jrv12

When I was at the beach in North Carolina over the summer, for a couple of days there was a sign outside the lifeguard stand that said WARNING: RIP CURRENT. Now at the time I wasn’t exactly sure what a rip current was, all I knew was that it was obviously dangerous and it pulls you out into the ocean. So, I still went in the water because everyone else didn’t seem too worried about it. While I didn’t get pulled out into the ocean by the rip current, I did get a bad sting on my leg from a jellyfish (and it hurt!). Well, rip currents involve radiation stress, which is the force exerted on the water by the wave. Rip currents are powerful currents of water that narrowly run from the beach out into the ocean. They occur when there are variations in the patterns of the waves breaking, and large waves break closer to the shore. All of the water from the crashing wave wants to find the path of least resistance back to the ocean, causing the rip current. The force of the rip current depends on the height of the wave; the larger the wave, the greater the force of the wave, and the greater the force of the rip current. If you ever find yourself stuck in a rip current, don’t panic or swim straight back toward the beach like you would think. The force of you swimming in the opposite direction of the current is not large enough to get you to shore, the rip current has a much greater force. Instead, swim parallel to the shore until you get out of the current, or float out with it, and then once the current stops, swim diagonally back to the beach.

One of my favorite winter activities: SLEDDING! (although not the walking back up part). My house is backed up to the woods and a big hill, so when I was younger we would always go sledding (and try to dodge the trees), and make jumps to go off of on the way down. At the top of the hill, you have the most potential energy because you are at the greatest height. At the bottom of the hill, you have the most kinetic energy because you are moving the fastest and all the potential energy has turned into kinetic. Sledding only works when there is snow on the ground, if you try to go sledding on a grassy hill it won’t be as fun because snow helps to eliminate friction. Snow has a lower coefficient of friction than grass, so the force of friction will be smaller, and you will go down the hill faster. The normal force and gravity are the main forces during sledding, so the more you weigh, the greater the force will be and the faster you will sled down the hill. Also, the steeper the hill, the faster you will sled because with a greater angle there is a greater force. Sledding is much more fun when you’re going fast, so if you like having fun and moving fast, sled on snow or ice, increase your weight, and find a steep hill to go down!

Even though it is well past Christmas, I figured why not use physics to try to prove a myth that many kids believe, the myth of Santa and his reindeer. While Santa is said to have magical abilities that allow him to deliver presents in one night all over the world, let’s pretend that Santa doesn’t have magic and he just obeys the laws of physics. So, Santa has to visit around 500 million houses in the span of 31 hours (taking into consideration different time zones and the rotation of the Earth) and deliver at least one present to at least one child. This means that Santa has to visit about 4480 houses per second, or spend .0002 seconds at each house. In order to travel fast enough to make this trip in one night, Santa would have to travel at around 6500 mph, which is completely doable (in a rocket). Since Santa would be travelling this fast, he would definitely need some type of heat shield for himself and the reindeer to endure trillions of joules of heat, or else he would just be a flaming ball shooting through the sky. Now, what about all the cookies and milk? Well, these could *easily* be converted into energy to fuel his sleigh using the equation E=mc2. So, I guess Santa could be real, it’s just not very plausible. It’s much easier to just stick with the Santa has magical abilities thing! Check out this fascinating article that goes much more in-depth than I do (it uses different numbers than me as well): https://www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/santa/physics.asp

One of my younger brother’s favorite shows to watch is Mythbusters, and repeats are on almost every day. Well, a couple of days ago I saw a video about inhaling sulfur hexafluoride. Everyone has heard someone talk after inhaling helium from a balloon, they sound really funny because their voice is very high. The effect helium has on the voice is because it is much less dense than air. It causes the speed of the sound of your voice to increase, whereas the frequency of the vocal cords doesn’t change. Inhaling sulfur hexafluoride has the opposite effect of helium, it causes your voice to go extremely deep, like Darth Vader. This is because it is much denser than the air we breathe in, causing the speed of sound of your voice to decrease while the frequency stays the same. It is really entertaining and amusing to watch someone talk after inhaling sulfur hexafluoride!

An app would be much more convenient!

Wow I never thought that physics could be found in medical fields!

