We've all heard the myth. Drop a penny from the top of the Empire State Building, it will gain enough velocity to do considerable damage to someone standing on the sidewalk - plunge a hole through their hand, or, in more gruesome versions, their head.
Though at first this thought seems plausible (considering the height of the Empire State Building and the acceleration due to gravity), it's important to realize that - due to other important factors - this myth is busted.
When we first releas
I am a Physics C student of undisclosed gender. I enjoy chocolate, long walks on the beach, reading, sports, music, sleeping , understanding calc homework (hahaha jokes) and harmonizing to the radio. I think I'm good at working in groups and I'm a pretty even-tempered, easy going person. I can motivate myself to work hard, even if it is at the last minute. Other strengths include tripping and awkwardly pretending it didn't happen, predicting the exact moment when Tim is about to make a really c
Warning: this blog post may get a little gross if you don't like mucus-related physics talk. Reader discretion advised.
So, ever wonder just how fast you sneeze? Or rather, how fast the snot comes out of your nose when you sneeze?
Well, so did Adam and Jamie on Mythbusters. They investigated a myth that when sneezing, the mucus can eject from your nose at speeds of up to 100mph. That myth was busted though, and they instead found snot-rocket speeds to be only about 35-40mph. Still - that
Hello, world of AP Physics C. I'd like to talk to you about the physics of swings today.
Swingsets involve circular motion! If you think about it, when you swing you're actually completing a half circle each time you swing to and from your highest points. At your lowest point (the bottom of the circle), the tension (T) from the chains is pulling upwards, and your weight (mg) is pulling downwards. The centripetal acceleration (v^2/r), as well as the centripetal force (mv^2/r, using Newtons Law
We've all experienced it. You're walking in the hallway, the not-so-trafically-ideal hallway (we really need to invest in a double yellow line down the middle so everyone walks the right way...), and suddenly you and a stranger come face to face. You awkwardly try to maneuver around eachother, both stepping the same way...twice. I find myself in these situations daily, so I thought it'd be cool to think about the physics behind it.
As you walk forward, you have a forward momentum of mv; m be
Yay for more circular motion! So does anyone know what I'm talking about when I say "playground spinny things"? There like mini merry go rounds for playgrounds, but like...without the animals and cheesy music. Someone goes on them and you spin them really fast? There are funny fail videos on the internet of people spinning super fast on them and then flying off? Sound familiar?
I hope so, because I really don't know what they're called. But anyway, I thought I'd talk about the physics behind
Since we're learning about rotational kinetmatics and such in class, I thought it would be a good idea to stick to circular motion.
So, carousels. Since we know that velocity equals distance over time, obviously the longer the distance the longer it would take to reach the destination. Carousel horses, though they may look like they're all moving at the same velocity, actually have different linear velocities depending on how far they are from the center of the carousel.
The more you thin
So you know those toys where there was a wooden ball attached to a string attached to a wooden handle thing? And you had to swing the ball up and catch it in a ball-shaped indentation on the top of the wooden handle thing? No? Well, maybe a picture will help...
Anyways, it took me awhile to find this picture, as apparently Google has no idea what you're talking about when you search "swing ball on string into indentation" or similar phrases. Finally, I found it's real name - "Cup and ball"...
Parkour, sometimes referred to as "free-running", has always fascinated me. How do they do it? I for one can't even do the simplest of parkour stunts, but I looked into the physics of it a bit, and thought I'd share what I found.
Of course, these stunts seem scary to us because, frankly, they hurt when we try to do them. Or when I try to do them, anyway. In order to make it hurt less and avoid broken bones - to lessen the impact upon landing after a fall, or to decrease the force upon a set
I recently stumbled upon a question that definitely made me think twice. And then twice more.
If you carry firewood to the top of a hill, and then burn it there, what happens to the firewood's gravitational potential energy? Does it disappear?
Crazy, I know. The equation for gravitational potential energy is mgh, or the mass times the acceleration due to gravity times the height. If you burn the log up into ashes with substantially less mass, what happens to the rest of the gravitational
Recently I sat at the table eating dinner, when I noticed a flutter in my peripheral vision, drawing my attention. I turned my head to see my cat batting at a cat toy someone had hung from the table...one of those sticks with the string attached and a feather or fluffy thing at the end, ya know? You wave it around like a wand and your cat pounces after it?
Anyway, someone in my family had set it up so just the string and attached feather hung down over the table, just within my cat's reach.
Hi again, here to talk a little about the physics behind roller coasters!
Something you might not know, or maybe you knew it on some level but never really thought about it - roller coasters aren't propelled along the ups and downs of the ride - they don't use an engine. They're only pulled to the top of the first hill; in order to get through the rest, the carts have to have enough forward momentum to get over the hills and/or through the loops.
