denverbroncos
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The final segment of a study of the physics behind these awesome books will discuss theoretical physics and magical dimensions! In the novels, there exist other planes of reality, such as the magical plane of the Nevernever, and several other dimensions such as the one inhabited by Bob, the spirit. There are also things called Outsiders which are said to come from outside of reality. All of these coexisting planes of existence are similar to several theories of theoretical physics such as string theory and the multiverse theory which predict many coexisting universes. Like physics, the many worlds of the Dresden Files are a bit abstract, but open all kinds of exciting possibilities
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One more time, lets examine the physics of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher. Again, tiny, non plot related spoilers ahead. There are ley lines in the novels, which are essentially underground currents of untapped magic. At places where many of these lines intersect are places with some form of magical significance in the series. This demonstrates Kirchhoff's Current Law, or the Junction Rule. All of the magical current flowing into these junctions is conserved and converges into one, much stronger, stream of energy that affects the surrounding world. As it turns out, even magic cannot ignore the laws of physics!
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Here is another exploration of the science behind Jim Butcher's popular Dresden Files books. Harry Dresden has a magical shield bracelet, which obeys several concepts of physics rather well. Caution, tiny spoilers ahead. At first, Harry's bracelet enables him to block incoming kinetic energy only, which causes him some problems when exposed to heat. He later expands it to also block heat energy, light and sound as well. The fact that each type of energy needs to be addressed separately, combined with the fact that powering the improved bracelet takes more of an effort from Harry, demonstrates the idea of conservation of energy and shows the level of thought Butcher puts into the magic in his books.
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The wonderful series of books by Jim Butcher, the Dresden Files, has an awful lot of physics in many of the magical activities that occur. This is the first of several examinations of the science behind the magic, about Harry Dresden's magic rings. These rings store up kinetic energy slowly over time, and he can unleash it all at once on the bad guys. Lets say every time he moves his arm, one ring picks up just 2 joules of energy. Lets also say that he moves his arm 5,000 times in one day. Therefore, he stores 10,000 joules of energy per day. This means he stores up the equivalent kinetic energy of a 1000 kg car going 20 meters per second, a total of 200,000 joules, in just 20 days. That means once every three weeks Harry can hit all manner of nasty things with an invisible car. Not a bad self defense technique, huh?
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Since it seems so popular to do, here is my take on last quarter. It was dominated by independent units for circuits and magnetism, which brought about some interesting revelations. First, read the book! I didn't do that for circuits, and it made understanding the theory behind all of the material very difficult. I actually used the book on the magnetism unit, and it made a huge difference in understanding the origins of Biot Savart's and Ampere's laws. Also, I need to learn to budget my time. I took too long at the beginning of each unit, three weeks is a lot of freedom and as a result I left too much for the very end of each unit. I feel like this quarter was excellent college prep and, once again, recommend that everyone reads.
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No matter which sport you play, understanding physics makes it much easier to play.
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I think simply studying the equations would help more than writing with a lighter touch...
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Jason Padgett sees the world in Math equations!
denverbroncos commented on CharlieEckert's blog entry in Blog CharlieEckert
I fear anyone from our physics class may do horrible things to acquire this superpower heading into Electricity and Magnetism. -
The physics of hypothetically cheating at swim practice
denverbroncos commented on CharlieEckert's blog entry in Blog CharlieEckert
The fact that he's willing to go to practice at 7 am on the weekend means he's not slacking, good idea. -
You feel the repulsion force of that objects electrons, MuffinMan
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Worlds Strongest Men Competition
denverbroncos commented on midnightpanther's blog entry in Blog midnightpanther
I sometimes wonder how the world's strongest man events translate to real life work, good ideas on that front Dave. -
Everyone loves to hate field goal kickers who miss, but apparently it is not as easy as it looks.
