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jcstack6

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Blog Entries posted by jcstack6

  1. jcstack6
    My sister Abby loves to make pancakes for breakfast. She makes three small pancakes at a time using one pan. How does this cook all of the pancakes evenly? This is where physics comes into the equation. The flame is concentrated in the middle of the pan, so wouldn't that be the only place where the pancakes would be able to be cooked? One would assume so, but due to energy and particle movement, the entire pan is able to cook a pancake, even though the flame is not directly under that spot. The flame heats up the molecules in the pan directly above it, causing the heat energy to be converted into kinetic energy. As the molecules then move rapidly, bouncing off one another, the collisions with other molecules in the pan transfer energy from one molecule to another, transferring energy across the whole pan. The kinetic energy in each of the molecules and collisions cause the entire pan to heat up. This is why it is possible to make three pancakes by using just one pan.  
  2. jcstack6
    Fall is by far the best season. It's not too hot, not too cold and the leaves falling all around create beautiful views any way you turn. Physics is also all around during fall. To pick one example, falling leaves illustrate many principles of physics. One could pretend air resistance doesn't exist and see a leaf fall 9.8 m/s^2 in a straight line to the ground, but that would take away from the beauty of the leaf falling. One would have to include air resistance, measured by either bv or cv^2, where b and c are constants and v represents velocity of the leaf. Even the inclusion of air resistance, however, wouldn't totally explain the nature of the leaf falling. It would describe the leaf speeding up as it falls, eventually reaching a terminal velocity until it stops on the ground. The irregular shape of the leaf is what needs to be taken into account to truly define the nature of the falling leaf with physics. The irregular shape is what makes the leaf move side to side, accelerating at different rate throughout its fall. If we were to consider a ball falling, air resistance would be easy to calculate, but due to the irregularity of the leaf, the nature of its fall is difficult to explain in terms of physics. It is amazing how complex the physics is behind an object as simple as a falling leaf. 
  3. jcstack6
    One of the most creative sounds in music is when a composer is able to resolve a chord. The chord starts out sounding as though the pitches are fighting each other, this is called dissonance. The listener hates this sound, but it makes the resolved pitches sound even better. To resolve the chord, the dissonance is ended by balancing out the wavelengths of the pitches. This is done by changing the notes in the chord such that their frequencies create regular harmonies such as a third and a fifth. The physics behind resolving a chord is extensive, but at the same time straight forward. The frequencies of the pitches that create dissonance are so close together, almost the same, that the waves created make a sound that could be compared to the notes fighting with each other, and to some extent this is true. The pitches don't want each other to change frequency, but the listener desperately does. This is the reason why resonance sounds so good. Once the pitches stop "fighting," once the pitches frequencies are in pattern with each other, the conventional chord sounds a thousand times better being played right after dissonance. 
  4. jcstack6
    In the greatest comedic film ever created, Homer Simpson attempts to ride a motorcycle around the inside of a dome. He accomplishes this feat in order to throw a bomb out of the inside of the dome. Not only is this the coolest stunt ever pulled in any movie in the history of film, the physics behind this accomplishment is elegant. In previous attempts when Homer failed, he drove too slowly and so he would fall when he got to the top of the dome. Lisa knew about physics, however, and told Homer to speed up when he got to the top. When he did this he was able to get to the top of the dome without falling off. He was able to do this because his increase in speed increased his momentum. Since momentum, p, equals mass multiplied by velocity, Homer's momentum would increase when he sped up toward the top of the dome. Therefore, he was able to clear the dome because the force of gravity opposing him stayed the same and his momentum increased, causing him to go all the way to the top of the dome without falling, after, of course, multiple failed efforts. 
