The most profound idea that can occur to any mind is that of the cyclic nature of time, fate and regeneration. Even though it is evident in scientific things like the first law of thermodynamics and the ultimate and imminent destiny of a cyclic universe, one needs only recognize that their apparent existence implies the intrinsic possibility that their existence, as it is in that instant, is able to recur again and has occurred infinitely many times before as it does in that moment. The permutat
I once had confidence in my chemistry abilities but now I am only familiar with the element of sadness. After my penultimate chemistry test, I reflected on every agonizing measure I made to seat before the multiple choice booklet in a room remote from happiness which maddened me with its taciturn silence. I can look back upon the years of my boyhood, the better parts of it spent in school, and I am overwhelmed by regret, failure and portents of a miserable future. I remember the day my scholast
Mechanical waves move through matter as a medium and as such many of the natural laws that pertain to motion and dynamics have special places in the study of mechanical waves. One type of wave is sound which most easily propagates through air however because of the laws of momentum one could expect that a mechanical wave is maintained through any matter. A solid barrier for example would be so rigid that it would absorb the impact of a wave and impede passage slightly beyond the barrier. This wo
At the time of writing the Magnetism unit has come and gone and perhaps writing this is more for show than anything. Nevertheless, I have something to prove by showing the internet that for a mediocre high school student I can be resourceful yet in paraphrasing the magnetism Wikipedia page. It is enough to know the math of something and then venture to take an exam where the capability to succeed is at your fingertips but the concept of magnetism defines the models that work, so the underlying m
We live in an electric world and knowing a thing or two about the contraptions that sustain the way of living in this era may help a few of us reconstruct society after a devastating impact event so let us get to the point. Electric generators simply convert the force of motion into current using magnets. When the link between magnetism and electricity was discovered and became electromagnetism, generators followed soon after using electrostatics (triboelectric effect and electrostatic induction
Okay dear readers, put on your tinfoil caps, wave goodbye to the friendly NSA agents and put a piece of tape over your webcam because I have a theory that may cause the collapse of organized society as we know it so listen up, you may just weep with profound enlightenment and then go to your local grocer for some Tylenol P.M. for that philosophy insomnia. Know bear in mind this is not founded on any fact or science, I thought this would be more of an exercise in 'metaphysics' or something of the
If you are familiar with me, I am not a good person. I say "I aim to please" but far too often I miss the mark (and possibly end up letting loose a shot that nabs someone in the knee). These past two weeks I have not had a Blue's clue what to do with myself our how to move on from one assignment to another when I realize the bitter reality that my work is mediocre and I do not have the excuse of saying I put forth my best. While I suppose I perform well enough for some merit, I fall woefully sho
In AP Chem, my schoolmates and were using a colorimeter to measure the absorbency of certain concentrations of a colored solution. I notice how any color of light, except for the color of the solution, would be absorbed an amount proportional to the amount of solute disassociated in solution. I wondered why this was? A red solution would absorb blue or green spectrum of light but not red light, in fact from the reading of the colorimeter it would seem that an incarnadine solution would emit red
A common underestimation of our forebears in their histories and scientific achievements is that it was common in many archaic cosmological models that the Earth was a flat, disc-like plane. Without a doubt, there are people that persist to this very space-age day that trust in a flat Earth but it was in no way exclusively an ancient phenomenon or a common one. Even with few scientific instruments, the elder humans, unequipped with the internet and latest edition of The AP Physics C Companion: M
The symbol of invention, ingenuity and enlightenment, the light bulb is perhaps a most pivotal invention in the course of human history. The advent of the lamp made it possible to render the dark of night and shed a lambency on the way to the future! Truly, the light bulb is all we could ever ask for. They say 'teach a man to fish and he will not have light but teach a man of the fluorescent lamp and he will have that light!' but in all seriousness let us illuminate the obscure nature of the flu
As the nature of electricity was investigated into the eighteenth century through static electricity and to a certain extent the triboelectric effect, it was only natural that the discovery of electric charge and capacitance would follow. Independently, three scientists named Ewald Georg von Kleist, Pieter van Musschenbroek and Andreas Cunaeus. A machine of sorts, one that would supply charge through triboelectric electric effect by friction, would transfer the charge to two conducting, metallic
The triboelectric effect manifests from frictional contact between materials resulting in contact electrification but why? Why are things like this? Why do we live? Why do we die? But anyways here the things we have to know. People have been using this effect like a play thing, charging objects to repel another or zapping frogs apparently (thank you) and I believe it was quite important to our discovery of electromagnetism, especially in the ancient world. If your childhood was at all interestin
