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crazycrochet20

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Everything posted by crazycrochet20

  1. At the beginning of this past unit starting electricity, we learned about Gauss's Law and how it was going to be the start of a lot of work in the future with it. I, as do many, need to spend some more time and focus on getting this figured out soon because I have a strong feeling that this will be something I struggle with for the rest of the year if I do not understand some of it soon! Although this idea was named after Gauss, Joseph-Louis Lagrange started work on this law 40 years prior to Gauss. They both put contributions towards Gauss's Law which relates the distribution of electric charge to the resulting electric field. Now, this post is really going to be about the man that created the law, Carl Friedrich Gauss. Gauss was a German mathematician who huge contributions in many areas including algebra, geophysics, mechanics, electrostatics, magnetic fields and optics. Gauss was a child prodigy when it came to math and science. Growing up, he was a perfectionist and a hard worker who devoted his life to mathematics. He had two wives and six children who, in the course of his life, all died except for one of his children. Due to these tragedies, Gauss lived a depressed and miserable life until he died at 77 in 1855. Gauss's work paved the way for a whole new understanding in the field of electricity and magnetism which now allows us high school physics students to somewhat understand some electricity in physics! I do not understand it now, but I am now determined to learn and focus on this! Until next time, RK
  2. I wish I could have a pet hedgehog... sadly my dad won't even let me have a fish
  3. I cannot stop laughing at this
  4. I love looking at the little sparks with one of my blankets at night! I think it is super cool!
  5. After my thoughts of flying in the last blog post, I got thinking about the idea of levitation. I started looking into this idea and it actually came up that there is currently a group at the University of Bristol in England that is trying to use sound to levitate objects off of the ground. This idea was first brought up by a Russian physicist, Andrei Geim, who counteracted the gravity on Earth to float a small frog. Physicists are now working to increase the size of what they can levitate to humans and then maybe even cars! They have determined that if they are to place an object at a certain point within a sound wave, the force of gravity and the force of the sound wave will cancel each other out and leave the object floating. The "mini tornado" sound waves work in such a way that it counteracts the gravity it normally feels. Although this has only been tested on very small objects so far, hopefully it will progress to larger items and even humans soon. This is probably the best thing that I have seen all day and maybe we will see more progress with this and find people levitating in the near future! Until next time, RK
  6. Last night, my sister brought up the sequel to The Incredibles which got me thinking about another topic for a blog post. The movie has a lot of physics examples in it; however, there are several examples of where some laws of physics are broken. Each family member has a superpower that makes them unique but they break laws of physics that could not actually be broken in real life. Mr. Incredible has super strength which allows him to pick up cars and stop trains. When he stops the train from falling off of the broken track, he has to put a force on the train equal to the force it is traveling at in order to stop it from falling off. Although this part of it is true, I think that everyone knows that a human could not simply stop a train in the way the Mr. Incredible did in the movie. Next is Dash, the son that can run at extreme speeds which allows him to get away with putting tacks on the teacher's chair without him noticing. In his time to shine, Dash managed to run so fast that he ran across the water. If he were running this fast, why would he have to worry about getting shot at by the bad guys because their machines should not have been able to move as fast as he did. Again, I think we all know that no human can actually run across water like Dash did in the movie. This movie makes me wish that I could have a superpower, too. I think I would want to have super strength or the ability to fly (or both). Since that will never happen, I am just going to keep on dreaming! Until next time, RK
  7. Monday's seem to be the worse days of the week for me. I feel like my worst days always are on Monday. Since today is a Monday and it was another bad day, I thought I should do a blog post about some funny physics things that I found on Google and Pinterest. These all made my day a little bit better and I think they will make yours better too. I hope you all enjoy and let me know if you find anymore good ones! I love a good laugh! Until next time, RK
  8. Have you ever noticed how physics is everywhere and in every little thing that you do? Well of course you have because gravity is great and all. Anyways, there are so many topics and ideas that physics can relate to and it is absolutely incredible! I had originally wanted to talk about physics in the human body but then I came across the topic of medical physics. MEDICAL PHYSICS IS A THING! Medical physics is exactly as it sounds, physics that is applied to the medical field. That might not sound like a cool thing to you but it is actually really cool to look into. Medical physicists can often be found in hospital and universities where they are either working with patients or doing research. The ones who work in hospitals often work with radiotherapy, radiology, x-ray, ultrasound and nuclear magnetic resonance. Medical physicists can often play key roles in a patient's treatment plans. One prominent example is helping to treat cancer patients. Physics can contribute to saving lives! Until next time, RK