Spikeball is one of my favorite games to play in the summer, and I'm really wishing it was warm enough to play right now! Spikeball is a game involving a hula-hoop sized net placed on the ground and 2 teams of two go back and forth hitting a small ball across it. It can be played anywhere, including the beach, the grass, maybe even the snow if you're willing to get cold! Much like volleyball, each team has 3 alternating touches to hit the ball on the net for the next team to then play. However, there are no distinct "sides" each team is allowed on, and once the ball is served, there are no boundaries to where you can move. In order to score a point, the opposing team has to make a mistake by hitting the rim, missing the net, using more than 3 touches, causing the ball to bounce more than once on the net, or letting the ball hit the ground. Now, for the physics involved, each person must add an applied force to the ball in order for it to bounce across the net. There is much trial and error involved at first to see how much or how little force you need in order to score a point, depending on the position of the other team. Once the ball hits the net, an equal and opposite force is applied, causing the ball to bounce back up. However, this depends on how tight or how loose the net is, much like a spring constant. The tighter the net, the greater the force the ball will bounce back with; the looser the net, the less force the ball will bounce back with. The force also depends on the mass of the ball; therefore, the more air that is pumped into the ball, the greater the force the ball bounces back with. Check out this awesome video of spikeball in action:

As you may know, people ring in the new year every year by watching the events taking place at Times Square, most importantly the ball drop starting one minute before January 1st. However, calling it a "ball drop" is a tad misleading because it doesn't actually free fall to the ground, the 11,875 pound (5386.4 kg) ball slowly descends down a 43 meter tall flagpole in the span of 60 seconds. It is not as stunning as everyone makes it out to be. Sure, the ball is made up of 2,688 crystals, but it doesn't fall to the ground and shatter into a million pieces, which would be much more breathtaking to watch in my opinion. If the Times Square Ball were to drop from 43m, without air resistance, the ball would crash to the ground in 2.96 seconds. In order for the ball to free fall to the ground in the same 60 seconds that it takes to go down the flag pole, the ball would have to be dropped from 17,702 meters in the air, which is about 11 miles. Most planes don't fly any higher than 12,000 meters, or 7.5 miles, in the air. This means that if the ball were to free fall to the ground in 1 minute, it could potentially hit a plane on the way down, and who knows how anyone could ever get it up that high in the first place. I guess now I realize that it makes sense for the ball to go down a flagpole instead of free falling in 60 seconds!

In physics class earlier this week, we were presented with a task to make a top out of two mini paper plates, a pencil, six pennies, and tape. Without any instruction, we had to create a top and make it spin for a decent amount of time using these materials. The engineering design process played a big part in our creation of a top, even though we didn't know it at the time. The steps of the engineering design process are: define the problem, do background research, specify requirements, brainstorm and choose a solution, develop and prototype a solution, test solution, solution meets requirements, and communicate results. The problem was to create a top and the background we had was we saw one working before we started to design our own. The brainstorming area had to be cut short based on time, so we went right into making our solution. Once our first solution didn't work out as we were testing it, we mostly resorted to trial and error. While we were never successful in getting the top to spin for more than a couple seconds, some of our classmates were. A top relates to moment of inertia and angular momentum because the moment of inertia depends on mass and radius, so including all of the pennies spaced out to the edges of the paper plates created the most inertia. Angular momentum depends on the moment of inertia and angular velocity, so the greater the inertia and angular velocity, the greater the angular momentum, and therefore the time the top will spin. I now understand the difficulty of the engineering design process and how many tries it takes to finally come up with a perfect solution based on the proper equations.

It's crazy to think that an alternate dimension could actually exist!

A dog trying to catch a ball in its mouth is like a person trying to catch a football, a lot of coordination and timing. Kinematics could be involved to find the distance, but there is not enough time for a dog or person to calculate that since it only takes a couple seconds for the ball to reach the dog. However, if you ever did want to find the distance, you would need both the x and y components of the initial velocity, acceleration in the y which is equal to 9.8 m/s2, and the time it takes for the ball to reach the dog. It would be a little more complicated than a simple kinematics problem since there is the height of both the person and the dog to take into account. When I was in Target the other day, I saw a new toy called the Chuckit which is basically just an extension of someone's arm that you can put a tennis ball in in order to throw it farther. Using the equation torque=Force*radius, the Chuckit increases the length of someone's arm and therefore the radius. By applying the same amount of force, the person can throw the ball much farther by using the Chuckit because of the increase in torque. So, if your dog isn't getting enough exercise from you just throwing the ball, add more length to your arm to throw it farther!

I always thought that Daniel was crazy when he shaved his legs during swim season but it does make sense since it gets rid of drag!

That thunderstorm we had the other day was certainly crazy!

