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eclark

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Toothpick Star

The toothpick star is an interesting experiment in which a person aligns 5 toothpicks broken in half into  the shape of a star. The toothpicks must be closely put together like the image shown however and the halves must be connected by a small piece of toothpick.  To make the toothpicks into the shape of a star, you must drop a droplet of water onto the center. Once this is done, the water will move into the toothpicks at the same velocity. This will cause the toothpicks to spread apa

eclark

eclark

Physics of Credit Cards

While at work the other day, I was extremely bored so I decided to think of blogpost ideas. During this time, I was starring at the credit card machine and I thought it would be interesting to learn the physics behind credit cards. Credit cards are an interesting system that uses a magnetic strip to store information. Credit cards use Faraday's Law which allows current to go through the coil in it. This current goes through simple amplification and this creates binary code. The signal is then re

eclark

eclark

Physics of Jet Packs

It would be very cool to ride around using jet packs, but unfortunately some of Earth's physical properties limit our use of them. Unlike birds, humans are not aerodynamic meaning that it very hard to keep us afloat. To do this, we must solely rely on thrust and to generate this thrust, a large amount of fuel is needed. Unfortunately, the more fuel needed, the heavier the jet pack becomes. This requires more fuel to lift the weight and the problem just continues. Because of this dilemma, jet pac

eclark

eclark

Potato Phone Charger

I have always wondered if the experiment you always see on T.V. is actually possible and after further research, I realized that it is possible to charge your phone with a potato. The reason this is able to happen is because the potato acts like an electrolyte. When a galvanized nail and copper are inserted into the potato, they act as electrodes. Atoms from the galvanized nail- which is made of zinc- dissolves into the potato as a positively charged ion. This leaves two negatively charged atoms

eclark

eclark

Physics of Hot Air Balloons

Hot air balloons are very fascinating mechanisms in that they allow humans to fly without physically flying. Hot air balloons consists of a basket used to carry people, an envelope (the top piece), and a burner which consists of several megawatts is also present. When heat is released from the burner, it creates buoyancy. This is because the hot air is less dense than the cooler air that surrounds it. This is known as Archimedes' principle, which states that any object regardless of its shape th

eclark

eclark

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