  9. A Foucault pendulum is a device that has been used to prove that the earth rotates. It was discovered in 1851 by a French physicist, Leon Foucault, who wanted to prove the earth's rotation and did so with his pendulum. Ideally, a Foucault's pendulum should rotate at a fixed point on surface of the earth but unless it is located at the poles, the pendulum is rotating as the earth rotates. When gravity is the only acting force on the pendulum, the pendulum will swing and rotate back to its original point in approximately 24 hours. Although the pendulum's would eventually stop due to air resistance, there is often an electromagnetic drive that is used to keep the pendulum going as it swings. All around the world, there are now pendulums often in science museums and colleges. In our area, there are several within driving distance and I would love to go an see one soon. Until next time, RK
  10. Wow! It is already December and we are working on rotation in class! Last year, this unit was one of the worst for me because I truly did not understand any of the concepts. I have started to figure out some of the equations and concepts but, I am going to have to work hard all this week in order to really understand the unit. In class last week, Mr. Fullerton gave us a challenge to solve. He gave us a pencil, two small paper plates and six pennies. Our task was to make a top that would spin for a longer period of time from those materials. For the blog post this week, we have to explain how this activity relates to the engineering design process. If I am being honest, I had no idea what it was and typed it right into the handy dandy Google. I found a website (sciencebuddies.org) which gave me the steps to the engineering process. Those steps are: Define the Problem Do Background Research Specify Requirements Brainstorm Solutions Choose the Best Solution Do Development Work Build a Prototype Test and Redesign I definitely think that all of these were used in the activity with some of them slightly combined and happening all at once. Our problem was creating the top that would stay spinning for more than just a few seconds. Our research came from the information that we could see coming from the actual top and our background knowledge from the physics we had been learning. The requirements came in the form of the items we could use to make the spinning top which were the pencil, paper plates and pennies. The next few steps were combined because of time and we began to use trial and error to try and build the top. Brandon and I immediately knew that the the plates would have to have the pencil going through the center. We tested out where the plates would have to go on the pencil and eventually found that it had to be placed towards the bottom of the pencil. On the plates we tested the different distances of where to put the pennies and ended up putting the pennies at about an even distance towards the outside of the plates. Our final aspect that we fixed to make the top spin longer was put a small piece of tape at the tip of the pencil to keep it from spinning around all over the table. After that, we had created a top that spun for a decent amount of time with the many aspects we changed and tested. The next question we have to answer is relating this activity to moment of inertia and angular momentum. For the moment of inertia, the mass and radius are the factors that change moment of inertia. Since we could not really change the mass of the object, spreading out the pennies to create a larger radius impacted the moment of inertia for our top. For the angular momentum of the top, the moment of inertia and angular velocity impacted the top and allowed it to spin for a longer period of time. These two concepts combined created the top with lots of trial and error for the perfect one. Until next time, RK
  11. I don't recall falling over his brick recently which is a good surprise!
  12. In my previous post, I discussed the physics behind hurricanes and their formation. After the crazy lightning storm we had last night, I think writing about lightning and how it connects to physics is a good topic for this next blog post. Lightning storms are an example of the electrostatic that occurs in nature. The result of the build up of the electrostatic charge in the clouds are those terrifying strikes. The lightning wants to take the path of least resistance where it branches out and grows. The negative particles in the clouds want to reach the ground which leaves the strikes coming down. Just like hurricanes, lightning is quite dangerous and everyone should avoid being outside during lightning storms. Everyone should also avoid standing outside with a large metal pole during one of these lightning storms unless you the desire to get struck by said lightning. Until next time, RK
  13. What a wonderful blog post!Physics is everywhere!
  14. Physics is everywhere in real life! Most people don't think about it, but weather is an aspect of physics. After all of the major hurricanes this year, I think looking at the physics behind the hurricane is a good idea. Hurricanes are formed when high air pressure intrudes in cold air pressure space which then rises and starts swirling and forming extremely high winds and destructive storms in a matter of days. The picture below shows why these storms are formed in the tropical regions and are able to create so much damage once it reaches land. The major physics aspect that I took from hurricanes is the Coriolis Force. This force follows Newton's Second Law but it has a rotating reference frame. When the force is applied to the Earth, it is often times called the Coriolis Effect. In most cases, the rotating object is the earth which helps account for some of the motion of objects on the earth. Looking from above, the object appears to move straight out, yet when looked at from a different angle, the object seems to have a curved path outwards. When hurricanes start to form, the air that is brought in is deflected perpendicular which also creates the spiral motion. This force also initiates the movement of the hurricane often towards land due to the rotation of the air. Once a hurricane reaches land, destruction will soon follow and remain. Until next time, RK