I'm sure everyone has heard the myth that if a penny is dropped off the Empire State Building it could kill someone. Well, fortunately you can still walk in NYC without shielding your head from falling pennies because this is not true. The penny will tumble as it falls which will slow it down, and because pennies are flat and thin, they experience a lot of air resistance opposing the force of gravity. A penny would reach a terminal velocity of a meager 25 mph at 50 feet. Instead of going straight into your head like most people believe, the penny would bounce right off and you would most likely only feel a small sting. If air resistance didn't exist, the penny would reach 208 mph by the time it reaches the ground, which could definitely do some damage. However, don't go walking around without your head covered just yet. A pen that is dropped perfectly vertical from the skyscraper would reach a terminal velocity of 200 mph, and would most likely kill you. Because of the narrow, cylindrical shape of the pen, it would fall like an arrow and pierce your skull, killing you. Now, if you're like me, you will want to walk around with a helmet on for the rest of your life in order to avoid a hole in your skull from a stray pen!

I always somehow manage to trip over that brick when walking out of the classroom!

While the once popular cell phone app reached its peak a couple of years ago, Angry Birds is a great example of projectile motion. The basic goal of the game is to launch the birds using a slingshot to knock out the green pigs. In order to knock out the pigs with the least amount of shots, you need to launch the birds with the correct initial velocity and at the correct angle. There are multiple different birds that are used in each level, including the standard red bird, a blue bird that turns into 3 birds when tapped, a yellow bird that changes to a faster velocity when tapped, a white bird that shoots down an egg when tapped, a black bird that blows up when tapped, and a green bird that turns into a boomerang when tapped. If we only look at the standard red bird, we can infer that the app does not take into account air resistance since the bird follows a parabolic path. Therefore, the horizontal component of the velocity stays the same and the vertical component of the velocity changes because of the acceleration due to gravity. The kinematics equations vf=vi+at , x=vit+1/2at2 , and vf2=vi2+2ax can be used to solve for the distance the bird will travel both vertically and horizontally using given variables. In order to cause the greatest damage, it is best to pull the slingshot back as far as it will go in order to have the greatest initial velocity and travel the greatest distance. Now playing Angry Birds should be much easier considering the projectile motion we have learned and how to calculate the correct initial velocity at the right angle in order to get the bird to travel the correct distance! While you most likely won't do any actual calculations, your estimations should be much closer and will hopefully help you get a higher score!

Put simply, the answer to this question is yes. But here's how I found out: The other day, I was playing pool in my basement with my brother and, of course, I was looking at something on my phone just as the cue ball was hitting the 9-ball and he applied so much force that the 9-ball bounced off the table and landed right on my foot. It hurt really bad and I still have a large bruise right on the top of my foot. Well, since a standard billiard table is .762m and we can use acceleration as 10m/s2 and the billiard ball started from rest from the top of the table, the final velocity that the ball hit my foot with was 3.9m/s. Ouch. A billiard ball's mass is .17kg, so the force that it hit my foot with was 17N. Ouch. Needless to say there is a large bump on my foot from the ball and now I will always pay attention the playing pool with my brother since he clearly doesn't understand physics well enough to be able to hit the ball with enough force that it will still move, but not too much force so that the ball won't end up on the ground.

I've seen that episode of Dude Perfect because my brother made me watch it and it's so cool!

The first point of sectional finals, we have serve. Ace. A couple more aces and a big serving run and we are now up 18-3. We end up winning the first set 25-6. 25-6. 25-6, in sectional finals, against Pittsford Sutherland. It is clear now who has the momentum moving forward. The momentum from the first set carried us in the next two sets and we end up winning the match and sectional finals. In a sport, when a team has the "momentum" in the game, it means that they are the ones on the move and will be hard to slow down and stop. In physics, momentum is the product of mass and velocity, and the equation is p=mv. Therefore, as mass or velocity increases, so does momentum. Momentum is also a vector quantity, so it has a direction to go along with the magnitude. A change in momentum is the impulse which uses the equation J=Ft. It would take a large amount of force in a large time to create a big impulse or change in momentum. Last night, Sutherland started to create an impulse in the second and third set, but it wasn't enough to sway the momentum in their direction. Here's a video of the final point of the match last night!

Now we know that it won't be perfect and there will be error!

I drop everything too! Most of the time I just let it fall and hope nothing breaks!

