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JesseLefler

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Blog Entries posted by JesseLefler

  1. JesseLefler

    Curling

    By JesseLefler,

    In the upcoming Olympics, curling is my favorite sport to watch. Although many people find it boring to watch I think it is very interesting to see how it all works. The stone that is being slid down the ice is very heavy so that it can slide down the length of the ice without slowing down. The velocity of the stone is only a few meters per second. Before the game begins the force of friction is lessened by spraying water on top of the ice which freeze into little pebbles of ice that help the stone move down the ice. Lastly the people who are brooming help this as well because it rids the dirt from on top
  2. JesseLefler

    Roller Coasters

    By JesseLefler,

    When riding a roller coaster, gravity is one of the main forces. When the cart on the roller coaster travels to the top of the hill, it’s the acceleration due to gravity that brings it back to the start. When the cart gets to all the way up to the top of the hill, gravity ends up pulling it down. The cart starts at a slow pace but gets faster as it approaches the bottom. As it begins to climb to the next hill, the speed slows down. This is because the acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 m/s^2. As the roller coaster cart begins its fall from the lift, its velocity increases which causes the cart to gain kinetic energy. So therefore the faster the cart moves, the more kinetic energy it gains.
  3. JesseLefler

    Surfing

    By JesseLefler,

    This spring break I got to fly down to Florida to visit my friend Henry! Henry is a big surfer so while I'm down there I'm going to get to learn to surf along with him. With break now approaching, i figured it would be a good opportunity to look into a little bit of the physics of surfing! First there is a lot of basic application such as the fact that the force that the board exerts on the water, is exactly equal to the force the water exerts onto the board. However as a researched more I found there is more complexity to it than I had realized. One major principle that plays in buoyancy. Buoyancy is the ability to float which is due to the density of the board. Another reason that board is able to so easily glide across the water is due to the surface tension. If you've ever gone skiing or tubing, you may recall that when you fall off the water is seemingly hard. Well the reason for this, is because the molecules that make up water are attracted to each other, therefore their bonds are very strong at the surface. Finally, some of the basic forces play into surfing. Gravity is what keeps the surfer on the water and it pulls it down, just as the normal force, equal in strength pushes back up from the water. Then there is also the frictional force from the water between it and the board. However this is attempted to be kept at a minimum, which is why surfers wax their board to create a very smooth surface, decreasing the amount of friction. Obviously there is a lot of physics involved in surfing and I can't wait to give it a try next week!
  4. JesseLefler

    Iron Man

    By JesseLefler,

    Throughout the Iron Man franchise, tony stark uses an arc reactor to stop shrapnel from piercing his heart, but how is this done. Well to begin with, when yinsen attach a magnet tostark's chest to use the laws of magnetism. By having the electromagnet facing the south side, it allowed the shrapnel to stop moving towards his heart and move still facing the magnet. Even still when stark made an upgraded arc reactor and told pepper to help him fix it into his chest. When pepper removed the magnet while trying the shrapnel continued its course. However when she put the new reactor in, it acted as an amplified magnet by completely stopping the shrapnel while still being mobile.
  5. JesseLefler

    Sunflower Seeds

    By JesseLefler,

    As I'm sure many of you know eating sunflower seeds is a very popular task and one that is full of physics. Such as when you are biting down on the seed to crack it you are putting a force down onto the seed that is needed to crack but did you know that the seed is putting a force onto you. Indeed the seed is putting a force onto you called the normal force. This helps allow you split the shell. Now when you spit out the sunflower seed you are doing a kinetic equation that will affect the distance that you are able to spit the seed. Such as if you want to spit the seed farther you have to give it an initial velocity. Then this in turn will give it a larger displacement and will result in a final velocity of zero because the seed will have landed on the ground. This is the physics involved in spitting out sunflower seeds.

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