  15. I agree! We have all learned to work together and help each other to get through this class!
  16. I hope no one throws me a surprise party like that! That's a little too scary!!
  17. Roller coasters are great examples the concept of conservation of energy. Using the knowledge that the initial energy should equal the final energy, we can use the equation Ui + KEi = Uf+ KEf . An example of a real life roller coaster that this equation works with is the Ride of Steel. The website gives the information that it is a 205 ft drop (62.5 m) but the total height of the ride is 208 ft (63.4). Even though the max speed of about 75 mph (33.5 m/s) is listed on the website, we want to confirm that information through the use of conservation of energy. We are looking for the max speed at the bottom of the first large hill. For this problem, we are going to say that the velocity at the top of the hill is about 0 m/s. mgh+(1/2)mv2=mgh+(1/2)mv2 ----mass cancels out---> gh+(1/2)v2=gh+(1/2)v2 -----plug in variables-----> (9.8 m/s2)(63.4 m)+(1/2)(0m/s)2=(9.8 m/s2)(.9 m)+(1/2)(v)2 -----solve for v-----> v=35 m/s Because some values were rounded to make the math easier, the velocity for the Ride of Steel does appear to be around 75 mph. Until next time, RK
  18. Before today, I would have never known who William Rowan Hamilton was. The only reason that I now know of him is because of a fantastic singing video about him. (It's a cool video, you should watch it!) Hamilton was an Irish mathematician in the 19th century who made many contributions to optics and classic mechanics. He was crazy smart. He spent his youth learning languages and then at 15 went on to discover an error in a physics theory along with contributing to other ideas. Hamilton discovered a number system that extends the complex number system as well. (ijk=-1) Overall, he was a pretty cool guy that now has a pretty cool song. RK
  19. That is the COOLEST thing I have ever seen!!!!!!
  20. At the start, many of the yellow minions with cool goggles and a few strands of hair were captured by the evil Gru. Gru did not want them anymore so he decided to throw them all into a box to ship them off to an island in the middle of nowhere. Gru pushed the box at a constant speed along the ground that had friction. Once he got to the car, he realized that he would have to lift the box with a certain force. The work that Gru does is equal to the negative change in potential energy. He then flies the box of screaming minions to the island. Instead of just kicking them out of his vehicle, he uses a pulley system to reach a platform above him. He is standing with the box and himself on a platform and holding the rope. The power that Gru would have to use to sustain a constant velocity would equal the force times the velocity. From that point on the platform, Gru has a 1000 W electric motor that will raise the platform up a certain height. In 10 seconds, the box will raise that height as Gru runs away as fast as he can. However, Gru did not know that the minions had stolen the freeze ray and were waiting for the perfect time to use it... The minions stole the vehicle while Gru watched, frozen in place. Gru learned his lesson, never become an enemy of the minions. RK
  21. Over the course of the past week, I have started to notice that I tend to drop everything. Anything from hair ties to binders to my phone. I am honestly surprised that most of the things that I have dropped have not broken. When we started learning about drag forces and air resistance, I began to notice how long the items take to fall. My math homework definitely seems to take longer to reach the floor compared to a small hair tie that seems to fly right to the ground. Even though we just took the test in class yesterday, I definitely need to focus a little bit more on actually learning the derivation for problems and making sure that I really know and understand it before I take the next test. I have been confused on the math of it since I read about it in the textbook but I hope that I can focus the next few days on getting it down pat. Until next time, RK
  22. We definitely realized that there is always error!!
  23. When most people think about field hockey, they think about the stick that looks like a candy cane. The ball can only be played on the flat side of the stick which makes field hockey a difficult game to play. Newton's first law says that an object in motion will stay in motion until acted on by an outside force. When the ball is hit down the field, the reason it stops after some distance is due to the friction acting as an outside force which slows the ball and brings it to a stop. The surface that is played upon plays a role in the speed of the ball and in the end speed of the game. Grass fields are more difficult to play on with the grass because the ball does not cut through as quickly. Acceleration and changing directions also plays a huge role in the game because players have to quickly adjust speed and direction to dodge around the opposing team. Efficient dodging creates a space and cuts out the defender and makes their job a lot more difficult. That is all for now! Until next time, RK
  24. I am the queen of getting splits! My favorite split for me to get is the 3-7-9 because when the ball hits just right, the ball takes out the 3 pin then the 9 pin slides right into the 7 and it looks so cool!
  25. crazycrochet20

    Dying

    I feel the same way! We can do this!
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