Alright Charlie, I'm writing a cookie problem just for you. You might need to get the cookie from Liz, but I figured I'd write one since you said there haven't been enough. And continuing with the Disney theme, here goes: Mulan is curious about how current and magnetic field interact, so she inserts her charge filled sword (which temporarily acts like a wire) of length 1 m into a magnetic field of 2 T in the postitive i direction, creating a force a 2.5 N in the positive k direction.
1) W
So good thing I spent half an hour trying to figure out how to make a post, and then thought, 'hey, maybe I should actually look at that sheet that Mr. Fullerton gave us,' only to realize that all I had to do was verify my account, and that I wasn't supposed to make my real name my user name. But anyways, here is my post. The first thing to know about me is that I love Jesus, and really the reason there's any need for you to know that is because that is why I'm taking AP-C Physics. I would lo
After spending about two hours in a hot tub the other night and therefore having excessively pruney hands, the question that I've always been curious about came to mind: why does our skin get pruney when it's been under water for a long time? I looked up some things, and discovered that at first, scientists believed that it was simply due to the different layers of skin we have. The outermost layer of the outermost layer of our skin has cells that are filled with keratin, a protein that keeps y
As I perpare myself mentally, physically, and spiritually for the upcoming CYO basketball season, I can't help but think of the physics that partner with a fluid and successful basketball shot. Players that have perfected their basketball shot, like Ray Allen, have found a combination of enough leg bend, a straight-armed follow through, and an effective wrist flick. With these three key components, the ball travels with arc and backspin in a projectile motion, sailing through the hoop. The poten
In the wake of the costly hurricane Sandy, its interesting to look at how physics explains the dangers of those extremely powerful winds. In my backyard, the gusts snapped a horizontal branch off of one of my trees on monday night, so I wondered how dangerous it would be if I was standing under the branch when it hit the ground. The branch was about 4 meters high. Assuming that the wind was moving completely horizontal and perpendicular to the branch, the branch would have had no vertical for
Reflecting on my Christmas presents, I immediately think of the incredible gift that my sister Julia got me, these super comfortable moon boots. But why are they so comfortable? As with most things, physics offers an explanation. As we've learned way back with momentum, impulse is equal to the force multiplied by the change in time. Impulse also equals the change in momentum, and given that momentum is conserved when only conservative forces are acting on the object, the impulse does not cha
After not performing as well on the practice physics test as I would have hoped, I began to think about the physics of test taking, mainly using energy. We've learned that kinetic energy = .5mv^2 and that potential energy = mgh. In this instance, m = the question number, v = the speed that I answer questions, g = how easy the test is (the greater g is, the easier the test is), and h = my confidence. Therefore, my potential energy at the beginning before I take the test is converted to kinetic
I recently played a very poor serving tennis match and sit here thinking about why my serve was and often is so inconsistent, realizing that it comes mostly from my toss. The racket should contact the ball when the hitting arm is fully extended, but I often toss the ball short and contact the ball while my arm is still bent. By hitting the ball at the highest possible point, I maximize power and accuracy - the ball is at its maximum potential energy so more kinetic energy results when it is co
After spending quite some time with the Kerbal project, I am starting to understand how the program works. Building the biggest rocket possible doesn't really work; you need a balance between fuel level and weight, aerodynamics, the necessary seperators and parachutes, and a knowledge of when to hold off on burning fuel, the SAS, and other things like that. Thus, our first couple launches were not as successful as we would have hoped, but as we learned to decrease the drag force by improving the
To add to the benefits of the Kerbal space program listed in the previous post, it helped us with the bottle rocket mostly in terms of simplicity. Instead of trying to make a giant rocket with parachutes or other complicated things, we decided to go with a simple rocket because we learned the importance of aerodynamics and weight balance through the Kerbal space program. My group realized that all we really needed was the two liter bottle, fins, a nose cone, and some weight on the top of the roc
Ping Pong has always been one of my favorite leisure time activities, and after embarrassing a good friend of mine yesterday with my ping pong skills, the physics of the sport came to mind, especially the physics of my favorite shot: the top spin shot. Arguably the most effective shot, the top spin increases your accuracy with more powerful shots, and is very difficult to return. But why?