It all depends on the conversion of kinet
As much as I'd like to tell you I've figured out all the physics of being invisible and how to acquire it as a superpower, I would be lying. To add insult to injury, this post isn't even about the physics of invisibility, but rather about why true invisibility is an impossibility due to the laws of physics. So if you don't want all your dreams of becoming a superhero with powers of invisibility to be crushed, it would be advisible to stop reading here! To everyone sticking around, be prepared to
I'm guessing most of you were intrigued and confused by the title, so let me explain. You know how when you eat cereal, the pieces of cereal in the milk start to clump together? So when you're nearing the end of your bowl of Cheerios, there are often several clumps of two or three cheerios stuck together, all floating around. Why does this happen, you ask?
Well, it all has to do with surface tension. Because water molecules in the milk are attracted to glass, the milk around the edges of you
So I figured I'd write a blog about my experience in building my first ever catapult! Though it was definitely intimidating at first, I found the project actually turned out to be a lot of fun to build and launch.
My group settled on a trebuchet design, and after working out the ideal angles, sizes and overall plan, we got to building. We built for 2 days, just about 3-4 hours a day. I won't bore you with the cutting and sizing and drilling of wood, because I think we all know that's not exac
So these past two weeks we've been doing an independent unit on momentum, and I just thought I'd share my thoughts on it.
On some level, I like the independence of this unit: going at my own pace, picking what I want to do each day, doing stuff in whatever order I want, working with other people, etc. It's nice not to have a structured class period every day, and I like learning at my own pace.
But then again, there are definitely aspects of this unit I'm not fond of. For example, I really
So I figured it was time I do a sports post, since it seems to be a super popular blog topic recently and I can't think of anything else to do at the moment. Time for the physics of volleyball!
Jumping right into it (haha volleyball puns ), I'll start off with the serving part. So when you serve the ball over the net, it becomes a projectile whose distance is dictated by the force at which you hit it. Assuming there is no initial vertical velocity and you hit the ball straight over the net,
It is often believed that, when turning in a car, you lean the opposite way of the turn. Turn right, you feel a force left. This is a common misconception.
In actuality, as the car turns right, our bodies' inertia (directly proportional to mass) keeps us wanting to travel in a straight line, which is why we feel thrust leftward. This is also why, when we slam on the breaks, our bodies jerk forward - they want to keep going straight.
The above explanation makes sense, but I've always wond
Static electricity is a stationary electric charge that is built up on a material. We might experience static electricity when touching a doorknob or rubbing our feet on the carpet and shocking a friend - sometimes we can even see a spark. This static electricity is formed when we accumulate extra electrons and they are discharged onto another object.
So we know that electrons are tiny negatively charged particles, and protons are tiny (though not nearly as tiny as electrons) positively char
Did you know that, when you wear high heels, you can literally dent the floor? (A wooden floor, of course.)
So not only do these things torture your feet, but they also do damage the floor you walk on? Still worth it?
Let's say you're a girl, drag queen, or just a regular guy who enjoys wearing high heels from time to time, and you weigh about 130 pounds. Let's also assume your shoes - regular flats, that is - have a bottom surface area of about 10 square inches. With heels, the bottom s
Cow tipping - is it really possible? We've all heard about that awesome prank the teenagers of our parents' and grandparents' generations used to pull...but can it really be done?
First off, I'd like to assert that in no way do I condone cow-tipping or the bullying of any other farm animals. Because hey, cows are people too.
Anyway, onto the physics. First off, cows don't even sleep standing up, contrary to popular belief. So, assuming they stay in place and don't run away when you try to
The Physics-C midterm approaches.
While frantically searching the depths of my mind (and the internet) for an idea for my last blog post, I looked up to realize the time and scolded myself for not finishing these blog posts earlier. Why do I always wait until last minute? This is time I could have used to study.
So in a feeble attempt to finish in time to cram in some legit studying (because I don't think blog-post writing counts as studying) for both Econ and Physics tomorrow, I decided
It was first Aristotle who discovered what is now known as the Mpemba effect: that hot water actually freezes faster than cold water. Scientists have struggled to explain this for years, until recently.
We all know that "water" is made up of two hydrogen atoms and an oxygen atom, more accurately known as H20. Cold water is made up of short hydrogen bonds and long O-H covalent bonds, while the opposite is true for warm water. It is these hydrogen bonds that act weirdly and have drawn the atten
Recently (on a much cooler day), I discovered something while driving to volleyball practice at night. It was chilly so I had the heat on in my car, but just on low. Upon turning on the highway, I suddenly noticed that the heat seemed to have been turned up! That wasn't right, how could it do that on its own?! I double checked it, but the switch hadn't moved; the heat was still on the lowest setting.
So why did it feel like hot air was blowing twice as fast into my face? Well, when I thought
