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kykan

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Blog Entries posted by kykan

  1. kykan
    Most people know that the compass is used to navigate yourself around. However most don't know how it works. A compass is a magnet that is free to line up with magnetic field lines. The earth is basically a giant magnet with a north and south pole. However, the north pole of a compass is attracted to the geographic north pole of the earth.. therefore the geographic north pole of the earth is a magnetic south pole. The compass is able to navigate you around earth when you are lost because of magnetic field lines which run from north to south outside of the magnet. A north point of a compass will point towards wherever the magnetic field lines point. A compass is a good thing to bring with you when you travel or hike because it doesn't require electricity and the poles on earth will most likely never change, making the compass a consistent tool to have for an emergency. A compass is polarized which means it has two distinct and opposite ends. Regardless of where you are on earth, if you have a compass you can use magnetism to help you find your way back home!
  2. kykan
    When you make toast in a toaster oven, you are using electrical power. Electrical power is the rate at which electrical energy is expended. The amount of electrical power your oven has is based on the amount of work it has to do and how much time it takes to make the toast. Toasters are measure in volts and they draw amps of current to work. The toaster is made up of a series of circuits. A circuit is a closed loop path through which current can flow. If a loop in the toaster oven somehow gets a disconnection then it will not longer be a closed loop path and current will be unable to flow therefore you will be toast-less. The current flows from high potential to low potential which is the opposite of electrons. The wires in the toaster oven most likely have low resistance because resistance opposes current flow. The electrical power from the outlet in your house travels to the toaster oven through currents and turns the potential energy into heat energy creating toast!
  3. kykan
    When a librarian hears someone talking they tell them to be quiet. What is happening is they are hearing sound waves. Sound is a mechanical wave observed by detecting vibrations in the inner ear. Sound can travel across the library because sound can travel through air, water, wood and even steel. The waves that are produced when you talk are longitudinal waves. The speed of sound in air at STP is 331 m/s. So when you talk, it gets to the librarians very quickly. The sounds you make all have different frequencies and amplitudes. Librarians prefer sounds with low frequencies and low amplitudes. The longitudinal waves that you produce when you talk have compressions and rarefactions. If the librarian is on her way over to yell at you for talking, since she is approaching you, according to the Doppler Effect she will hear your voice at a higher frequency than your friends at your table. While in the library, create sound waves with very small amplitudes and you should be fine.
  4. kykan
    If a hamster were to go surfing (which they couldn't do in Hawaii because hamsters are illegal there) then they would be surfing on waves. Waves are created from several pulses at regular time intervals and they carry energy. A pulse is a single disturbance which carries energy through a medium or through space. If a hamster was surfing and the wave reached a boundary such as rocks, it would reflect off the boundary and it would be inverted. However if the wave were to reach a soft or flexible boundary it would reflect but not invert. The waves in water that hamsters surf on are known as transverse waves. If the surfing hamster saw a shark they would scream and create a sound wave which is a longitudinal wave. If the hamster fell off its board and ended up underwater they could still scream because sound can travel through air, water, wood and even steel. Hopefully if the hamster has a good center of gravity they will not fall off the board!
  5. kykan
    Basketball has so much to do with physics! First off when you dribble a basketball, the force you put on the basketball, the basketball puts back on you. When you shoot a basketball its projectile motion. The ball goes is attracted to the ground because of gravity. Your shoes (hopefully) do not slip on the ground when you are running because of friction. When you fall and get a floor burn that is also due to friction and so painful. The amount of force you apply to the ball and the angle and location you shoot it from decides where it goes. During games ideally when you pass you want to put as much force as possible into it so its difficult for the other team to steal it. If you happen to miss your shot and the ball collides with the backboard or the rim, the momentum is conserved. That is why in warm-ups when everyone shoots at the same time its good to be aware of your surroundings because if that ball bounces right into your face it will not feel good. If you know your physics basketball can become a lot easier.
  6. kykan

    Cute Hamster

    By kykan,

    This is a cute hamster and gravity is acting on him and when he runs in a wheel the force that keeps him from flying off is centripetal acceleration. This hamster is not magnetic. This hamster is also not a conductor of electricity. This hamster is still really cute though. This hamster is made up of atoms. Matter is made up of atoms. If you want to truly experience all aspects of physics buy a hamster.
  7. kykan

    Hamsters and Energy

    By kykan,

    Hamsters have tons to do with physics. Their food has chemical potential enegy and they eat it. If you drop a hamster (which I do not reccomend) the total mechanical energy will remain the same. When a hamster runs on its wheel it creates thermal energy. As a hamster falls freely, the kinetic energy will increase and the potential energy will decrease. When a hamster is running if it doubles its speed the kinetic energy of the hamster will be quadrupled. A hamsters gravitational energy depends on its position with respect to earth. Hamsters have lots of energy.
  8. kykan

    Pepper and Work

    By kykan,

    The amount of work you do varies person to person, or person to hamster. You do work on an object when you move it. Work is the process of moving an object by applying a force. If I push my hamster, Pepper, 3 meters and apply a force of 2 newtons, then the work I did is 6 joules, since work is force multiplied by displacement. However when I apply the force of 2 newtons to pepper and she moves, it doesn’t seem like she is impacting me, however she is also applying a force of two newtons back on me. When you do work you transfer energy from one object to another therefore I am transferring my energy to Pepper the hamster.
  9. kykan