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Conservation of momentum in Rubber bands!!
denverbroncos commented on bdavis's blog entry in Blog bdavis
So if you stretched out and released enough rubber bands at once you would go flying, sounds fun -
Thank you from all of us out there who are very bad with tools and repair work
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Yikes, that's an awful lot of electricity, and it does not sound fun
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I have long feared the start of Electricity and Magnetism in Physics C, and following the introduction to this semester with a hard unit on E fields and forces, I know that this will be as hard as I thought. I didn't realize that it would be fun however, as I am finding myself enjoying the new elements of electricity such as Gauss' law and the fact that the calculus isn't as bad as I envisioned. There is still a long way to go but hopefully E and M won't be the nightmare I envisioned on day one.
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What is the Earth's angular momentum? Since L = Iw, we need to know the Earth's moment of inertia and angular momentum. For moment of inertia I will assume Earth is a solid sphere with I = (2/5)MR^2 or (2/5)(6x10^24)(6.3x10^6)^2. This comes out to I = roughly 9.53x10^37. w = (2 pi)/T, and the earth's period is 86400 seconds, so the earths angular velocity is 7.27x10^-5. So, L = Iw = (9.53x10^37)(7.27x10^-5) = 6.93x10^33 (kg*m^2)/s
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Hockey is back, so I decided to calculate the max speed a skater can take around a level circular turn on ice with a radius of 20 meters using the algorithm v = radical(urg). With the coefficient of kinetic friction between the skates and the ice being approximately .15, the max speed is radical(.15*20*9.8) or 5.42 m/s.
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The times square ball is dropped from a height of 43 m every year at the start of the new year. However, I feel the ball drop should be timed so the ball lands at the turn from one year to the next. Thanks to kinematics, we know the time it takes the ball to fall (neglecting air resistance) is = radical ((2h)/g), or radical ((2*43)/9.8). This means the ball should drop 2.962 seconds prior to midnight to land at the start of the new year. Happy 2013 everybody.
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We just finished all of Mechanics for AP physics C, and I want to reflect on the highs and lows of the semester. I most enjoyed learning about rotational motion, specifically angular momentum, as it was so unlike anything from last year. Finally learning to deal with rolling objects felt like a real step forward from last year. I found oscillation to be the most challenging unit, and cross products to be the most confusing new concept. I really enjoyed independent units and hope we do another one for Electricity and Magnetism.
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With all of the recent gravitation problems involving foreign planets, I investigated the other planets. I found out Mars has gravity only 38% of Earth's gravity, and its moons Phobos orbits the planet twice in a martian day. Mostly I wanted to take the opportunity to share this awesome story about the Mars rover Curiosity I found. http://news.yahoo.com/road-trip-tap-nasas-mars-rover-134636007.html. Apparently Curiosity will be visiting a Martian mountain in 2013, and will continue to investigate life on Mars.
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Following our study of gravitation, I decided to calculate what the value of g would be if the Earth's gravitational field extended to the International Space Station's orbital height, with the equation g = (GM)/r^2. With the radius = the radius of the earth (6,370,000 m) plus the ISS's distance above Earth (240 miles or 386,243 M), r = a total of 6,756,243 m. Therefore g at the ISS's height would be 8.767 m/s^2.
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Winter is here, and so is the snow. Many people fear driving on wet icy roads, and for good reason. The coefficient of kinetic friction between rubber and ice is 0.15, while the kinetic coefficient between rubber and dry asphalt is 0.72. Since the force of friction is directly related to these coefficients, the force of friction helping a car stop is nearly 5 times less when driving on icy roads, and therefore the net force is drastically reduced. All of this means less acceleration, meaning people need to drive slower and brake sooner to stay safe in bad weather.
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Simple harmonic motion has long been one of the hardest units for me to conceptualize and use in problems. This year, with the addition of calculus and the many new applications that came with it, I was quite nervous. However, while things looked confusing the calculus actually made things easier, just simple deriving and integrating to express the same things in new ways. Also, I have begun to see that all of the equations come from a few core rules and concepts this second time through SHM, especially how many of the equations only differ due to the inverse relationship of period and frequency.
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1) Use the parallels to linear motion: x and theta, v and omega, a and alpha, mass and moment of inertia, torque and force. 2) The many forms of torque: Torque = r x f, I times alpha, and net torque = rfsintheta 3) Angular momentum! L = r x p = r x mv and Net L = mrv times sintheta. Also the rate of change of L = torque