jwdiehl88
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A simple snap-back mousetrap is a clever machine. With just a few parts (a wooden base, a spring, a metal bar, and a trigger mechanism) it can do its job quickly and efficiently. When a mousetrap is set, the spring in the center is compressed, becoming a source full of potential energy. This energy is being stored, not used, but as soon as the trap is released, it is converted to kinetic energy (the energy of motion) that propels the snapper arm forward. This is a perfect example of conservation of energy. It takes an amount of force to set the mousetrap and when the trap is triggered, it creates a force onto the mouse that triggered it.
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It so cool to think that color absorbs light and that different colors mixed with each other creates different colors.
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When I bought my racket, the sales person said that the lower the tension of the strings, the more power but less control you get. But the higher the tension, the more control you have but less power.
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The Physics of Cruise Ships
jwdiehl88 commented on ajgartland22's blog entry in My Life, Baseball and Physics
It must take a lot of energy to even move the cruise shape just because of its sheer size! -
Physics of the Saxophone
jwdiehl88 commented on nathanstack15's blog entry in Physics C and How it Relates to Me
Would the amount of air you blow or how fast you blow air into the saxophone affect the vibrations in the air? -
So the 20 pound weight lifts and holds the 320 pound picture in the air like it's in equilibrium.
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Turbo chargers
jwdiehl88 commented on NathanKenney's blog entry in So, I guess I signed up for another year of ap physics...
Wow that's really cool how the ecu can measure how much oxygen and gas is being used and then if there is to much convert it into a high rate of combustion. -
Would you able to change the frequency of the whistle by making the whistle bigger or smaller?
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The speed of any wave/the speed of sound depends upon the properties of the medium through which the wave is traveling. But first if there is no medium for the wave or sound to go through, then there will be no sound. For example, there is no medium in space so there is no waves/sounds travelling in space. There are two factors that effect speed of sound. One of them is the elastic properties of the medium/material. Elastic properties of an object is how easily the object is able to bend or deform when a force is acted upon it. So the phase of matter effects the elastic properties of the medium. For example, longitudinal sound waves travel faster in solids than liquids and gases due to their elasticity properties. Another factor that affect the speed of light is the density of a medium.The greater the density of individual particles of the medium the slower that the wave will be. A sound wave will travel faster in a less dense material than a more dense material.
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Oh so since energy can't be destroyed or created and the velocity is a constant, the only thing that has to change to conserve the energy is the mas.
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A couple of summers ago, my family and I went to Hersey Park for vacation. I'm afraid of heights but I love to go on roller coasters and I remember that there was a Ferris wheel that my sisters persuaded me to go on. It was scary because you could see how high you were from the ground. But it was also cool because you could see everything. Anyways, a Ferris wheel can be related to physics because of its shape. It is related to centripetal force and torque. So basically, I could calculate the torque that a rider feels on the Ferris Wheel. All I need is the radius, the mass, and the linear acceleration. To find the linear acceleration, I would calculate the centripetal acceleration of the Ferris wheel. So I would need the velocity and radius of the rider. Then I could convert the centripetal acceleration to angular acceleration. Then I would calculate the moment of inertia by doing mass times the radius squared. Finally to find the torque I would do the moment of inertia times the angular acceleration.
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When I was a kid, my parents bought me a yo-yo. At first I was puzzled and wondered how to play with it. I spent a good amount of time practicing and I could finally make it roll and then come back to me. I thought that was a huge accomplishment, but then I saw on TV a yo-yo contest with these people doing insane tricks with their yo-yo. I never knew how they could do it. So I decided to see the physics behind a yo-yo. I found that when people do string tricks that makes the yo-yo roll on the string is due to friction. There is friction between the string and the axle that prevents the yo-yo from spinning, allowing the yo-yo to roll on its own string and not giving out more string. This may seem simple but it applies to an yo-yo. Newtons first law that says that an object will stay in motion until an outside force is acted upon it. This is why a yo-yo comes back to your hand. You can flick your wrist and cause a force that push the yo-yo from its string and then you flick your wrist back to get the yo-yo back to its original state.
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Our brain are set up to receive and interpret messages from the eye. Optics, a branch of physics, studies the interaction of the light and the eye. This interaction plays an important role in optical illusions. Optical illusions use light, colors and other features to trick the mind into thinking of things that are or aren't there. For example the Lilac Chaser Illusion. In this optical illusion, the viewer sees purple blurry dots arranged in a circle around a focal point. As you stare at the plus sign, it will appear as if a space is running around the circle of lilac discs. But after the viewer continues on staring, they will eventually see a green disc moving around the circle instead of the space. Then if the viewer continues on staring, they will then see the disappearance of the blurry dots and only see the green dot moving. We perceive movement and when we see something at one point and then at another, we believe that it is in motion. Also, when blurry objects are located in the periphery of our visual field, eventually they disappear when we have our eyes fixated on a certain spot.
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Jenga, it's the classic block-stacking, stack-crashing game that everyone played as a kid. You and the person you played with, stacked up pieces of block into a sturdy structure and then you remove these blocks from the bottom or middle and placed them on the top. As you removed a block from the structure you had to be careful of how you removed it because one wrong twist or turn, you could collapse the structure and lose. The reason why it's so hard to remove the block from the structure because there is a friction on the block that resists you from pulling the block fast and smoothly. If the block isn't removed smoothly then the structure will collapse. The reason why this game works and why the structure stays in place when you remove blocks is because of the center of mass of the structure. Even if you take a block from the middle of the structure, this doesn't affect the structure to fall down immediately because the center of mass doesn't move when move the block. It stays constant and keeps the structure from falling. Since the center of mass of the structure doesn't move, the only time it falls is when a block is removed that makes the structure unbalance and fall over.
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Did you know that you transfer about ninety percent of your force upon a pedal of a bike into kinetic energy? Riding a bike is so simple but there is so much physics behind it. As you ride a bike there are multiple forces on you. There is a force of gravity downwards on you, so as you slow down, the force of gravity will push you and the bike down. There is also a drag force and frictional force acting on you and the bike. The drag force is the air resistance you feel when you go downhill. If you're going at a high speed with your bike then you can feel the air resisting you from going down the hill. Also you can't forget the frictional force between the tires and the road. Then there is a force pushing you forward which is caused by the work the person does by pedaling. As the person decreases its work then, the frictional force will be greater causing the bike to slow down. But if the person increases its work, the force going forward will be greater than the frictional force causing the bike to speed up.