of cars going too slow.
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Latest Entry
Introducing Bob enright
I am a senior at irondeqoit, i play lacrosse and plan on going on to college next year. I am taking regent’s physics to further my knowledge of science and also because i thought that it was an interesting topic. I would like to come out of the class with a greater knowledge of science as a whole. I am not very nervous about the class except for the new material that i have to memorize. I plan on staying on top of the work load, staying focused in class and working with my classmates.
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Latest Entry
Why am I in AP-C Physics?
Recently I've been thinking: Do i really want to take C in high school? So far i feel completely overwhelmed but have been waiting for that "ah-HA!" moment that seems to be drifting away. I think of the students that are taking ap econ, calc BC and physics C, and they seem to be doing just fine, so why can't i seem to handle ap econ, calc AB and physics C? I would feel quite frankly, like a lame quitter if i dropped out, and even the term "dropping out" has, "you fail" written all over it to me. But at the same time I'm afraid that i've overloaded myself and all my grades will suffer from it especially when the material gets more difficult. And the reason i'm doubting my choice to take C is that out of all my AP's, im most confused in this one. Also I researched and most the colleges i'm applying to wont take 2 ap physics credits. Also the curriculum of the degree i want (5 year professional degree in architecture) in the schools i have in mind wont even let me take physics 101 until my sophomore year (Syracuse), or don't require me to take it at all (Cornell). Which i thought was strange but all electives say "free in department elective" or "free out of department elective." But if i do have to take it again in college, are the benefits of taking it now worth all the stress this year? Additionally, if i end up using it as an actual architect which i assume i will, I would rather take it closer to when i'll actually use it so i remember the material. In short, I really don't want to be taking this course *at this time.* Don't get me wrong, i'm interested in the concepts and material, I just don't know if i can handle it right now with my other aps, the truck load of college stuff we have to take care of, and general hygiene.
sincerely
Stressed Out / Worried :banghead)
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I had to do something on basketball
March is here and along with it comes warm weather and basketball. I thought that a good way to celebrate it would be to put up my basketball hoop. I went to put it up in my lawn (i have it facing the street cause no one ever comes driving down my street) and left it balenced so i could get the sandbags toput on the base. However, the hoop wouldnt stay up. The center of mass isn't the center of the base because it isn't symetrical. So, i placed a shovel on the base to provide enough tourqe to oppose the motion so that it could throw the sandbag on to keep it in place. I took a task that shoulda been easy and made it hard because i forgot about basic physics. But i gotthe job done.
Random Sports Fact: Harvard is in the tourney for the 1st time since the 1940's
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A cat falls 19-Stories and survives
I saw a video on yahoo news today where a cat falls 19-stories and survives and the reporter seems stunned. If only she took physics with us she would know that is is because of the aerodynamics of a cat and the terminal velocity of their fall to be able to spread themselves out to slow themselves down.Here is the link to the video.http://news.yahoo.com/video/bostonwbz-15750588/cat-survives-19-story-fall-in-boston-28691018.html
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Spontaneous Combustion
Ok, so everybody has obviously heard of spontaneous Combustion but doesn't know what it really is, atleast I didn't before this. For spontaneous combustion to work there has to be a Pyrophoric substance. A Pyrophoric substance is something that reacts to strong oxidizers such as oxygen or water. Anyway the Pyrophoric substances have very low ignition points which are ignited by contained heat in the pile or where ever it is. Examples of a Pyrophoric substance are sodium, haypiles or compost. The biggest cause of the creation of heat for the ignition of the substance is from bacterial decomposition, where the bacteria break down something and by doing so release heat that is trapped and therefore builds up the heat in say the pile of compost which eventually ignites the pile of compost also know as spontaneous combustion. For a really big bang the most volitile Pyrophoric substance are Rieke metals which actually explode when contacted by Air.:tyrannosaurus: and dinosaurs are cool hence the t-rex
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BUrkhart's Physics blog
please ask questions or leave comments here
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the physics behind taking your physics test!
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!
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the end of physics
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.
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Watch out for lightning!
Every time theres a huge storm its hard to keep our eyes off the pounding rain on the pavement, or dark clouds or the lightning that zaps out of the sky to the ground and is gone in a moments notice. The sudden flash of light isn't just to scare children or puppies though, its actually an act of nature and physics, believe it or not. Lightning is based off of the physics of electromagnestim, which is the science of the interactions between charges, electric fields and electric currents. Lightning is caused by the build up of electrostatic charge in clouds. Within this electrostatic build up, one part of the cloud builds up with positive charge while the other part of the cloud builds up with negative charge, this causes a large separation of charge within the cloud. When this separation of charges within the cloud becomes big enough this may lead to the negative charges leaping to the positive charges of another cloud. When this happens, sheet lightning occurs. What we usually see out our bedroom windows during a storm is when lightning strikes the ground.
There are a few different types of lightning, the lightning previously referred to (from cloud to ground),the ground acts as a pool of electrical charge, and when the clouds gain charge, the ground attempts to balance out the charge by gathering the opposite charge beneath the cloud system. When the difference between charges becomes great enough that leads to a breakdown of air between the charges. When this break down occurs that is when lightning occurs and it either occurs from cloud to cloud or from ground to cloud. What usually happens is the lightning starts at the ground and flows upward, it happens vice versa too, however it usually begins at the ground. To go into further depth, when a pool of negative charges are collected at the bottom of the cloud, that forces the negative charges on the ground to be pushed away. When this happens, that leave the charge of the ground positive. So usually a stream of negative charge travels down to the postively charged ground, when this occurs a stream of positive charges comes up from the ground because the two opposite charges attract. When the streams of charge come in contact with each other they create a very conductive path which allows a sudden down surge of electrons to jump to the ground. This is the lightning.
The whole reason for the lightning is because of the basic electromagnetic principal that opposite charges attract. The reason that opposite charges attract is so that they can reach an equilibrium. Two oppositely charged objects want to be close enough so that they can discharge and become neutral or reach equilibrium. The different charges are due to the amount of electrons or protons in an atmosphere, electrons have a negative charge of 1.6 x 10 to the negative 19th coulombs, enough electrons and the charge in the atmosphere (in this case cloud) is negative so a deficit of electrons creates a positive net charge. To explain the breakdown of air that creates lightning, ionization will have to explained. When two opposite charges are separated and cannot exchange electrons through contact, they must exchange electrons through a medium. In the case of electric storms, the air becomes the medium for this exchange. However air is not conductive, so this means that electrons cannot pass through it easily, for this problem to be changed the process of ionization must occur. This occurs when when a large amount of charged particles try passing through the medium this then causes the electrons and protons of the medium to separate, when that happens it creates a path between the two regions, and then the charges can flow.
Lightning as you can see is a very fascinating topic! Charges are all around us even when we can't see their effects, so its cool to be able to actually SEE the results that charges have in our world and in our atmosphere!
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Time Travel
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.)
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.
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.
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