Most people have made oobleck at some point in their school career, whether it was in elementary school as a fun project or in high school to demonstrate physical properties. How did oobleck get its name? From the Dr. Seuss book Bartholomew and the Oobleck. This simple, non-Newtonian fluid made from a mix of cornstarch and water defies Newton's Law of Viscosity. Oobleck magically transforms (well, not magically, but it seems like it!) from a liquid to a solid with the slap of a hand, punch of a fist, or kick of a foot. Because of the shear-thickening behavior of oobleck, a greater applied force leads to a greater resisting force from the fluid and it behaving like a solid. Without an applied force, the oobleck will behave like a liquid. The behaviors of these shear-thickening fluids allow them to be used as body armor since they offer great flexibility and ease of movement, but would resist a sudden force such as a bullet or knife. Watch this video if you've ever wondered how to walk on a liquid:

I remember this from AP Psych last year and it definitely still applies to most classes!

Anyone who knows me well knows that I’m a very competitive person and I love to play ping pong. I have a ping pong table in my basement and my friends and I used to have tournaments and we even had a rule where if one person got a shutout against someone else, the person that lost would have to pay them $5 (this never actually happened because we would never go along with the rule if it did, it was just a joke we had). It also amazes me to watch table tennis on TV during the Olympics because they hit the ball so hard that I never knew how the person returning it doesn’t hit it off the table every time. Well, it turns out that this has to do with Newton’s first law, an object in motion will remain in motion unless acted on by an external force, and Newton’s third law, for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the person serving hits the ball, the applied force is so great that the returner doesn’t have to add any force to the ball (neglecting air resistance) since the ball hits the paddle with the same force it started with and the action of the ball hitting the paddle causes the ball to change direction. However, air resistance is an external force acting on the ball causing it to slow down, so the player should plan to hit the ball with a small amount of force each time. The force of gravity causes the ball to hit the table on the opposing player’s side, therefore keeping the game in play until one player adds too much force, too little force, or misdirects the ball so that the ball goes off the table or into the net. Here's a cool video of the best table tennis point ever:

Video 1 a. 4 beliefs that make people stupid: · Learning is fast · Knowledge is composed of isolated facts · Being good at a subject is inborn talent · I’m good at multitasking b. I tend to try to multitask while doing homework by checking my phone every once and a while, but then I have to go back and reread so in the end it actually takes longer c. Metacognition: A student’s awareness of their level of understanding of a topic Video 2 a. Most important factor in successful learning: what you think about while studying b. Deep processing: matching new information with already learned information and comparing and contrasting the two c. 4 items that help learning: · minimizing distractions – don’t have my phone right next to me while trying to do homework · developing accurate metacognition – don’t overestimate the amount of material that I actually know and instead take the time to learn what I don’t know · deep processing of critical concepts – don’t just skim through something just to get it done and instead relate it to something I already know · practicing retrieval and application – quiz myself on the new material after I have finished learning it Video 3 a. 6 aspects of optimizing learning: · elaboration – relate this concept to other concepts not only taking notes on the one video but relating it to things learned in other videos · distinctiveness – prove how this concept is different from other concepts by knowing the difference between integrals and derivatives · personal – relate this concept to personal experiences by forming the weekly blog posts on something I find interesting · retrieval and application – use and apply this concept within the weekly blog posts and webassign · automaticity – practice information so it occurs without conscious effort by writing equations without having to look at the reference table · overlearning – study beyond just knowing information so it can be recalled quickly by looking over notes again before answering questions so I don’t have to constantly look back at them Video 4 a. 6 questions from the video: · What is metacognition? A student’s awareness of their understanding of a topic · How did the teacher test for metacognition? The teacher created a graph of the grades the students thought they would get vs. the grade they actually received and it showed that most students have poor metacognition · How does poor metacognition hurt academic success? You might overestimate how well you know something and then get a bad grade · Why would metacognition that was good in high school be bad in college? In college you have to apply knowledge to situations, whereas in high school you are mostly memorizing facts · What are the central differences between deep and shallow processing? Deep processing is applying and relating information to something already learned, shallow processing is merely memorization · Name a task you already do where you automatically use deep processing? Reading and annotating a book b. In video lessons, it is hard to write down everything the instructor is saying word for word, so instead it is better to listen and then summarize what was said with an example to recall for later use. Taking notes on the video engages you by intently listening and processing what is being said in order to fully understand the content. It is also important to create sections and title the notes so that you know exactly where to go back and look for a certain topic. c. A study group would obviously be of use in this class and most classes because others can help you learn information you don’t know and sometimes teaching is one of the best ways to learn! Video 5 a. What to avoid if an exam goes poorly: panicking and going into denial b. What to do if an exam goes poorly: examine how you prepared, review the exam, talk with the teacher, examine your study habits and if they are effective, and develop a plan for the next exam c. Helpful strategies to raise your grade: commit time and effort, minimize distractions, attend class, set realistic goals, don’t begin to slide or slack off, and don’t give away points