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 ca
So the world series for baseball happened not too long ago and something amazing happened. Hunter pence, an outfielder for the San Francisco Giants, broke his bat when swinging at a pitch but his bat hit the ball three times after he made initial contact.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOkbQVsIk_0
The ball made contact with the bat initially a few inches above the handle where he was holding it. In the video, you could see that the bat bent out as it was breaking and began to bend t
In both physics and chemistry, u, stands for a lot of things. u is the coefficient of friction, with subscripts indicating kinetic or static friction. It is the permeability of free space. It represents a magnetic moment. It indicates a micro unit (10^-6). It represents linear density. In chemistry, it represents velocity. u is also used to represent values in music, pharmaceutical sciences, computer science, software design, meat science and linguistics. Understanding each and every rep
At the beginning of the school year, we learned the two forms of vector multiplication: the dot product and the cross product. The more intricate of the two, the cross product, comes into play in many equations to provide very useful information. For example, in magnetism, F=I(BXL). This means the magnetic force is a vector cross product of the vector of the magnetic field crossed with the length of the object multiplied by the current flowing through that object. The resulting force will ha
So far for me, Physics C has been a challenge. There is a lot of information to learn and a lot of abstract ideas that I have difficulty wrapping my head around. Despite the many difficulties, that i know most of my fellow classmates are experiencing simultaneously, i find this class extremely rewarding. I have learned so much not only about physics but how to properly study and learn complex information accurately and effectively. I also find the content very interesting. So many things ha
So far for me, Physics C has been a challenge. There is a lot of information to learn and a lot of abstract ideas that I have difficulty wrapping my head around. Despite the many difficulties, that i know most of my fellow classmates are experiencing simultaneously, i find this class extremely rewarding. I have learned so much not only about physics but how to properly study and learn complex information accurately and effectively. I also find the content very interesting. So many things ha
On may 13th 2013 I sat down in my high school in the afternoon for my AP Physcis C exam. The first test I had to take was the mechanics exam: 45 minutes for the multiple choice and 45 minutes for the free response questions. The 35 question multiple choice part of the exam wasn't all that difficult but a bunch of problems took a long time to figure out. I didn't finish that part of the exam so I had to guess on the last 4 questions. The beginning of the free response section began with a air
So when my family goes out to restaurants, my mom and i take the straws they give us, rip off the top part of the paper and shoot them at each other. We also make spitballs and fire them at each other at will before we receive our food. This relates to a lab we conducted in our Physics C class. We blew projectiles from straws and then blew those same projectiles through straws that are connected to other straws. Those projectiles traveled faster and farther. Velocity is calculated by dividi
One activity i love to do is ski. I love the exhilarating feeling of going really fast down a steep incline. But in order to attain a fast speed, one must have good form to minimize AIR RESISTANCE. If someone were to go down a steep trail with their torso revealed with their arms extented out, they will reveal a ton of surface area and thus, the air will have more to make contact with. In turn, that person will not go as fast as they possibly could.
But if someone has good form that can m
Last year, i was blow-drying my little sister's hair and when i put the blow-dryer into the outlet, i got shocked. When i inserted the plug into the outlet, i accidentally put my finger too close to where the circuit was completed. I then realized that i completed a circuit when i plugged in the hair dryer. I did a little more research. I found out that the voltage of an outlet in a home is 120 Volts. Then i did research to find out the resistance in the blow-dryer. The blow-dryer i used h
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
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 sho
Ever since i saw my first Jackie chan movie (which i cannot remember off the top of my head), i have always been curious how a man, not especially strong and bulky with the muscles most football players possess, can break a cinder block in half with his bare hands. I previously thought that the cinder block would be too strong for even the most muscular man to even crack it let alone break it.
In this video, the person had two thick bricks stacked on top of each other and he broke bot
Many people might not think it but the meat-heads who body build conduct physics related actions everyday when they go to the gym. The weights they lift are objects that apply a force to the muscles that are targeted in different exercises. Newton's second law, net force= mass x acceleration (F=ma) shows that force is equal to the mass times the acceleration. So the weights that people lift when they work out have a mass that is accelerated by gravity to produce the force overcome by muscle m
In our everyday world, mechanics that work with cars in autoshops work with a physics concept that we all know and love: Torque! Cars are working machines that are assembled by many parts and those parts are held together by bolts and screws and lug nuts. Tools such as wrenches and pliers allow mechanics to secure parts by putting the nuts and bolts on the car.
