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Kirch's Blog

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Physics when you swim

No matter how you swim or what stroke you are doing, chances are that you are applying physics to your path in the water. There is the speed at which you are going, the massive resistance from the water, etc. When you dive into the pool, you are launching yourself from an initial velocity of zero into the pool. You want to maximize your displacement. You want to go as far forward in the air as possible, but you also want to stay shallow in the water as you make contact. To do this, you are i

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Physics when Playing your Guitar

Recently we learned about resonance, which by definition is "the tendency of a system to oscillate with greater amplitude at some frequencies than at others." This is one of the many examples of physics found within the guitar. Tuning a guitar is an example of resonance. The string's vibrations create sound waves with different frequencies. Also, when you plug in your electric guitar to the amp, you are actually making use of a physics skill! You are making a speaker. The amplifier projects the

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Physics of Waves

Say it is a windy day and you are out on the lake on your jet ski. The wind picks up and it becomes more wavier. You want to try your best to not capsize, or do damage to your ski. You look at the oncoming waves and have to decide how you want to attack them. You could ride parallel with them, you could hit them head on, or you could graze them at an angle. Physics tells you that hitting them head on might be damaging and not the smartest idea. Secondly, riding parallel with them could cause you

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Physics of driving (as in golf)

Again, driving is a great example of physics in action. This time, i'm referring to driving a golf ball off a tee on a par 3 course towards the hole. Its hole 18, and you bet your friend $100 you can make it under par. Most likely, you would want to do everything you can to increase your chances. Almost everything you do to enable a good drive is physics. For example, you take into consideration how much force you will hit it with, which direction to swing in, what angle to hit it at, and

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Physics of driving

As you can imagine, there are many examples of physics found when driving a car. Changing velocity, acceleration, distance traveled, etc. For example, if I'm driving down Titus at 40 mph and I see that the light ahead of me (50 meters away) turns yellow, I might choose to floor it and take my chances, OR, I might apply a force (my foot) on the brake and come to a quick stop. In both situations, my velocity is either increasing or decreasing, and my acceleration would also change. Driving a

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Physics of Diving Into the Pool

This weekend while I was at some pretty big swim meets, I found myself taking into consideration how physics applies when you hear the starter and you dive into the pool. For starters, you have potential energy as you are crouching on the block in your start position. When you hear the buzzer, you immediately transfer that into kinetic energy as you dive into the water, which brings us to the next example. When you hear the buzzer and you launch yourself into the pool, you are a projectile, movi

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Physics of Crowd Surfing

The last time I was at a concert, I saw people crowdsurfing, which is a common thing at concerts. When I saw the guy dive right into the crowd, I naturally immediately started thinking of physics. After countless hours of contemplating, I came to the conclusion that one person could not support the impact and the weight of another person for the most part. Although they might not know it, all the crazy fans who push everyone over to get to the front of the stage are not going to try and get thei

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Physics in throwing a snowball

Say there is a nice fresh coating of good packing snow on the ground. You feel the need to take advantage of it and nail someone (your sister, your mom, your dad, your grandma, etc) in the face with a snowball. You make the snowball and wind up to throw it. However before you let it fly, you have to take into account several physics factors. One, how far away is your target? At what angle should you launch it at? Depending on the distance, an angle of 45° would deliver the farthest distance. Se

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Physics in the Winter Olympics

It may be a little late for this post but the weather doesn't seem to think so. Anyway, while the Winter Olympics in Sochi are still somewhat fresh in everyone's minds, I thought it would be good to describe a few of the mannny examples of physics that occurred in the Winter Games. Ice hockey, for example. The players think about physics AT LEAST three times a game!! Between every period, the zamboni comes out and levels off the ice! This is needed when the players notice that the ice has more f

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Physics in Rolling a Snowman

A few of my friends and I were making a snowman the other day and when I was rolling up the base, it reminded me of some physics. When you start, you clump together some snow which at first is a piece of cake. However, eventually as you keep rolling it and it gathers snow, the ball becomes bigger and heavier. It takes more energy and force to push it. As a result of this, your overall work increases. Finally, when you are ready to stack them to finish up your snowman, you lift the middle ball up

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Physics in Precalc

As we have learned, different examples of physics are located everywhere! This time, physics can be found in Mr. Muz's room as we are learning about Vectors. We are learning the same concepts of vectors as we did in physics in the beginning of the year, including equations like x(t)=Vocos<t and y(t)=Vosin<t-16t^2. We are learning in depth

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Physics in Paddling

Say you are paddling a canoe or kayak or something through the water. Chances are you noticed that is is significantly easier when you are paddling with the current. On the contrary, when you are paddling against the current, it feels a whole lot harder. When paddling or rowing against the current, there is more resistance. This requires more energy on your part and is more work overall to keep the canoe or kayak going in the direction you want it to. Also, it requires a greater force on the pad

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Physics in cutting down a Christmas tree

Before Christmas, my family went out to cut down a tree. When we picked one out, it came time to chop it down. Using force to saw at the stump, my dad used his physics wisdom to cut towards the center of the stump so the tree wouldn't fall on him when he made it through. Then we proceded to purchase the tree, and toss it on the roof of the car. However, we remembered that when driving 60 miles per hour on the expressway, that there would be a lot of wind resistance. So, we decided to strap it d

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Physics found in hockey

While physics can be found in every sport, hockey is a big one. Force, velocity, gravity, and friction are all components of the sport. For example, when a player skates up to the puck to make a slapshot, they have to take into consideration that when the stick comes into contact with the puck, the force of the stick will launch the puck at an angle. The desired angle would be the angle that brings the puck into the goal. The player doesn't want the puck to go over the net, so they must shoo

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