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Quarter Review

At the end of last quarter, I wrote a blog post about how I needed to change a few things because of the disaster that had come about in all my classes but especially physics. I feel that over the course of the past 10 weeks, I have changed the way that I learn and study. I find that I am more focused to get things done and understand them in a timely manner. I use all of the time given to me efficiently as well. Before this quarter, I found myself wasting class time and not doing the work that

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Cell Phones

Something I have always wondered is the way in which a cell phone works. Everyone has them in today's world so now I need an explanation to how they work in a physics sense. From what I understand, when someone talks into the phone, their voice is converted into a signal that is transmitted through waves and then back into sound on the other end. Essentially it sounds like a two way radio. The signal is a type of radio wave that in the end can be dangerous to humans resulting in variou

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Waves

Earlier this year, we learned that physics is everywhere. I think that most of us have realized that physics comes up in our daily lives on earth and also in space. One area that I have forgotten about when in comes to physics is how physics relates in the oceans. One major idea is the waves in the ocean that we can hear about. The high tides and low tides impact the shells that we can find on the beaches. Because of gravity and the moon, the tides are on a cycle for high and low tides. The wave

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Fire in Space

We all know what a candle looks like when we burn it. The blue at the bottom is the heavier and cooler fire. Because of gravity, the blue is at the bottom while the hotter and lighter fire is towards the top. On earth, fire burns up and around and spreads because of the oxygen that it has access to. In space, because there is no gravity and a very low concentration of oxygen, fire burns in spheres and spreads quickly based on where it can get the oxygen.   In the video below, fire in s

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

The Bermuda Triangle

Many people know about the infamous Bermuda Triangle because of the ships, planes and people that all go missing in the triangle. The Bermuda Triangle spans from the edge of Florida to Bermuda and then down to Puerto Rico. The disappearances that come about from the triangle are unexplained and this is not something new. In 1492, Christopher Columbus made note in a journal that his compass was not pointing north but decided not to alert the already worried crew. Some evidence has proven that in

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Flying Birds

We all know that birds fly except penguins but they waddle which is better than flying. To fly, a bird must flap its wings to give it lift that is greater than its weight in order to get up off the ground. If the lift is not greater than the weight, the bird will sit there flapping its wings and look like a crazy bird. Another aspect that remains in the mix for all flying birds is the drag forces that go along with their flight. To fly to their destination quickly, a bird wants to minimize drag

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Buoyancy

Buoyancy is the upward force that is exerted opposite to gravity with a liquid. In the diagram below, buoyancy is shown acting against gravity keeping up with the laws of Sir Isaac Newton. Buoyancy is the reasons some objects float on the water and some objects sink. Because it is spring break and I am on vacation by the ocean, I thought it was fitting to look into buoyancy. A rock sinks right to the bottom while boats and kayaks float on top of the water. The video below shows how ext

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Maglev Monorails

Most people know what a monorail is but what is a Maglev Monorail? Maglev means the transportation system levitates and moves using extremely strong magnets. Maglev Monorails operate using the strong magnets to move the train that has no wheels. The whole concept that the magnets repel their like sides and attract to their opposites help to push the monorail to top speeds. In the United States there is a Maglev Monorail in California at General Atomics in San Francisco.  Below is a vid

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Luge

I have never heard of the word "luge" until today when looking at events in the Winter Olympics. Luge is a sport where there is a rider on a sled that is sliding down ice feet first. The objective is to get down the track in the fastest amount of time. They often look like this while racing... The rider has to fight air resistance to get down the track as fast as possible. They start at the top of an ramp and then have to go around turns until they reach the finish line. Although this

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Will Physics Pay Off?

So, most of us in Physics C have reached a point where we start to think about college and how this class is going to help us in the future. From what I have heard, most of us in this class plan on going into something that relates to physics in some way whether it be engineering or just a normal physics major. In the classroom, there is a poster that has the 10-Best Paying Majors on it which sparked my idea for this post.  In other math and science classrooms you can see posters like

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Second Quarter

These past few weeks have been some of the hardest weeks in high school. College applications were due during this quarter and once those were in, there was a sudden loss of motivation to do anything at school. In every class, I have noticed that I simply try and if I do not understand, I leave it and pray that it will not be important to know for the future. Sadly, this method has proved to be extremely unsuccessful. Midterm week has proved to me that I need to refocus myself for the rest of th

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Physics in Food

At Boston University, the College of Arts and Sciences offers a class called Physics of Food/Cooking. This class combines learning physics with cooking which every person, even those who do not enjoy science, will fall in love with. The professor, Rama Bansil, teaches her students about the basic principles of thermodynamics, molecular physics with a little bit of molecular biology as well. She uses her cooking techniques with science to create treats and relate them to the curriculum.

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Bowling...

Most people think of bowling and think about how much fun they have with their friends and family. For me, I think of bowling for a team with a focus on hitting every pin down for a clean game. Clean games equal good scores and good scores equal a happy Rachel. (Clean games are games with all strikes and spares) For the past 6 years now, I have bowled for the school and on weekends, I participated in a league to improve. Every season has its ups and downs and currently, I am in a hole that I can

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

So Who is Gauss?

