Blog SwagDragon15

At this point I am so beyond tired that all I can think about is the time, hence the physics of a clock blog post idea. However just as i became so tired that this idea popped into my mind and I became outrageously enthused and will make this a wonderful thirtieth blog post!!

There are many methods of operation clocks utilize. These are the spring loaded, pendulum/weight powered and even more modern clock variations which i will explain later. Most of the modern clocks now utilize these next few methods for keeping time. All but the quartz watchs use a device known as an escape mechanism. This escape mechanism serves a very inportant purpose because it regulates the forces applied to turn the clock gears in such a way that they move only a certain amount per second. Regardless of its type, each click has this crucial escape mechanism. The escape mechanism works by transfering the force driving the gears to turn (whether it that force is caused by trasfering the gravitational force from a weight or the force transformed from battery power) into an oscillating mechanism which could be in the form of a pendulum, a spring, or a verge-and-foliot. The oscillating pieces work as the clock's counting mechanism and through the use of gears, the clock is able to keep accurate time.

A spring loaded clock utilizes the potential energy stored in a wound spring to turn gears that are then stopped and restarted by the escape mechanism which makes the movements of the watches hands move at a certain rate. The main disadvantage of this type of time keeping device is that the spring needs to be wound up periodically or else the resulting placement of the hands will be inaccurate.

The second type I will discuss is the pendulum, also known as the weight powered design. Unlike the spring loaded clock mentioned above this type utilizes the potential energy from a hanging weight to turn its gears and a pendulum assisted escape mechanism to give the clock a certain periodicity. The assisted escape wheel, similarly to the spring loaded clock, has a specific frequency at which it travels which aids in the accuracy of the clock. But unlike the spring loaded clock, a weight driven mechanism keeps more accurate time because it faces less error when the weight gets close to needing to be reset.

Neutron stars are the collapsed cores of some massive stars. They pack roughly the mass of our Sun into a region the size of a city such as Chicago or another large american city. Neutron stars are some of the densest types of massive objects in the universe, at times reaching densities of over 10e14 g/cc. At these incredibly high densities, you could cram all of humanity into a volume the size of a sugar cube, giving one just a sense, even though it is simply impossible to wrap your mind around, the uniqueness of these entities.

They are ideal astrophysical laboratories for testing theories of dense matter physics and provide connections among nuclear physics, particle physics and astrophysics, which have and will continue to lead to incredible innovation in our world. The strongest inferred neutron star fields are nearly a hundred trillion times stronger than Earth's fields, and even the feeblest neutron star magnetic fields are a hundred million times Earth's, which is a hundred times stronger that any steady field we can generate in a laboratory.

These unique stars can and fairly regularly display phenomena displayed nowhere else on the entire planet. These include hyperon-dominated matter, deconfined quark matter, superfluidity and superconductivity with critical temperatures near 10e10 kelvin, opaqueness to neutrinos, and magnetic fields in excess of 10e13 Gauss, only a few of the simply amazing reasons why these nuetron stars are significant to us.

The theory of relativity encompasses two theories of famous scientist Albert Einstein: special relativity and general relativity.

Concepts introduced by the theories of relativity include:

-Measurements of various quantities are relative to the velocities of observers. In particular, space and time can dilate.

-Spacetime: space and time should be considered together and in relation to each other.

-The speed of light is nonetheless invariant, the same for all observers.

Some, and to many most of the things that the theory of relativity introduces seem absolutely insane to many of those who hear it, although as technology advances more and more tangible evidence is being gathered to support the theory. In the field of physics, relativity catalyzed and added an essential depth of knowledge to the science of elementary particles and their fundamental interactions, along with ushering in the nuclear age. With relativity, cosmology and astrophysics predicted extraordinary astronomical phenomena such as neutron stars, black holes, and gravitational waves. However those are blogs of their own, so stay tuned.:love-struck:

Special relativity is a theory of the structure of spacetime and is based on two main principles:

-The laws of physics are the same for all observers in uniform motion relative to one another (principle of relativity).

-The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their relative motion or of the motion of the source of the light.

General relativity is a theory of gravitation developed by Einstein in the years 1907–1915. The development of general relativity began with the equivalence principle, under which the states of accelerated motion and being at rest in a gravitational field are physically identical; something to which the simple mind would simply be insane. However when taken in to deep consideration, general relativity is really something interesting to think about.