You know its just nice to be here, blogging with my physics fellows and learning new things in a great class environment but real talk, before the second quarter closes on all of my fat head, I just wanted to say that I think that these physics blogs are great, an excellent creative opportunity to connect the dots, so to speak, on the physics topics we've learned. However I feel that not everybody is getting enough out of them for their own sake. These blogs while not necessarily throwaways can
I was watching this video of a man slapping a molten stream of metal. Let there be no doubt that this fiery stream was beyond glistering, the scathe of flesh and branches, such that man has never seen. Anyways it was bizarre because his hand passed through unscathed, leaving nary a mark. Perplexed, I began to think and when I could not find any bulletproof conclusions I searched the vast corners of cyberspace to discover the existence of what is called the Leidenfrost effect, there before my eye
Where do elements get their physical properties? Well the short answer is inter-molecular forces and that's really all the time I have to spare before the second quarter. Several inter-molecular forces keep an element at a certain phase of matter. The tenacity of these forces depends a great deal on the circumstances of pressure and temperature but for blog purposes, it is safe to think of these at standard pressure and temperate so it is easily visualized. These so-called inter-molecular forces
I had a very thought provoking conversation with some fellow students in the spare time of seventh period. The subject of some debate was the true nature of the atomic elements. We are talking of the chemical elements of the periodic table, nothing to do with Avatar: The Last Airbender, one of the greatest animated shows to grace our planet but I digress. Atomic manifest their properties from protons and electrons. A nucleus of protons, positive charges, tends to attract an equivalently charged
I have thought for a long time about 'truth', what it is and how to know it. Many things have a claim to 'truth' but the honesty of these declarations, all various and in disagreement, speak only on the obscurity of 'truth'. What holds fidelity in all contexts about 'truth' is that it is equivalent to reality and absolute certainty. There is no error in 'truth', it is the absolute security of fact and foundation and seemingly, by notions entirely self evident, Neil deGrasse Tyson holds a piece o
At the time of writing Christmas is over, its before the New Year and the impetus to do anything school related has left my body and soul. Nonetheless I have a smithereen within me crying against the apathy that crowded so densely among my brain cells and I have found it and nourished it and it becomes this blogpost. According to the Wikipedia page, the small angle approximation is a convenient and necessary estimation where in some cases you can replace a trigonometric function of theta(Θ) with
PV = nRT is the written equation for the ideal gas law and I think it would be useful if we could talk about what is really happening in this equation.
Now, an ideal gas is described in a theoretical outline that pretty much just says that a gas made of particles would have elastic collisions and no intermolecular forces hampering its expansion to a certain volume. This model is useful because it ignores some of the more delicate issues of gases by making assumptions.
Ok so for the PV
I purchased a bike with the money I made last summer at my dreadful waitstaff job. Anyways despite the working conditions, I now had a used bicycle with several neat gears and a chain. Now I believe that these gears have some relation to my cycles per unit-of-time which I believe is similar to a 'frequency' or cadence of turns on the main gear, perhaps similar to rotational velocity. A second gear operates the driver wheel which lends it similar amounts of speed if I could be so inclined to say
An atlatl or spear thrower is one example of mankind's inherent knowledge of throwing spears well. The throw or "casting" involves acceleration, force etc. but the precise action that our mechanisms enhanced our early projectile weaponry is remarkable and telling of humanity's ingenuity. This device acts like an extension of the wielder's own arm amplifying the leverage, involving elements of the center of mass and whatnot, of the throwers arm and wrist. It also improved upon the stability of th
We consecrate thanksgiving in the abundance that has come to us, not in vainglory but of thankfulness for our lot in life. With a class of a few, we know each other by name and are never far apart. These blogs keep our thoughts fresh and physics at the forefront. Really, AP physics C is a paradise. The packets are straightforward and with a bit of searching, the answers are conveniently there with little confusion on the whole. Our equations are adequate and fulfilling, they are means to an end
The colloquialism "quantum leap" has uses beyond conversation. It describes atomic orbital transitions as electrons "leap" from energy level to another and in the process they either absorb or energy in the form of photons. "Quantum leap" is also used as a figure of speech, a short hand metaphor in language. The idiom may connote a change in something's character, a greater change in energy or excitement or even a "leap of faith" or "jump to conclusions". In my chemistry class, the notes had con
It has occurred to me that I may not be the only one scrambling to type two or three or more blogs today. This is no one's fault, the blame rest on me alone but I wonder at the amusing possibilities that I have avoided by doing these blogs. The dread and anxiety that I could have curbed if only I had been more resourceful or the high-minded topics I would have espoused if only I had the impetus, speaking of astronomy and physical laws and their implications. I should start now, yes, Earth is the
So according to some scientist from another time. Each of an atom's electrons inhabits some energy level in the atom's orbit. To ascend to or descend from one of these, that electron must emit a photon of a specific frequency as a form of energy. One could think of this like an electron living on a floor of a building of many stories. To move up or down, signifying a change in energy, an electron must receive or emit a photon of an energy corresponding with the floor or energy state that its in.