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Brittany16

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Blog Entries posted by Brittany16

  1. Brittany16

    pogo sticks

    By Brittany16,

    at one point in everyone's lives they have tried to use a pogo stick (some more successful then others).

    for starters there is elastic potential energy stored in the spring. which is the work that is done stretching, in this case compressing, the spring. you can find out just how much energy is stored through using the equation PEs= 1/2kx^2. where k stands for the spring constant or the stiffness of the spring and x stands for the displacement from equilibrium. (the difference from the original spring and how long/ short it is after you stretch/compress it. also the more you stretch or compress the spring the greater the fore of the spring. in this case it means that the more you compress the spring the higher off the ground the pogo stick will go. have fun pogoing.
  2. Brittany16

    curling

    By Brittany16,

    sticking to my winter sports theme of the night, id like to talk to you about curling. by sweeping the ice in front of the stone, they are removing the ice chips and heating the ice which creates a thin layer of water. this allows the stone to move further because it is decreasing the amount of friction the stone is experiencing. once they get close to the target they stop sweeping, which in turn increases the friction, hopefully enough for it to land on the bullseye.
  3. Brittany16

    2014 winter olympics

    By Brittany16,

    bobsledding is one of the several events held in the winter Olympics. have you ever watched them and wondered what allowed them to stay on the track? well I can answer that question for you.

    since the bobsled is moving on a path that is the shape of a tube around curves, the mass and velocity of the sled creates centripetal force, which is the force that pulls the object towards the center of the circle, in this case it is what is preventing the bobsled from moving too low or high on the track (keeping it in the middle. this way the bobsled can have the perfect speed.

    acceleration due to gravity, which is 9.81 m/s^2 is a key factor in centripetal force.

    friction also plays a role. the metal skate od the ice has very little friction, but it doesn't need a lot to throw it off. so the bobsleds racing later have more friction to overcome due to the previous teams marking up the ice.

    momentum, mass and velocity, play a huge role in this as well. the more momentum they have the easier they can overcome the friction and the drag that would slow them down and cause them to not be in the center of the tube.
  4. Brittany16
    so now that I have talked about snow drifts id like to talk about every kids favorite winter activity because of this; sledding. once you make that long hike up to the top of the hill, sit in your sled, and push off, gravity takes over pulling you to the center of the earth which causes you to speed downward.

    the slope of the hill is what also helps you to accelerate and give you that adrenalin rush as your speeding down the hill and the wind is brushing against your face. as the slope of the hill begins to flatten out at the bottom it causes you to slow down and eventually stop. (how far you go before you stop depends of the slop of the hill and how fast you were going). now that the fun is over you start that long hike back up to have more fun and thrills.
  5. Brittany16

    winter wonderland

    By Brittany16,

    For those of you that like the snow because of the fun winter activities that it brings, like skiing, sledding, snowboarding and more, I think you should know what helps to make these things possible; snow drifts.

    snow drifts are when a gust of wind, which is a force and speed, moves/blows snow and when the wind decreases because it hits an object/outside force, like a hill, the winds speed is decreased. this causes the snow to pile up on the side of the hill. thus making it possible for people to snowboard, ski, sled, and just have fun during the winter months.
  6. Brittany16
    so I was trying to think of one more topic to write about and my mom came up with figure skating, which automatically made me think of Casey Carlyle in the Ice Princess. I though of her because for the majority of the movie she was doing a research paper on the physics in figure skating to submit to a college. in doing a little research I found that what Casey discovered in the movie was true. for example, in order for a figure skater to spin at their fastest, they have to compact their body as much as possible. in doing so they are eliminating some air resistance that would slow their spin down. in compacting their body, they are also concentrating their weight on to a smaller area which in turn also increases their speed when they are spinning. also, for a figure skater to get the most amount of height they can in their jump, they have to push down into the ice hard and fast for several strides to gain as much speed as possible before hitting their toe pick into the ice to lift themselves into the air (which all leads to torque). speed and height are key components because the more you have of each, the longer they will stay in the air. which gives them more time to do advanced tricks to impress the judges. these are just a few of the things that I found to be true about physics and figure skating through the Ice Princess.

    here's a clip from the movie that shows a little about what i'm talking about. sorry that the quality isn't the best.


  7. Brittany16
    when someone sings they produce sound waves. these sound waves can tell us a couple of things. in looking at the space or period between the waves allows us to see if a person is hitting high or low notes. also, the high of the waves tells us information about how someone is singing. if the waves are high, then someone is singing in a loud pitch, but if the waves are small/short, then they are singing in a soft pitch. you can also tell if someone is singing harsh or smoothly due to the sound waves they produce. if the waves look like a parabola then they are singing smoothly. but the more jagged/ pointed the lines are the harsher the person is singing.


  8. Brittany16
    well for starters, for a train to begin to move forward, it has to push backwards. (yes, I did say backwards). in doing so it is giving itself enough momentum to move, which falls under Newton's 3rd law of motion. also, since a train is on a schedule that dictates when they have to arrive at a station, they need to be able to calculate how much time it will take them to get there so they know when to leave. they can do this by knowing how far they are going to travel, their acceleration and their initial or final velocity. once they know this they can plug it into an equation to figure out how much time it should take them to get to their destination.
  9. Brittany16

    the physics of soccer

    By Brittany16,

    believe it or not, without physics we wouldn't be able to play soccer.

    a key component of physics that is involved in soccer would be Newton's laws of motion. for example, for a soccer ball to begin to move an outside force has to act upon it, like someone kicking it. once the ball is moving, it will continue to move until another outside force acts upon it, like a goalie diving for the ball making it hit his/her hand preventing it from going over the goal line. both of these examples show how Newton's first law of motion plays a key role in soccer.

    also, when someone is kicking a ball at lets say 30N, the ball also pushes back on that persons foot with 30N but in the opposite direction, which causes the ball to move away from the person that kicked it. which demonstrates Newton's second law of motion.
  10. Brittany16

    physics in archery

    By Brittany16,

    In archery there is a lot of physics that needs to be calculated correctly in order to have a successful shot. if you are up in a tree stand and you see a deer, you need to know how far away it is, so you can judge if it is a good shot for you to take. to do this you take the displacement from where you are diagonally down to the deer, which tells you how many feet you are away from the tree. also, in shooting from a tree stand, you are shooting down at the deer and need to be able to judge what angle your bow should be at (along with your distance) in order to have a successful shot. say you had a trig in blocking your shot(and yes something as small as a twig will alter where your arrow will go) you need to move your body to the best angle you can find to get your shot. these are just a few examples as to how archery relates to physics, I shall save some other examples for a later post .

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