This blog is in reaction to an experiment conducted recently by a team of scientists from South Korea led by Ho-Young Kim. It essentially was created to explain the physics of writing, something the human race has been wondering for well over five thousand years since scripture came into the world.

The team concluded that the smaller cavities in paper have a greater capillary pull than the wider tube of the pen, but very small pores also restrict the flow of the ink. As long as the pores in the material are not wider than the opening in the minimal pen, rougher materials pull ink more quickly. This also explains why it is so difficult to write in pen on a piece of glass – without pores, the surface cannot draw ink. In contrast, wider pens have less capillary force, so they give up the ink more easily. While this explains the medium, one must also wonder about the ink that we see on said paper in most cases. In short, higher surface tension allows it to wet the paper or pillar array more effectively, while higher viscosity slows it down. This is actually surprisingly not what we had expected or what past experiments had concluded, for in those tests pores had little to nothing to do with the final results. So next time you get one of those pesky writing cramps in school, dont be sad!! Writing is a lot of work!

There are two types of spin that a player can apply to a tennis ball, those being topspin and backspin. What prompted my thoughts on this idea would be my attendance of the University of Rochester tennis match today against Nazareth. As these advanced players made the ball skip and flip and kick every which way, my mind went crazy! :labmate)

A topspin shot is hit by sliding the racquet up and over the ball as it is struck. By dragging the racquet over the ball, the friction between the racquet’s strings and the ball is used to make the ball spin forward, towards the opponent. The shot dips down following impact with the court and also bounces at a lower angle than would a shot with no spin applied to it. As a ball travels towards a player after bouncing, it has natural topspin that is caused by the friction of the tennis court. When hitting a topspin shot, the player is reversing the spin of the ball, which requires more energy. This change in energy from potential to rotational kinetic energy allows the player to effectively execute the top spin shot.

A backspin shot is hit in the opposite manner, by sliding the racquet underneath the ball as it is struck. This causes the ball to spin towards the player who just hit it as it travels away. What is very interesting about the back spin shot and has been proven by physicists all over the world is that hitting this shot requires only roughly about half of the raquet speed of a top spin shot, for to execute this shot the player does not change the rotation of the ball. The oncoming ball bounces off the court with topspin, spinning from top to bottom as it comes toward the player. When a player returns the ball with a slice shot the direction in which the ball spins around the axis of rotation is maintained. From the players perspective, it actually seems as if the ball is moving away from them.

As the Habs and Bruins game is getting increasingly interesting I want to do these blogs less and less to be completely honest, however we all need to make sacrifices :eagerness: So despite my promise to myself that i would refrain from doing any further blogs immediately regarding hockey, the opportunity is just too tempting. So feel free to skip by the text in this blog and just check out the insane hits that have ruined careers in the video below!!!:afro: I will not take any offense.

Checking can be defined as using physical force to either gain possession of the puck or to disrupt the opposition's play. Most players will tell you that body positioning is most important when delivering a body check. The physics topics relating to hockey hits most directly are momentum, force and velocity.

Momentum utilizes the equation p=mv. Since a player's mass is constant, players increase their momentum by increasing their speed on the ice. When a collision takes place on the ice, some or all of their momentum is transferred to the other player involved in the collision. During a hit, the principle of momentum conservation comes into play. As we all know the momentum before is equal to the momentum after, which can prove devastating to one of the players involved. :beaten: To find the final velocity in one of these vicious hits, you use the fact that the initial momentum (mass x velocity) of both players must equal the final momentum of the players (Conservation of Momentum):

(mass player 1 x velocity player 1) + (mass player 2 x velocity player 2) = combined mass x final velocity

Enjoy!! :wave)