The picture above shows how the spin of the ball forces the air below the ball to take a longer path,
As we dive into impulse and momentum in this independent physics unit, I am reminded of my only car "crash" I've ever experienced, if you can even call it that. When I was backing up in a small parking lot several months ago, the back of my car bumped into a small pole that I didn't see, jerking my car to a stop. Due to the minimum speed my car was moving at (5 mph or 2.24 m/s), my car was not damaged at all. So I was interested in finding out what speed it would have been damaged. Given tha
So, we all know that everyone in our AP-C Physics class has to be a nerd to be crazy enough to take this class, and i think we could come up with a lot of great nerd costumes. For spring potential energy and conservation of energy, someone could attach a spring to the front of his or her clothing and then run into people and bounce off with equal kinetic energy. Or, for centripetal motion, someone could carry around a rope which he or she hands one end of to random a random person and then run
No doubt, the weakest part of my tennis game is returning hard serves. I often try to hit powerful shots, so i take a large backswing. But, when returning a serve, the ball already has a high velocity, so a large backswing is not needed to hit the ball back with a high velocity. Actually, a small swing is much more effective and accurate. This is because of the principle of momentum. When hitting a serve, a large swing is necessary to give the ball a high speed because the ball, right befor
Given that this is my first post of the second quarter, it's fair to say that I am not always on top of my Physics work. And since I have not been doing as well on our tests as I would hope, I have a couple new year's resolutions regarding Physics:
1) Do my blog posts before the weekend that they are due!
2) Continually look over equations so as to hammer them into memory
3) Study more diligently before tests instead of "hoping for the best" as I often do
With these resolutions, hopefu
In the famous Bible story of feeding the 5000, Jesus and his 12 disciples feed 5000 men with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. But, the 5000 only counts the men, and since these people have been following Jesus for over 2 days, it can be assumed that they are with their families. On average, we'll say that each man has a wife and two kids, speaking that some of the men weren't married and some of the men had much larger families. That means that this story is actually the feeding of the 20000.
There's more to the knowledge I've gained from the Kerbal Space Program. First of all I couldn't get the screen shot to work; I guess the F1 key doesn't like me. And yes, I did just use a semi-colon outside of English class. But another very important thing I've learned through the Kerbal Space Program is how to correctly get a lot of power to your rocket. While I previously thought that either putting one engine at the bottom of stack of fuel tanks (the engine doesn't have enough power to l
There are a few things that come into the physics of punching something. First off, impulse plays a huge role in punching somehting. Obviously as you punch something such as a wall or a person you will experience an impulse as you have a change in momentum. Therefore the thing that you are punching will feel the force of the punch as well as the impulse delivered from the punch. Due to Newton's second law you, the puncher, will also feel a force driving backwards in your direction as every react
So apparently there's more to dropping a ball than just gravity... who would have thought?! Well, for starters, when the ball is above the ground it has potential energy, due to the equation U = mgh. (See? Gravity is key!) As the ball comes closer and closer to the ground though, that potential energy is steadily converted to kinetic energy in the form of velocity (k = .5mv^2). Since m is in both equations, the mass of the object does not affect how fast the ball falls nor the time it takes
Well this is kind of bittersweet, finally being done with blog posts but also realizing that high school is completely over, as is Physics C with a fantastic teacher. I've learned so much during the year, from angular analogs to retarding forces to induction to the sheer brilliance of Walter Lewin's ability to draw a dotted line; it's been quite a year. I've appreciated this blog posts as much as I've hated them, mostly because they forced me to truly learn the stuff that I write about. And n
Depressingly, I followed the whizzing ball as it flew past the 50, the 60, the 70, and even the 80 yard mark. Our costly (both with time and money) trebuchet could not compare to the spring loaded demon of a catapult that bested our yardage by 44. But, this project certainly did improve my engineering knowledge. Comparing my trebuchet to another very similar one that flung the softball farther, I saw that with a stiffer structure, we could have had more success. If we had used screws instead
Continuing with the physics of recreational sports, I'd like to talk about the physics of tether ball, a sport I'm not quite as good at. But, tether ball clearly demonstrates centripetal motion, and is very interesting to delve into. A player will hit the ball with a horizontal force F. Neglecting air resistance, this will temporarily be the only force on the ball, and will equal the mass of the ball times the acceleration of the ball. Centripetal acceleration equals (v^2)/r, so, given that
If you have ever watched Hot Rod, one of my favorite movies, then you understand the joy/hilarity of poorly thought out stunts. My brother and I have always enjoyed puting ourselves in harms way of the purpose of an awesome video, but I've discovered that we are much more willing to do painful stunts if we are landing into water instead of on solid ground. Most recently, we went to some pier that was 10 or so feet off of the ground and attempted backflips on our bikes off of a ramp into the wa
As the playoffs are underway, Bills fans (the sad category that I put myself under) have the same dilemma as they have since the 21st century began - which team are they going to root for in the playoffs this year? Year after year, the Bills struggle to qualify for the post season, a big reason being that they never have a strong quarterback. Their most recent excuse - Ryan Fitzpatrick. So lets look at why he's so awful:
When you look at an elite quarterback like Tom Brady (as much as I ha