  5. jcstack6
    By far the coolest thing you could do with a car is drift, but most people don't know the specifics behind drifting and how much physics is embedded in drifting. When someone drifts, they turn the car abruptly and then turn the wheel in the opposite direction they want to turn. This action, however, however seems counterproductive. Why would turning the opposite direction move the car in the intended direction? To answer this question, you need to know the nature of friction and Newton's laws. When the car begins to move sideways, the only force acting on the car is the force of friction from the pavement on the wheels of the car. This force makes the car slow down, since net force is equal to mass x acceleration, and the force of friction is the only force acting on the car.  But why would friction change the direction of the car? The answer to this lies in the concept of centripetal forces. Centripetal forces are forces that are center seeking and cause an object to move in a circle around a point. Therefore, when the wheel is turned in one direction, this causes the force of friction applied on the wheels of the car to become a centripetal force, causing the car to move in the intended direction rather than the direction that the wheel is turned in. All of this considered, drifting in a grass field is definitely a thrilling activity, even if you don't know all the physics behind the movement of your car. 
  6. jcstack6
    Physics plays a massive part in music, whether instrumental or vocal, but physicists and musicians rarely realize the depth of the relationship between the two. As a tubist and a physics student, I find how closely intertwined physics and music are to be intriguing. Most people know that the tuba is an incredibly low instrument, second only to the contrabass saxophone, which is rarely found in a concert band anyway, but when asked why it is, the most common answer is because its big. This answer isn't totally incorrect, but there is so much more to be considered in terms of the physics that makes the length of the tubas tubing contribute to its incredibly low sound.
    The low sound of a tuba can be attributed to the low frequency of sound waves that the tuba produces, but what is the real reason for the low frequency produced? The answer to this is found in the size of the instrument. The tuba is made up of about 16 feet of tubing. The length of the instrument causes the wave length of the sound it produces to be very long. Therefore, because frequency equals the speed of the wave divided by the wavelength, a greater wavelength will yield a lower frequency. The physics behind music is something astounding yet often glossed over. 
  7. jcstack6
    In a lab recently conducted by the Physics C class, Mr. Fullerton required the class to place a textbook at a location where they predicted a ball launched by a projectile would fall. The class got one test launch to observe the behavior of the projectile and then the angle that the projectile was launched at was changed and the location of the ball when it lands had to be predicted. The class failed to calculate the final location of the ball due to improper calculations, specifically not representing certain vectors with their proper direction. In the initial lab, the distance in the y direction was thought to be positive instead of negative. This threw off our calculations for the initial velocity of the ball in the y direction and therefore made our initial velocity, the combination of the x and y components of the velocity, incorrect. Since our initial velocity was incorrectly calculated based on data for the first trial, we did not have the proper initial velocity for the projectile when the angle it was launched at changed, causing us to have the wrong final answer to where the ball would land when launched from the new angle. 
    After redoing the problem and realizing what we did wrong, I came to an answer of 199.42 cm in the x direction for the distance the ball would travel in the x direction before hitting the ground. By changing the y direction value for the first trial calculation to a negative number, this corrected the initial velocity in the y direction and thereby corrected the overall initial velocity. Then when calculating the value the ball would travel in the x direction for the second trial, checking over that all vectors had the correct associated directions, the time was first calculated by utilizing the y plane using the equation dy = vt + 1/2at^2. The time found for how long the ball was in the air was .427s. The time was then used in the x plane to find the distance using the equation dx = vt. This equation yielded the final answer of 199.42 cm as the distance the ball traveled in the x direction. 
  8. jcstack6
    I grew up in a large family with 6 siblings. As a triplet and having four older siblings,  I have never really been on my own in any activity. My family is extremely close and most of the activities that I do outside of school, such as soccer, singing, playing the tuba, and acting, I do with at least one of my siblings. I am a captain on the varsity soccer team in high school and soccer is one of my greatest passions. I am studying physics this year because I loved what I learned last year and I am intrigued to find out what else there is to be discovered in physics. I am super excited for physics this year as well as calculus and economics. I'm also enthusiastic about my senior year, but at the same time extremely anxious about choosing colleges to apply to, thinking about ACT and SAT scores and having all of my homework to do on top of that. Even though it will be a lot of work, I am excited for what this year will teach me.   
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