As we all know, Tsunamis are waves. Specifically, they are water waves that form in the ocean, where the depths of the water average 4 km. Displacement of water following a huge release of energy from, say, an earthquake or a cosmic body impact creates a wave or a series of waves that have a wavelengths on the order of hundreds of kilometers long. Although they usually have relatively small amplitudes of about one meter, the volume of water and speeds achieved by the waves are what creates the devastation and destruction we unfortunately see in our world. A water wave is a combination of both transverse and longitudinal waves. As a result, the water molecules move in an elliptical pattern, and this is what makes them so interesting. Now let us look for a moment at what makes these water walls so dangerous. As incredible as this sounds, a tsunami of wavelength 500km traveling at the average speed of a tsunami at speeds of over one hundred miles an hour in a depth of water about 4km generates about 1/50 the energy of an atomic bomb!!! :eek::eek: Considering that a tsunami stretches over hundreds of kilometers, we can see the energy released in such a quake is capable to destroy whole towns in the surrounding coasts, and since a tsunami can travel over long distances without losing much energy, it is capable of bringing destruction to far away places as well.

This blog will, as many of you may have expected, examine yet another sports related topic. In this case we will look at another very impressive athletic feat, this being the serve of tennis legend Andy Roddick. Like Chara's slap shot, the serve is composed of multiple different phases, each incorporating a multitude of physics concepts in every small motion. These include the wind-up the toss and the strike, respectively.

As the toss goes up, players press their feet against the court, using ground reaction forces to build up elastic potential energy. Rotations of the legs, hips and shoulders produce maximum angular momentum that the player needs to absolutely smack the ball! As the player leaves the ground, one must display impeccable timing as they transfer the potential from their legs to their striking hand, referred to by some as the kinetic chain principle.

A high, confident toss made 1 to 2 ft. inside the baseline allows the server to uncoil both upward and forward into the court, making contact at 1.5 times body height. For Roddick, at 6 ft. 2 in., that is roughly 9.5 ft. off the ground. The toss is crucial, and takes time to perfect, no matter the level one is competing on.

Then comes the most intense part, the strike!! :worked_till_5am: On a 120-mph serve, the ball is in contact with the racquet strings for about 5 milliseconds, moving up to 5 in. laterally across the string plane, gathering spin. The tip of the racquet moves at nearly 120 mph, though at the point of impact, a few inches closer to the ground, the racquet is moving roughly 22 percent slower. The ball's additional speed comes from both the elastic energy in the rubber, which returns 53 to 58 percent of the force exerted upon it, and the racquet strings (strung at an average of 60 pounds of tension), which stretch about 1 in. during the impact.

I am currently watching the Habs and Bruins play, and might i say it is getting quite chippy! However this is beside the point, as I have blog posts to do. So i figured i would post about what is on my mind, and currently that is hockey. In this blog i will examine briefly the physics behind shooting a hockey puck and even more so examine each type of shot individually including the wrist shot and slap shot, as well as the effect of the stick type on velocity in the end.

A wrist shot as you may know is not normally as fast as a slap shot and is normally used closer to go. However this is completely irrelevant. Although this technique is used to achieve the element of surprise rather than purely over powering the goalie as a slap shot may be, it can still achieve incredibly fast speeds. The physics of the slap shot include the wind-up, the contact and the shot. The wind-up phase includes the player rotating his torso away from the puck and pulling his stick up and back away from the puck. The contact phase is when the blade of the stick hits the ice, then the puck, bending the shaft of the stick to accumulate potential energy. The deeper the bend in the stick, the more potential energy that is built up and the harder the puck will fly. The shot stage is when the puck leaves the blade and the stick straightens out, helping propel the puck forward. After the puck leaves the blade of the stick there is no force other than gravity acting on it.

While the slap shot may be less accurate at times, man can it be intimidating! If you doubt me I invite you to view the video below of Chara sniping at a world record velocity. While the phases of the slap shot are the same, the wind up in particular features the most difference in that the player rotates their torso to achieve maximum torque as the player un-winds and moves into the contact phase.

i like birds and since my avatar is a dragon i figured i would do the physics of flying especially considering i have absolutely no idea about what else to do and I have to do ten of these in the next two days :livid:. Moving on, there are three main forces that enable an object to achieve flight, being drag, lift, and thrust. To better understand flight we should consider air as acting like a fluid. It is not a liquid, like water, but is a called a fluid because the force needed to deform it depends on how fast it is deformed, not on how much it is deformed. Drag is a force exerted on an object moving through a fluid; it is always oriented in the direction of relative fluid flow. Drag occurs when the fluid, in this case air, and the object exchange momentum, creating a force opposing the motion of the object as we can see in the diagram. Drag is flights worst enemy!! Lift is another force exerted on an object moving through a fluid, generally directed upward as you probably know, opposing the weight of the animal that is pulling it down to earth. In animals, the angle of the wings against the flow of air creates a resistance that has the net effect of moving the wing upward. Thrust is the third and final force. Thrust is a force induced in the direction of the animal's flight, opposing the drag force. To fly at a steady speed in a completely horizontal direction, an animal must generate enough thrust to equal the drag forces on it. This is achieved by the animal flapping its wings vigorously. Fly birdie, fly!!

