For my final trick, a blog post about blog posts! The assignment of blog posts, 10 a quarter for four quarters, has been a great way to make us think. It seems fitting to reflect on the blog post process itself with this fortieth post. I really think this is a good idea, whenever I sit down to do a post I enjoy the creativity involved, and reflecting on what I've learned makes me appreciate the scope of the class all the more. I definitely recommend that the blog posts remain as an assignmen
Hello, internet (on the off chance everyone in the world reads this). I just started Physics C, mostly because I found AP-B to be entertaining and challenging. I'm an English oriented person so this is going to be a tough year, especially electricity and magnetism, which were very tough last year.
I want to take Physics C because I find it to be an interesting science that also offers college credit.
I hope Physics C helps me get ready for college math and science classes, and ma
Physics is everywhere, all of the time. This seems cliche but I really am beginning to grasp that, as this year draws to a close. No matter what I do, every single day I make connections to the concepts from the classroom and life. I don't try to, but that is what taking physics does to you. It alters your perspective eternally, as things that simply happened before now hold within them staggering amounts of math and headache inducing levels of thought. At any time, a baseball in flight can
1) Use the parallels to linear motion: x and theta, v and omega, a and alpha, mass and moment of inertia, torque and force.
2) The many forms of torque: Torque = r x f, I times alpha, and net torque = rfsintheta
3) Angular momentum! L = r x p = r x mv and Net L = mrv times sintheta. Also the rate of change of L = torque
I have long feared the start of Electricity and Magnetism in Physics C, and following the introduction to this semester with a hard unit on E fields and forces, I know that this will be as hard as I thought. I didn't realize that it would be fun however, as I am finding myself enjoying the new elements of electricity such as Gauss' law and the fact that the calculus isn't as bad as I envisioned. There is still a long way to go but hopefully E and M won't be the nightmare I envisioned on day on
Car crashes happen thousands of time every year, and while they can be horrific they also offer an excellent look at momentum and impulse. Cars are extremely massive, and therefore have very large momentum's even at very low speeds. This is why innovations such as seat belts and air bags are so vital, they increase impulse to help the human body cope as huge amounts of kinetic energy that the vehicles possessed is transferred to them though extreme force. So if you ever think about ignoring t
Halloween has come and gone, and I did absolutely nothing as usual. But if I could go back and participate how would I dress up? If you are a physics student in need of a costume for next year try some of these: Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, whenever someone asks you a question, you aren't sure of the answer; An electron, simply run in circles around the "nucleus" of normal people at the party; or perhaps an isochoric process. If anyone asks you to do something, simply reply that you do
The times square ball is dropped from a height of 43 m every year at the start of the new year. However, I feel the ball drop should be timed so the ball lands at the turn from one year to the next. Thanks to kinematics, we know the time it takes the ball to fall (neglecting air resistance) is = radical ((2h)/g), or radical ((2*43)/9.8). This means the ball should drop 2.962 seconds prior to midnight to land at the start of the new year. Happy 2013 everybody.
We just finished all of Mechanics for AP physics C, and I want to reflect on the highs and lows of the semester. I most enjoyed learning about rotational motion, specifically angular momentum, as it was so unlike anything from last year. Finally learning to deal with rolling objects felt like a real step forward from last year. I found oscillation to be the most challenging unit, and cross products to be the most confusing new concept. I really enjoyed independent units and hope we do anothe
The scientists at CERN in Switzerland have apparently seen a rare tau neutrino for only the third time. These subatomic particles have been some of the most elusive to observe for scientists. This finding is critical, as the more we find out about subatomic particles the more we are able to improve our understanding of particle physics and begin to understand our universe. There is a good article summing up the sighting of the tau neutrino here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/28/tau-
One more time, lets examine the physics of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Again, tiny, non plot related spoilers ahead. There are ley lines in the novels, which are essentially underground currents of untapped magic. At places where many of these lines intersect are places with some form of magical significance in the series. This demonstrates Kirchhoff's Current Law, or the Junction Rule. All of the magical current flowing into these junctions is conserved and converges into one, much s
Winter is here, and so is the snow. Many people fear driving on wet icy roads, and for good reason. The coefficient of kinetic friction between rubber and ice is 0.15, while the kinetic coefficient between rubber and dry asphalt is 0.72. Since the force of friction is directly related to these coefficients, the force of friction helping a car stop is nearly 5 times less when driving on icy roads, and therefore the net force is drastically reduced. All of this means less acceleration, meaning
The final segment of a study of the physics behind these awesome books will discuss theoretical physics and magical dimensions! In the novels, there exist other planes of reality, such as the magical plane of the Nevernever, and several other dimensions such as the one inhabited by Bob, the spirit. There are also things called Outsiders which are said to come from outside of reality. All of these coexisting planes of existence are similar to several theories of theoretical physics such as stri