Torque is equal to the applied force times the radius or length from the fulcrum of the object. (T= Fr) To ensure that a l
The varsity cross country team decided to get mowhawks to get pumped up for thier sectional race this past saturday. As a member of the cross country team i got one as well. Most of our runners had long enough hair to spike it and create very large and excentuated mowhawks. I didn't have enough hair to do that so i got the sides of my hair shaved off and my mowhawk looks like a drag strip right down the middle of my head. This type of mowhawk has some very unique properties. As a runner, i
I am a man who loves baseball and when i figured out that physics plays a huge role in pitching, i got excited. Physics is exhibited very well in curveballs. A curveball is a pitch that was named for its movement; it curves on its path towards home plate as it reaches the batter.
The pitcher grips the ball on the side just over one of the seems and when he throws it, he flicks his wrist hard creating the ball to spin sideways as it travels forward towards the plate. As it shows in the diag
I am very interested in physics and in learning how different things work in the world around us. i class we learned the dot product and cross product and applied them briefly to kinematics in our first day of that unit. Although those are two very new concepts to me relating to vector math, i am interested in grasping the new concepts and applying them to my growing knowledge of physics.
i wanted to take physics to gain more knowledge about what this area of science has to offer. i am v
In the dating world, people with opposite personality types seem to be attracted to each other. In the world of electrostatics and magnetism, opposite charges attract each other and opposite magnetic poles attract each other too. Particles with a positive charge, such as a positive test charge, are attracted to particles with a negative charge, such as a negative test charge. The particle with the greater magnitude of charge will attract the other with a greater force. For example, if a part
Well I started this third quarter off on a really bad foot when i got an atrocious test grade on the electric potential test. We followed that test with an independent unit in circuits and although my test grade in that unit wasn't anything special, it was a significant improvement. Then we got the magnetism independent unit. In AP-physics B, my understanding of the magnetism unit wasn't very strong but I felt like i had a better grasp of it by the end of last year. However, with an increase
In my soccer game yesterday, I experienced quite a collision. Not with anyone person. I collided with the ball. In soccer, each player is allowed only to use their feet, their body and their head, not their arms or hands. Hands and arms may not come in contact with the ball. Yesterday, I had a few head balls that demonstrate the concept of conservation of momentum. A teammate of mine kicked the ball from the sideline and I redirected it with my head towards the goal. The glancing blow off
As a baseball player well below average height, I need to maximize every aspect of my game to be the best player I can possibly be. One aspect I have tirelessly worked on is my arm strength and throwing mechanics in order to maximize the velocity of throwing a baseball. Velocity is equal to displacement divided by time. Therefore, if there was more displacement over the same period of time, the velocity would be greater. I throw over the top which means that i have more of a windmill throwin
After we took the AP physics C test, we began to experiment with a computer game known as the Kerbal Space Program. In this game, creatures called Kerbals inhabit a planet named Kerbin (surprisingly similar to Earth) and we had to fulfill many missions related to space travel. I really enjoy the Kerbal space program because at the same time it is a fun experience and it incorporates a lot of physics topics such as the incorporation of gravity and air resistance. It also introduces Orbital mov
We recently built catapults as a project assigned by our physics teacher. Our goal for this project was to maximize the distance of the projectile, which in this case was a softball. We either had the choice of building a catapult or a trebuche but we decided to build a catapult. Using our knowledge of two dimensional motion, we set out to build a catapult that would launch the projectile at the optimal angle with the most applied force. We placed a wooden beam on our catapult at the spot th
In preparation for the AP Physcis-C exam, I did a number of things that helped me to properly review the year's material.
1.) I looked over each test and studied the questions that gave me the most trouble.
2.) I re-read the parts of the text book that described specific properties regarding certain topics during the year such as the properties specific to conducting and non-conducting shells. Also, I looked up and reviewed kirchoff's loop rules and the properties that go along with the