Many common materials like wood, water, plants, animals, diamonds, fingers etc. are considered not to be magnetic but are in fact very slightly diamagnetic. Diamagnets repel, and are repelled by a strong magnetic field, and two of the strongest known diamagnetic materials are bismuth and graphite. Compared to the forces created by traditional magnets, diamagnetic forces are exponentially weak, however when arranged and prepared properly, can produce startling effects, levitation in this case. UCLA university has done multiple studies and found the most efficient and effective configurations for showing levitation in action.

In the first configuration here we can see what seems to be a small golden cylinder floating in between two fingers. However in reality the magnet is levitated by a vertical superconducting solenoid electromagnet at a point at which the magnet is rendered vertically stable and however unstable in the horizontal plane. Thus, the floating magnet wants to move off sideways, but is however, for this reason is lined with bismuth and therefore repels the magnet overcoming the horizontal instability and the result is stable levitation.

Another configuration is shown below. In this one, the magnet is suspended at a point far below the electromagnet where in this case it is vertically unstable and stable on the horizontal plane, unlike the example above. Diamagnetic plates are placed above and below to stabilize vertically. In the case above, human fingers were used as the diamagnetic plates to accomplish for real what magicians claim to do while only producing an illusion.

:wave)

Carbon Nanotubes are obviously tube shaped materials, made of carbon, having a radius measuring on the nanometer scale. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter, or a bout one ten thousandth of the thickness of human air.

The nanotubes have a variety of different structures, differing in length, thickness and the type of helicity and number of layers. However, most of the carbon nanotubes are formed from the same graphite sheet essentially. The differences listed above are what lead to different electrical characteristics, being either the tube is a metal or a semiconductor. The nanotubes as a group range typically in diameter from 1nm up to 50nm. Ranging in length no more than a few microns normally, modern nanotubes have been able to be produced as much longer, now being measured in centimeters with new technology. The properties of these carbon nanotubes make them the ultimate in carbon fiber technology. They are a material which provides an incredibly unique balance of stiffness, strength and tenacity, and are also incredibly thermally and electrically conductive. These differences can be seen in the tables below:

[h=2]Table 1. Mechanical Properties of Engineering Fibers[/h][TABLE="class: renderedtable, width: 100%"]

[TR]

[TD]Fiber Material[/TD]

[TD]Specific Density[/TD]

[TD]E (TPa)[/TD]

[TD]Strenght (GPa)[/TD]

[TD]Strain at Break (%)[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bglight"]

[TD]Carbon Nanotube[/TD]

[TD]1.3 - 2[/TD]

[TD]1[/TD]

[TD]10 - 60[/TD]

[TD]10[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bgdark"]

[TD]HS Steel[/TD]

[TD]7.8[/TD]

[TD]0.2[/TD]

[TD]4.1[/TD]

[TD]< 10[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bglight"]

[TD]Carbon Fiber - PAN[/TD]

[TD]1.7 - 2[/TD]

[TD]0.2 - 0.6[/TD]

[TD]1.7 - 5[/TD]

[TD]0.3 - 2.4[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bgdark"]

[TD]Carbon Fiber - Pitch[/TD]

[TD]2 - 2.2[/TD]

[TD]0.4 - 0.96[/TD]

[TD]2.2 - 3.3[/TD]

[TD]0.27 - 0.6[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bglight"]

[TD]E/S - glass[/TD]

[TD]2.5[/TD]

[TD]0.07 / 0.08[/TD]

[TD]2.4 / 4.5[/TD]

[TD]4.8[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bgdark"]

[TD]Kevlar* 49[/TD]

[TD]1.4[/TD]

[TD]0.13[/TD]