While procrastinating instead of doing blog posts, I stumbled across a neat article about something we have been studying. Apparently bees may be using the electric charge and fields they build up while in motion to communicate with one another. This is a very cool concept and if accurate may hopefully enable us to communicate with these animals through induced electric fields. Here is the full article link
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2013/03/bees-buzz-each-other-but-not-the.ht
Space Planes! I only recently began experimenting with the space plane features of KSP, but they offer a wealth of information about drag and air resistance. The steering of these planes is so sensitive, that you really see how rudders and pitching affect flight. Also, placing aerodynamic caps on engines rather than leaving them flat noticeably alters acceleration and top speed capabilities of a plane. Trying to build a plane is also complex, as you have to consider how much wight the wheels
Science fiction novels are all about projecting the wildest possibilities for future technology to entertain readers, which is why it is so astounding how often what is written comes true and so interesting to think what will come true next. Robert Heinlein wrote of mechanical hands controlled by a human, a technology now used in medicine, which was only imaginary at the time he thought of it. He also is credited with the idea for the water bed. So, what will be the next technology to become
People truly are incredible. Take a simple act like throwing a baseball, something anyone can be taught to do quite easily. Yet this simple action involves two dimensional motion, rotational velocity, UCM torque and energy. From making sure your arm is fully extended to create more torque, which produces more velocity on the ball, to releasing the ball at an optimal 45 degree launch angle to get maximum distance. Not to mention the transfer of energy, from kinetic to potential as well as non
I completely failed to mention something I found fascinating in earlier posts, and I believe t deserves its own blog post. The amount of fuel needed to break orbit compared to that needed to maneuver in space is staggering, nearly all our fuel and stages are dedicated to breaking Kerbin's hold. I now realize that as silly as NASA's launches looked to me as a child, with their massive fuel tanks and enormous engines, that grvity his simply that strong. It takes a remarkable amount of fuel to b
With all of the recent gravitation problems involving foreign planets, I investigated the other planets. I found out Mars has gravity only 38% of Earth's gravity, and its moons Phobos orbits the planet twice in a martian day. Mostly I wanted to take the opportunity to share this awesome story about the Mars rover Curiosity I found. http://news.yahoo.com/road-trip-tap-nasas-mars-rover-134636007.html. Apparently Curiosity will be visiting a Martian mountain in 2013, and will continue to investi
Our team landed on Minmus during this project, and other teams landed on Duna and Mun. All of these landings and moonwalks have me thinking about the future of space exploration for humans. For example, I have heard a lot of speculation about a manned mission to Mars recently. There are even some talking of colonizing. It was watching the Kerbals jump so high on Minmus that I realized I will never buy into that theory. Mars' gravity is less than half of earth's, at 3.711 m/s. I cannot beli
The wonderful series of books by Jim Butcher, the Dresden Files, has an awful lot of physics in many of the magical activities that occur. This is the first of several examinations of the science behind the magic, about Harry Dresden's magic rings. These rings store up kinetic energy slowly over time, and he can unleash it all at once on the bad guys. Lets say every time he moves his arm, one ring picks up just 2 joules of energy. Lets also say that he moves his arm 5,000 times in one day. T
What is the Earth's angular momentum? Since L = Iw, we need to know the Earth's moment of inertia and angular momentum. For moment of inertia I will assume Earth is a solid sphere with I = (2/5)MR^2 or (2/5)(6x10^24)(6.3x10^6)^2. This comes out to I = roughly 9.53x10^37. w = (2 pi)/T, and the earth's period is 86400 seconds, so the earths angular velocity is 7.27x10^-5. So, L = Iw = (9.53x10^37)(7.27x10^-5) = 6.93x10^33 (kg*m^2)/s
Following our study of gravitation, I decided to calculate what the value of g would be if the Earth's gravitational field extended to the International Space Station's orbital height, with the equation g = (GM)/r^2. With the radius = the radius of the earth (6,370,000 m) plus the ISS's distance above Earth (240 miles or 386,243 M), r = a total of 6,756,243 m. Therefore g at the ISS's height would be 8.767 m/s^2.
1) Right Hand Rules. Know the various forms and applications of these rules, they are vital to figuring out how to approach many problems.
2) Ampere's and Biot Savart's laws: These two laws enable you to attack a variety of problems with a variety of givens and be flexible in your problem solving.
3)Don't forget electricity: From what I've seen, the tough problems like to bring in electric fields and other topics from electricity to change things up and make you think. Stay fresh on electr
Simple harmonic motion has long been one of the hardest units for me to conceptualize and use in problems. This year, with the addition of calculus and the many new applications that came with it, I was quite nervous. However, while things looked confusing the calculus actually made things easier, just simple deriving and integrating to express the same things in new ways. Also, I have begun to see that all of the equations come from a few core rules and concepts this second time through SHM,
