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This Year in Review

This year has been a wild ride, and the AP weeks are approaching fast. With the third quarter ending, and soon most AP classes to have not much work to do, I need to take the time to look back on this year. Physics was a struggle, but that made it a lot of fun. I have learned a lot, and have learned new was of how to learn based on the style and difficulty of a class. It was a great choice to make and it has really helped me to learn what is in store for the future at college. Calc didn't catch

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Pokeball Explained with Quantum Entanglement

Pokemon is weird and so, even the simplist things in the games must also be complicated. The pokeball is how you capture and transport pokemon. However, it cannot simply store a pokemons mass as it would cause serious problems outside of weight. For example, the pokeball seems to be about 9.52 cm in diamter giving it a volume (3/4(3.14)(4.76^3)) of 452.11 cm^3 so that the most massive pokemon, Groudon with a mass of 950kg would result in a mass density of 2101 kg/m^3 which is denser than the sun

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Weird Aspects of the Pokedex

The pokemon games are full of weird situations and ideas, especially those relating to the all knowing pokedex. This post will highlight how weird the game is about first generation pokemon, Ponyta. One pokedex entry states that it can clear ayers rock in one leap. This rock in central Austrailia, standing at 348 meters tall and its average width across is about 1500 meters. This then becomes a projectile motion problem. The pokedex also states that its evolution can run at 67 m/s and so this is

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Maglev

The technology for maglev has existed since the 1960's, the first trains weren't really developed and used till the 1980's and only since the 2000's has humanity had high speed maglev trains. The principle for a maglev train is fairly simple, as it runs using the knowledge that like magnetic poles with repel each other. Maglev trains use magnetic poles to oppose the magnetic field enduced by the train. Then the train is propelled forward by another opposing magnetic field.

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Secret Struggle in Crawford's Room

This past Wednesday, April 11th, there was a very annoying and painful high pitched noise coming into the room occupied by Calculus teacher Mr. Crawford. This noise was not heard while walking through the hall nor could Crawford himself hear the noise. This noise do to its annoyingly high pitch, had to have been of a higher frequency than less annoying pitches. Also, as humans age, we can begin to lose the keenness of our hearing of high frequency sounds. This explains the confused look on Mr. C

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Ben's thoughts on Wooper

A while back my cousin Ben who is majoring in physics at the University of Rochester, soon to attend Berkeley for his PhD, and I were discussing these blogs and my past pokemon blogs. As a result, my cousin pulled out his laptop as we discussed whether or not Wooper could possibly use the move Mega Punch since he has no arms. Then Ben started to explain the uncertainty principal in more depth than i understood and wrote up the fallowing document. Although I still do not fully understand his reas

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Electric Motors

Many everyday objects run on electric motors. These motors work due to the effects of an electric current in a magnetic field. The field exerts a magnetic force which rotates the wire. The motor then convert electric energy into mechanical energy. Studying this made my trip to Odyssey of the mind states, we were required to have a character who couldn't be portrayed by a team member. As a result we used an RC car that moved our friend the spore around the stage during the performance. 

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Hidden Truth in the Martian. What Hollywood doesn't want you to know.

Released in 2015, the Matt Damon film, The Martian was released and had some accurate science. Matt Damon grows potatoes in his martian habitat with just some soil, water, and lets just call it, well... fertilizer. However this was just part of a science fiction movie, right? WRONG!!!!   Potatoes can be grown on Mars, just not how it was done in the film. The first problem of course is getting the potatoes to Mars. The average medium potato has a mass of about .213kg and around 163 cal

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Joe Kelley hits Tyler Austin. You wont believe what happens next.

The day was April 11, 2018. Tyler Austin (bleow left) slides into 2nd base in the third inning with his spikes up, spiking Boston Shortstop Brock Holt (below middle), the two exchange words, the benches clear but then it all settles down. Then in the seventh, came the shocking events.     Boston Red Sox Pitcher, Joe Kelley (above right), decides that Tyler Austin has to pay for his actions, he was looking for blood. Kelley throws one pitch which misses Austin but the second,

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Electricity Production

Most of everything we use today uses electricity. But how do we produce it? All power plants whether, coal burning, wind, nuclear, and hydroelectric, uses a force to turn a magnet in a coil of wire to power our modern lives. Coal burning, and nuclear both uses steam to turn the turbine while wind uses, well... the wind, and hydroelectric uses the pressure of flowing water. Hydroelectric: Hydroelectric power is built into dams and build up water pressure until power is needed to be

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Year in Review So Far

Well, we're half way through our senior year at Irondequoit High School and graduation in just over five months away. Where have the past four years gone?  But I am excited for the future. The second quarter was not so rough as I found a new wave of motivation upon the beginning of swim season which pushed me to work harder and keep everything the status quo.  However, that backfired as i forgot about these blogs until midterms and then had tests to study for, practice, and blogs to write . It a

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Not So Millennium Falcon

As i have before in these posts reminisced on baseball, this too relates to the sport. For those that don't know, Kodak Tower used to be home to a pair of Peregrine falcons. These birds are the fastest animal on the planet diving at speeds of up to 200 mph (321.869 kph). How do they do this with their tiny bodies? physics. These birds dive onto their prey turning gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy,, while at the smae time, they tuck their heads and wings in towards their bodies t

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

not so on Top of this

The class was told to find a partner and a table then given a description of materials 6 pennies, two paper plates, a pencil ,and tape. Then came one final instruction, "make a top." 1. How did this activity relate to the engineering design process? The engineering design process includes four main steps, design, build, test, and reflect. This relates in the fallowing way. First, we to the best of our ability, tried to find the center of a plate and poke a pencil through. Then we trace

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

What has Elon Done?