[TD]3.6 - 4.1[/TD]

[TD]2.8

[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

[h=2]Table 2. Transport Properties of Conductive Materials[/h][TABLE="class: renderedtable, width: 100%"]

[TR]

[TD]Material[/TD]

[TD]Thermal Conductivity (W/m.k)[/TD]

[TD]Electrical Conductivity[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bglight"]

[TD]Carbon Nanotubes[/TD]

[TD]> 3000[/TD]

[TD]106 - 107[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bgdark"]

[TD]Copper[/TD]

[TD]400[/TD]

[TD]6 x 107[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bglight"]

[TD]Carbon Fiber - Pitch[/TD]

[TD]1000[/TD]

[TD]2 - 8.5 x 106[/TD]

[/TR]

[TR="class: bgdark"]

[TD]Carbon Fiber - PAN[/TD]

[TD]8 - 105[/TD]

[TD]6.5 - 14 x 106[/TD]

[/TR]

[/TABLE]

These carbon nanotubes have proven and will continue to prove a valuable new technology to us. Potential applications include:

• Conductive plastics
  
• Structural composite materials
  
• Flat-panel displays
  
• Gas storage
  
• Antifouling paint
  
• Micro- and nano-electronics
  
• Radar-absorbing coating
  
• Technical textiles
  
• Ultra-capacitors
  
• Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tips
  
• Batteries with improved lifetime
  
• Biosensors for harmful gases
  
  
• 
  
  • 
    
    • Extra strong fibers
      
    • 
      
    • 
      
    • 
      
    • 
      

We have all seen those slow motion captures of a canine mid-shake, but lets delve deeper for a moment and look at it from the point of view of a true physicist. :banghead) In this blog I will explain the concepts of Andrew Dickerson's book titled "The Wet Dog Shake," in which he, along with Georgia Institute of Technology scientists, attempt to determine the optimum speed at which dogs should shake to most effectively dry their fur. The team actually constructed a mathematical model of the processes involved, and the first realization they had to come to was that the surface tension between the water and the dogs hair is what keeps the animal wet. In turn, a centripetal force which exceeds it is required to overcome said tension. They determined, knowing that A=mv^2/r, that the frequency of the oscillation at which the dog rotates is R^0.5. They then filmed multiple breeds and determined the frequency of each, with their final test subject being the Labrador retriever, with a frequency of 4.3 Hz. This, as compared to smaller animals, is much, MUCH slower. Take for example the frequency of a mouse's oscillations, at 27 Hz. This means that the bigger the animal, the slower it can shake to dry itself. The final difference which they have yet to correctly account for is the fur....but enjoy the adorable video! :wave)

NEW MAGNETS PEOPLE! These magnets essentially have fewer electrons, which means stronger magnetism and could lead to new energy saving technology. These new magnets are made from a material called bismuth telluride, to which the magnetic material called manganese is added. This class of material is called topologic insulators. What makes this bismuth so interesting is the behavior of its electrons, in that they behave very differently from those in a conventional magnet. For example, they do not scatter easily, proving beneficial for the electronic applications the magnet may be applied to. Electrons in the surface state also occupy a special electronic state known as the Dirac Cone, pictured below.

The electrons that accumulate near the intersection of these Dirac cones are responsible for its magnetic properties, however only a limited number can occupy this position at a time. In fact, as more electrons are pumped into the system, as shown by research the magnetic effects are actually weakened. In addition, at the domain walls of the dirac cones magnetism falls to zero, which shows another property of these magnetic topologic insulators: the elctronic current flows without loss around the edges, in this case the domain walls. The only thing holding scientists back is controlling the quality of the new magnetic material, however new developments in thin film technology are making the future look that much more promising.

As I was watching my falcons drop the ball again against the 49ers yesterday, I could not help but, like always, wonder about my status on physics blogging. So here goes nothin, PLASMA TVS'S! The general goal of the machine is to light up tiny colored fluorescent lights which as a group produce the image that we see. Each pixel is made of of three of these fluorescent lights, red, green and blue. Similar to the Cathode-ray television, the plasma tv varies the intensity of light to produce each color in the spectrum.

