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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

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

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

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

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

Physics of the Candy Cane Sport

When most people think about field hockey, they think about the stick that looks like a candy cane. The ball can only be played on the flat side of the stick which makes field hockey a difficult game to play. Newton's first law says that an object in motion will stay in motion until acted on by an outside force. When the ball is hit down the field, the reason it stops after some distance is due to the friction acting as an outside force which slows the ball and brings it to a stop. Th

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

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

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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

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

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

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

Meeeeeeeeee

Hello to everyone who will ever read this! I hope you enjoy! For as long as I can remember, I have had a love for crafts and yarn. I love crocheting and creating blankets for family members and people in need. I am not sure if there is such a thing as a professional crocheter (I don't think that's even a word) but I would totally become one. Maybe I can do that when I retire or something when I get older. Because I am super busy most of the year, I sadly do not get very much time to enjoy c

crazycrochet20

crazycrochet20

I Drop Everything

Over the course of the past week, I have started to notice that I tend to drop everything. Anything from hair ties to binders to my phone. I am honestly surprised that most of the things that I have dropped have not broken. When we started learning about drag forces and air resistance, I began to notice how long the items take to fall. My math homework definitely seems to take longer to reach the floor compared to a small hair tie that seems to fly right to the ground. Even though we just took t

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

Physics is SUPER COOL

So while I was avoiding homework, I went onto Instagram and started scrolling through the explore page. While doing that, I stumbled upon something that I realized I could totally use for this blog about physics. I did not know what they were called at first so I pulled up the Google and typed in "pendulum wave thingy" and now I have learned that it is called Newton's Cradle. The one that I first saw was really cool because it was glow in the dark which caught my attention right away. The video

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

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