The recent static fire of the Falcon Heavy Rocket on January 24th got m thinking more about SpaceX and how the company has revolutionized space flight. While NASA continues to pay SpaceX for launches to the ISS, they also continue to invest money and time into developing the Space Launch System (SLS) lead by Boeing to replace the space shuttle. But back to the static fire. SpaceX fired all 27 merlin engines of the Falcon Heavy on the launch pad as a final test before the maiden launch of the Fal

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Winter Physics 2018-2: Ice Skating

The winter Olympics has both traditional figure skating, and speed skating as events. For this post I will focus more on the physics in Speed skating. First, how to go forward on ice skates. Since the friction between ice and sharp skates is almost zero you cannot simply just move, however, an ice skater must keep one foot in the direction of travel and push off the other at an angle from the first foot. This then creates forces in the x and y plane of the second skate, and it is the perpendicul

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Winter physics 2018: Luge

The 2018 winter Olympic games begin in less than a month on Friday, February 9th in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Though I do prefer the events of the summer games, I will have to wait till Tokyo 2020. However, the winter games still has athletes who use physics in order to bring home the gold. In this post I am focusing on a weird but fun event to watch: Luge. In luge, the athlete must try to travel down a track in the least amount of time in order to win. This is where it gets interesting. After a

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Vinny Bray's Fancy Flips

This morning i worked with Vinny bray and after all the swimmer exited the water we talked about our swim and dive season, which lead me to this thought. As my practice last night continued and a kick set presented itself, I took the time to watch and mess with Vinny Bray, the top diver at IHS. Vinny this year is trying to break the school 11 dive record of 431 points at sectionals, and this year he has worked on dives of increasing DD (Degree of Difficulty) this year. But what is he really doin

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

How Different Pitches "Break"

We are now only a few weeks out from the unofficial start to the Major League Baseball season, pitchers and catcher reporting. This day, February 13th, 2018, begins the spring training process that leads up to the start of the season on March 29th. My realization of the nearing call, lead me to think about how many different breaking and off-speed pitches that exist in baseball today. What i discovered is that only two main factors contribute to how pitchers manipulate their throws to be more th

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Fire is Wild

Many describe fire as one of humanity's greatest discoveries. It helps to keep us warm, provides light and energy, and can the remaining coals can help to cook a mean dutch oven stew or cobbler.  Fire works by combustion, requiring fuel, oxygen, and an energy source to kick start the reaction. Though this sounds more towards the chemistry side of science, fires in the wild have mastered physics in order to spread and speed up their consumption.  Most wild fires tend to seemingly prefer to s

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Bizzare Way Butterflies FLy

With this recent warm weather that we have had, i have had thoughts of spring and a world booming with plant life. With spring time in Rochester comes rain, sadly, and everyone's friend the Monarch Butterfly.  Butterflies also have an enormous wingspan compared to their body size, and research shows that most butterflies can fly with damaged wings, or even as little as half of their current wing span. All those times as child when your parents told you not to touch a butterflies wings or wo

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

What does Gary Sanchez Feel When Catching?

Yankees catcher,  Gary Sanchez, takes some abuse at his position. Not only from public criticism of his struggles blocking pass balls, but also the constant force of catching baseballs for 9 innings of play. In this blog I will examine the force that Sanchez has felt while catching Chapman. First, Aroldis Chapman can throw 105 mph (47 m/s) fastballs at Sanchez. p=mv p= (.145 kg)(47m/s) p= 6.8 kg*m/s Say the time it takes for Sanchez to stop the ball is .1s F= p/t

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Why I spent $250 on a Swim Suit for Sectionals 2017

Swimming for the most part is a fairly cheap sport to partake in. A cheap jammer can cost as little as $10 and goggles cost as low as $3 but I wouldn't recommend going cheap if you swim to win. Swimming is a sport where you are constantly fighting drag, whether it is air resistance off the blocks or the water while swimming. Up until sectionals, we all use the suits the school is willing to pay to get us, and there ok. Then when sectionals rolls around in February, you see very few school suit a

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

How Much Work Does Michael Phelps do in the 100m Butterfly?

Michael Phelps is not only the greatest swimmer of all time, but the greatest Olympian of all time. After competing in five Olympic summer games, ( Sydney 2000, Athens 2004, Beijing 2008, London 2012, and Rio 2016) Phelps has set multiple Olympic and world records and has won 28 ' Olympic medals. 23 gold, 3 silver, and 2 bronze. Standing 6' 4" with a enormous 6' 7" wingspan, the man is built to swim. On television it looks like he does so much work to set his records and win medals, but how much

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

The Physics of Hitting Home Runs

Ever since 2014, the number of home runs hit in a MLB baseball game has risen 47%. While some blame PED's, it is easier to prove the physics. The primary factor in hitting a home run is bat speed. For every 1 extra mph of bat speed, means an extra 1.2 mph of ball speed making the ball fly 6 feet further. Also, launch angle effects whether or not a hit is a home run. The best launch angle is somewhere between 25 and 35 degrees. If the ball is hit on the upper half, it will be a ground ball with a

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

Pokemon Evolution Breaks Physics

We all know that mass must be conserved and that mass cannot be created or destroyed. This law is a  fundamental law in physics. In order for an object to gain mass it must be added and con not just simply appear. This is where not only Darwin but physicists can question pokemon evolution. Take Ponyta for example, this fire horse, weighs 66 pounds (29.94 kg) according to the pokedex. After it evolves into Rapidash at level 40, it weighs 209 pounds (94.8 kg). This makes pokemon evolution impossib

AaronSwims

AaronSwims

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