The main component of the TV is obviously plasma, a substance composed of free flowing ions and electrons,normally contained in xenon and neon gas. In order to ionize the gas in one of the cells, the computer inside the Plasma TV charges the electrodes that intersect the cell, and does this thousands of times per second for each individual cell in the TV.:glee: After the charge is applied, current runs through the gas in the cell, which in turn stimulates said gases to release ultraviolet photons, which then also react with phosphors on the inside of the cell as well.

When the particles collide, one of the phosphor's electrons jumps to a higher energy level and the atom heats up. Eventually the particle jumps back to its ground state and emits light, as we all know, just as do the photons in any other source of light such as an incandescent bulb.

Black holes are quite legitimate and in fact very boss indeed. A black hole is formed when a big 'ol star in space undergoes a process called gravitational collapse, in which most or all of its mass is compressed into a very, very small area of space, causing infinite spacetime curvature!!! :worked_till_5am:

This means that nothing, not even light can escape from the border. And although we apparently know so much about them, nobody has ever actually observed a black hole. The theory of black holes possibly existing has been debated since the 1700's, when scientist John Michell published a paper that brought about the essential idea of the black hole, predicting that an object with a radius 500 times larger than the sun would have an escape velocity of the speed of light, and thus be invisible. Although theory died in the 1900's when we learned more about optic waves, the black hole was essentially created.

However in all this time the most brilliant men on the planet have still not been able to explain the phenomenon completely. Today there is almost a universal agreement that they exist, however nobody is sure of there exact nature, an perhaps never will be.

New modernists, most notably Stephen Hawking, believe that material which falls into a black hole may actually appear somewhere else in the universe, as in the case of a wormhole.

Well as you may know, just six hours ago the current Falcon regime earned there first playoff win over the Seattle Seahawks by a final score of 30-28. Russel Wilson is a scumbag and completely deserved this just for the record. The game was won and sealed by a 49 yard Matt Bryant field goal with 8 seconds left and I need blog posts so I will now write about what I think of my team being an absolute power house. Enjoy :beaten:

The essentials of kicking a field goal are all projectile motion, however this makes it by no means simple!!! There are many factors that alter the projectile including wind, air resistance and momentum. If these conditions did not exist and gravity was the only force acting on the ball as we assume when doing projectile calculations in class, kicking would be much easier and we would all be making millions, dawg. I will now examine each of the factors in a little more depth.

Wind can easily change the path of a projectile by simply blowing in a different direction during the kick. However it can also be helpful if the kicker is fortunate enough for the wind to be blowing at his back, increasing maximum distance. Wind causes air resistance on the ball, basically friction in the air. But besides wind air resistance can have an effect in a plethora of different ways. One factor is the shape of the football. Take for example when the ball is kicked in its center rather than towards one of the pointed ends it makes the ball tumble rather than spiral in the air. This takes longer, meaning the ball is moving slower in the air and therefore achieving less distance in the end. Momentum is also crucial in that the kicker needs it to achieve optimum distance and even height for that matter. Since p=mv and the mass of the kicker stays constant then he will need to increase the velocity of his approach and the velocity of the rotation of his leg through the ball to knock it home. :dog:

As we can see the kicker can do quite a bit to affect the success of his attempt, and I will now explain how the kicker should best achieve the optimum combination of the things listed above that he has control over. The angle of the kickers body, his pointed toe, his arched back and the angle of the tilt of the ball (holders responsibility) all effect the distance and speed of the ball. The more angled the kickers body the more momentum.

The kickers arms also make a difference. They should be titled at an angle, ready to pull in after contact with the ball showing that a great amount of momentum and torque was applied. This momentum along with his bent kicking leg allows for propulsion of the ball up into the air. As in the previous picture his angled toes and arched back also show an ideal position for gaining maximum momentum and as previously stated more success at his job. The bent knee also helps with applied force which is all the kicker can control because after the impulse of force is applied he has no control over the elements acting on the ball as it travels through the air.

The final step of the perfect kick is of course the follow through! This is after contact has already been made. At this point the kickers leg should be straight, showing that he has achieved full extension and therefore lengthened his lever arm (referring to the hip joint as a second class lever) and allowing for more torque throughout the motion. The fact that it is also high and in front of his body is a sign of an effective kick as well. He also has pointed toes, and arched back and has pulled in his arms as was suggested as the proper course of action and an indicator of an effective kick above.