    Momentum and Hamsters

    By kykan,

    Total momentum of a system is constant. When two hamster balls collide, the momentum is conserved. A collision is an event in which two or more objects approach and interact strongly for a brief period of time. If a 4 kilogram hamster with a velocity of 2 m/s collides with another hamster who is 3 kilograms and has a velocity of 5 m/s they would have 23 kg*m/s. After the collision however they still have the same amount of momentum because momentum is conserved. Initial momentum equals final momentum.
  10. kykan
    When you make Mac and Cheese you are coming face to face with many different types of energy. Energy is the capacity to do work or move an object. Energy can be transformed and this is proven when you make mac and cheese. The macaroni has chemical potential energy. And by using thermal energy the mac and cheese is cooked and energy is released. The macaroni is changed because of work energy. Work done on a system by external forces changes the energy system. Also if you hold a piece of macaroni in the air it has potential energy and when you drop it the kinetic energy increases as the potential energy decreases making the mechanical energy zero.
  11. kykan

    Springs and Trampolines

    By kykan,

    When I think of springs, I think of trampolines. The more you stretch of compress a spring, the greater the force of the spring. If you think of a hamster jumping on a trampoline it wouldn’t go as high as an elephant jumping on the trampoline. The larger the force, the larger the distance. Work done in compressing the spring is stored as elastic potential energy. Therefore if a large person jumps down on the spring when they fly back up the trampoline has potential energy to send them far up. The larger the person, the more fun they will have! Since larger people compress the trampoline more, they will get more out of it. If you had a lot of free time you could calculate the spring constant of your trampoline. Say you weigh 60 Newtons, if the spring is moved 2 meters from its starting spot, than the spring constant would be 30 Newtons/Meter.
  12. kykan

    5 Hour Class

    By kykan,

    Last night Ally and I took our 5 hour class so that we will be able to take our road test and hopefully get our license. A lot of the things that have to do with driver safety are things we learned about in physics class. Every time the instructor would say something that has to do with physics Ally and I would be like omg no way. The first thing that had to do with physics was a video we watched. The video went over why it is super important to wear your seatbelt and talked about accidents that were more severe than they had to be because the rider wasn't wearing a seatbelt. The video talked about projectile motion and why people when they get in accidents fly out of their cars and land certain places. Honestly I don't really ever wear my seatbelt but after that video I will every single time I am in a car. Also the instructor talked about snow and ice and how to drive safely on them and how it all has to do with friction. Driving on ice is super dangerous because you could slide across the ice and lose control of your car due to the lack of friction. Also it was talked about skidding when trying to come to a stop just on a plain road and why that happens and you can prevent it by making sure you have good tires that will have a lot of friction. The words velocity and acceleration were mentioned various times during a video we had to watch about drunk driving. The drunk drivers had no control of their velocity and some constantly accelerated the entire time they were driving!!! Driving safety is pretty much all about physics. If you know your physics it could really help you to avoid dangerous situations.
  13. kykan
    Physics is involved in pretty much everything in life. Throughout my school day I experience all kinds of physics. First period I have Italian where I sit down (along with the rest of my classes) and I am applying a force to the chair and the chair is applying a force to me because of Newtons third law. Second period when I get my math test score back I hit my head against the desk which is also applying a force to the desk and the desk applies one right back. Third period is art class where I gravity is pushing my eyelids down while I struggle to stay awake. Fourth period is APUSH which could be compared to a black hole. Black holes have tons to do with physics. A black hole is a point in space with so much gravity that not even light can escape and that is most definitely APUSH... Fifth and 6th periods are the best of the day because I do not have classes these periods so I can do my homework. Seventh period is English where I push down on my pencil and it leaves a mark on the many papers I have to write. Gravity also pushes down on that pencil. Eighth period could be the first period of a double for physics or if I am lucky its gym. In gym there is so much physics. A ball is thrown and is a projectile motion. Gravity acts on the ball at all times. If were running in gym we push down on the ground with our legs and the ground pushes us back allowing us to run. And then ninth period, well there is too much physics in a physics class to list. Tons of gravity throughout the day and tons of newtons laws. Crazy..
  15. kykan

    Volleyball and Physics

    By kykan,

    Physics applies to volleyball in many ways. When you hit or serve a ball there is a force being applied to the ball which would be your hand. The ball also exerts a force back onto your hand. Your hand and the ball would be an Action-Reaction pair because of newtons 3rd law: All forces come in pairs. If object one exerts a force on object two, then object two must exert a force back on object one, which is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. Also when the ball is served or hit, it has initial and final vertical and horizontal velocities so it would be an angled projectile. The ball however does have air resistance when in the air. Its much easier to hit a volleyball than many other things such as bowling balls, basketballs, and soccer balls because volleyballs have less inertia. Also the gravitational force of the earth impacts every part of volleyball. One of the reasons I love playing volleyball is because of reaction time.. The reaction time of the back row on the other side of the net is generally too slow to pick up our team's hits and tips since the ball is accelerating at 9.81 m/s^2 and we applied a downward force and that is why we have done so well this season (And Callari ofcourse!). Friction also plays a role in volleyball because if you dive after a ball that your teammate shanks and you slide on the floor that alot of mews and alot of floor burns.. and if you think about it.. If two cats are on a roof which one would slide off first? The one with the smaller mew...

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