At the beginning of this past unit starting electricity, we learned about Gauss's Law and how it was going to be the start of a lot of work in the future with it. I, as do many, need to spend some more time and focus on getting this figured out soon because I have a strong feeling that this will be something I struggle with for the rest of the year if I do not understand some of it soon! Although this idea was named after Gauss, Joseph-Louis Lagrange started work on this law 40 years prior

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Levitation?

After my thoughts of flying in the last blog post, I got thinking about the idea of levitation. I started looking into this idea and it actually came up that there is currently a group at the University of Bristol in England that is trying to use sound to levitate objects off of the ground. This idea was first brought up by a Russian physicist, Andrei Geim, who counteracted the gravity on Earth to float a small frog. Physicists are now working to increase the size of what they can levitate to hu

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

The Incredibles

Last night, my sister brought up the sequel to The Incredibles  which got me thinking about another topic for a blog post. The movie has a lot of physics examples in it; however, there are several examples of where some laws of physics are broken. Each family member has a superpower that makes them unique but they break laws of physics that could not actually be broken in real life. Mr. Incredible has super strength which allows him to pick up cars and stop trains. When he stops t

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Need a Laugh?

Monday's seem to be the worse days of the week for me. I feel like my worst days always are on Monday. Since today is a Monday and it was another bad day, I thought I should do a blog post about some funny physics things that I found on Google and Pinterest. These all made my day a little bit better and I think they will make yours better too. I hope you all enjoy and let me know if you find anymore good ones! I love a good laugh! Until next time, RK

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crazycrochet20

Medical Physics

Have you ever noticed how physics is everywhere and in every little thing that you do? Well of course you have because gravity is great and all. Anyways, there are so many topics and ideas that physics can relate to and it is absolutely incredible! I had originally wanted to talk about physics in the human body but then I came across the topic of medical physics. MEDICAL PHYSICS IS A THING! Medical physics is exactly as it sounds, physics that is applied to the medical field. That might not soun

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Foucault's Pendulum

A Foucault pendulum is a device that has been used to prove that the earth rotates. It was discovered in 1851 by a French physicist, Leon Foucault, who wanted to prove the earth's rotation and did so with his pendulum. Ideally, a Foucault's pendulum should rotate at a fixed point on surface of the earth but unless it is located at the poles, the pendulum is rotating as the earth rotates. When gravity is the only acting force on the pendulum, the pendulum will swing and rotate back to its origina

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Creating a Top

Wow! It is already December and we are working on rotation in class! Last year, this unit was one of the worst for me because I truly did not understand any of the concepts. I have started to figure out some of the equations and concepts but, I am going to have to work hard all this week in order to really understand the unit. In class last week, Mr. Fullerton gave us a challenge to solve. He gave us a pencil, two small paper plates and six pennies. Our task was to make a top that would spi

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

More Weather... Lightning!

In my previous post, I discussed the physics behind hurricanes and their formation. After the crazy lightning storm we had last night, I think writing about lightning and how it connects to physics is a good topic for this next blog post.  Lightning storms are an example of the electrostatic that occurs in nature. The result of the build up of the electrostatic charge in the clouds are those terrifying strikes. The lightning wants to take the path of least resistance where it branches out an

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Hurricanes

Physics is everywhere in real life! Most people don't think about it, but weather is an aspect of physics. After all of the major hurricanes this year, I think looking at the physics behind the hurricane is a good idea. Hurricanes are formed when high air pressure intrudes in cold air pressure space which then rises and starts swirling and forming extremely high winds and destructive storms in a matter of days. The picture below shows why these storms are formed in the tropical regions and are a

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

Roller Coasters

Roller coasters are great examples the concept of conservation of energy. Using the knowledge that the initial energy should equal the final energy, we can use the equation Ui + KEi = Uf+ KEf . An example of a real life roller coaster that this equation works with is the Ride of Steel.   The website gives the information that it is a 205 ft drop (62.5 m) but the total height of the ride is 208 ft (63.4). Even though the max speed of about 75 mph (33.5 m/s) is listed on the we

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

William Rowan Hamilton

Before today, I would have never known who William Rowan Hamilton was. The only reason that I now know of him is because of a fantastic singing video about him. (It's a cool video, you should watch it!) Hamilton was an Irish mathematician in the 19th century who made many contributions to optics and classic mechanics. He was crazy smart. He spent his youth learning languages and then at 15 went on to discover an error in a physics theory along with contributing to other ideas. Hamilton discovere

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

A Box of Minions

At the start, many of the yellow minions with cool goggles and a few strands of hair were captured by the evil Gru. Gru did not want them anymore so he decided to throw them all into a box to ship them off to an island in the middle of nowhere. Gru pushed the box at a constant speed along the ground that had friction. Once he got to the car, he realized that he would have to lift the box with a certain force. The work that Gru does is equal to the negative change in potential energy. He then fli

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

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