As we can see the stooges are obviously very confused.....

:wave):wave)

ATL FALCONS SUPER BOWL XVLII!

It's getting quite warm outside for January, and I got really hot today so I turned on the fan, thus triggering hours of research and development of different hypotheses on how a fan could possibly relate to Physics and more importantly how I could get a blog post out of it because I believe they are due sometime early this week. :egg) Well first we will begin with the workings of the appliance that I love so much (second only to the microwave). An electric fan consists of an electric motor fitted to a rotor shaft (technical terms) which is then connected to a set of blades, five in my case. Then a current is run through the motor via a battery or mains connection. This will turn the rotor which then spins the blades. The blades are purposely constructed to be aerodynamic to be as efficient and fluid a shape as possible as to cut down on energy costs. They are structured to capture the air, and this movement of air produces the wind effect that is so familiar to us. The speed of the spinning blades which in turn effects the final yield is controlled by the amount of electricity being run. Essentially all of this deals with physics, with the electricity (energy) being routed through the mechanics (matter) of the fan which creates the movement (motion) of the fans blades which produces the wind effect (force). In this case the motion is circular, which deals with equations such as mv^s/r for centripetal acceleration and formulas like 2(pie)r for the circumference of a circle.

As I have learned from participating in CYO basketball over the years, maintaining control of the ball is dang hard and nobody on my team ever has been good at it. But when attempting to dribble, I cannot help but wonder what sort of physics are behind what would seem such a simple motion. To begin, why does it seem to work that the ball almost always bounces lower in respect to its original height that it had been dropped from? This is because of a rule discovered by many a physicist that energy cannot be created nor destroyed, however it can be converted between forms, a very interesting entity. When the ball is held at its highest point it has all potential energy and little to no kinetic energy, as we all should know very well by this point. However as it falls, the ball consistently loses it's potential energy and begins to gain kinetic energy due to the force of gravity accelerating the ball at -9.81 m/s^s. As on would assume, when the ball hits the floor it has all kinetic energy and no potential energy, the very opposite of what it had at its highest point. When the ball ceases contact with the floor and begins to bounce back up, it results in the ball reaching a lower height than before it had been dropped. This means it has less potential energy, but where did it go, son?! :afro: Well that's why I'm here :frog:. You see when the ball hits the ground it gets squished, which causes friction between the different rubber molecules that make up the ball, and this friction actually heats the ball up. Because friction slows down the ball, it has lost some kinetic energy and gained heat otherwise known as thermal energy. If I knew this, maybe I would be good.

All the fundamental laws of physics are involved in arguably a human's most simple movement throughout the day. The law of conservation of energy, Newton's three basic laws and even gravity are all involved in simply walking across a room! :eek: The conservation of energy is that TE=PE+KE+W where total energy equ​als potential energy plus kinetic energy plus work. Our total energy is conserved when walking obviously, which means a variety of things. The potential energy is the biochemical potential of your muscles and frame, which in turn is converted by work into kinetic energy, otherwise known as the walking itself. As far as Newton, many things apply. For example, if you are standing still you need to invoke your TE to create a force to push off with your feet. This shows his first law that an object at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by a force. In addition the first law proves that if you are already moving your body wants to stay in motion and will eventually need a force to slow it down in reality. In addition the movement results from Newton's idea of equal and opposite forces. As you push off your foot takes advantage of the static friction between the cement and your shoe sole that creates an opposite force for your shoe to push against. As that force pushes you forward work is being done.

When preparing to write my final blog post of the quarter, I couldn't help but to think back to last year in Powlin's class and recall the most incredible thing he did for us in that class, being introduce us to this wonderful Physics video (Narrated by Morgan Freeman, making it just that much better.) The video goes into exploring the nature of atoms and subatomic particles, which indeed are the "jiggling things" that make up each and every single thing that we see on this earth. It all comes down to the twelve particles of matter and the four forces of nature, as they say. :eagerness: The video is incredibly confusing, for it is just the smartest people on the planet trying to help the rest of us understand something that mortal minds can and will probably never be able to comprehend. Enjoy :cool::confused::confused:

Alright, this blog is for all you pyros out there like me. I couldn't help but want to delve a little deeper into the nature of fire, and what I found is pretty interesting. In actuality, fire is simply a gas thats hot enough to incandesce, which means give off blackbody radiation whos color is determined by the temperature. Very hot fires can on occasion even reach the plasma phase, where they become partially ionized. However, the average fire burns at about 1000F, which produces the characteristic red-orange flame that we all recognize. When burning objects, one can notice that they burn at different rates or perhaps colors. This is because the electron structure of some materials and compounds absorb the energy, exciting the electrons to a higher energy level and emitting different photons. A perfect example of this is sodium, which gives off a distinctive yellow color. In addition the surface area must be considered. For example, paper burns much faster than wood for this reason, for surface area gives the substance ready access to oxygen. Hydrocarbons are another thing that burns incredibly well, however this is for a much different reason. They give off more energy than cellulose, which produces the normal 1000F temperature, actually because they lack oxygen, so when supplied with it the reaction is much more drastic.

This winter I am considering taking on a new task, swimming! It is only logical that I experiment prior to undertaking said act so I have, and I will now share my findings with y'all. Water is 1000 times more resistant than air, its just a fact, an unfortunate one for people trying to travel in water. The way to get around this is streamline form, which takes into account the resistance equation R = 1/2 DpAv^2. As you can see, to achieve the greatest velocity one must reduce their surface area as much as possible, which can be done by tightening the body to resemble a torpedo, which is very hydrodynamic. Swimming is all about efficient motion, for with each unnecessary movement the body not only losses energy, but slows down in water. In addition, one needs to consider the different, and most efficient ways of achieving propulsion. While it is just general human nature it would seem to most people that the legs would be more important while swimming because the largest muscles in the body are located in them. However it is much the contrary. On average, it takes 80 seconds to kick 100 meters while it takes only 60 seconds to pull 100 meters, showing that pulling adds more propulsion. Another important equation is F = PA the equation to calculate the perpendicular force applied by the water to all the surfaces of the persons body.

When I learned how to juggle, I certainly did not decipher the act for a major physics action but rather just learned on instinct. The physics behind juggling can actually be pretty impressive if you take a moment to look at it. Major concepts involved include parabolic arcs, speed, velocity, acceleration, air resistance and the force of gravity. In addition, the juggler needs to determine the objects center of gravity to effectively toss it in the air and predict its path. The most important force is gravity, because without it juggling obviously wouldn't be possible. As we know the gravitational acceleration is 9.81 m/s, and the force becomes the only one acting on the object the minute it leaves the jugglers hand. This needs to be taken into account, which is why jugglers throw their objects at different heights depending on how many of them their are. However high throws can become problematic, for the smallest error becomes incredibly noticeable at such heights. In addition one has to take into account the objects mass to know how much force to apply to it to make it have the proper amount of inertia for the act to be successful.

As David may have already informed you all with his post basketball season is quickly approaching, and analyzing the physics of the game will hopefully allow our team to not be absolutely horrible so we can have fun and actually win for a change as we dribble and twerk down the court. But as everyone may not realize, the physics starts much sooner than simply when the basketball is released. Lets divide the game into individuals sections and take it from there to figure out how to be a total baller.

Set Up- Basketball players must become familiar with the concept of inertia before they can perfect setting up for a jump shot. A player utilizes the physical forces at their disposal when they move quickly side to side and plant their foot to then rise up for a jump shot. The kinetic energy of their lateral movement is quickly converted into potential energy as the player lifts off and gains height and therefore energy.

Release- The release is crucial, for it is the time at which the final forces are applied before the ball enters its own journey in the air. No matter what the shot may be, the players hand creates all of the force on the basketball. With all shots except for a dunk or if the player is absolutely massive and releases the ball at a height greater than ten feet, all shots are initiated at an upward angle and therefore creates arc, a very well known basketball term.

Spin- Then after the ball is releases we can analyze the spin on it, the direct result of the forces we have talked about thus far. Unlike the seams on a baseball or the dimples on a golf ball, basketballs have a smooth texture and travel through the air at a comparatively slow speed. For this reason, shooters can loft a shot directly at the basket or a point on the backboard without the ball changing direction in flight. Shooters apply spin to determine where the rebound goes if there is one, and this is directly representative of Newton's third law regarding action and equal and opposite reactions.