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My friend Jamel and I were hanging out one day so we decided to go on a walk. We walked alll around town trying to find something fun to do. So we found this really high stair case with a plat form at the top. So we climbed up the super high structure and stood at the top. We climbed 15m and boy were we tired, however while we stood there to catch our breath, i realized we could figure out the amount of gravitational potential energy we each had. But i easily could calculate it. Well, the equation of PEg= mgh. If we plug in the missing information we can find out who has the most Jamel'sPEg=(90kg)(9.81m/s2)(15m)=13244J Katie's= (60kg)(9.81m/s2)(15m)=8829J. I guess Jamel has a lot more potential then I do but hey we cant win at everything.

For many years as a kid I would often go to Seabreeze Park and I enjoyed going on rides. This summer I also was able to work at Seabreeze. One of my favorite rides there has been the Whirl Wind. There is a lot of physics behind how this roller coaster works. First off as ride reaches the top of the first hill it begins to accelerate down the hill. It starts with a slower velocity and then gains speed as it goes down the hill. The twist in the ride(see what I did there) is that as the cart goes, it also spins as it travels. This now means not only is the car accelerating as it travels up and down hills, but it also has a centripetal acceleration. By squaring the velocity of the cart spinning and by dividing it be the radius of the cart, you can also determine how fast it's centripetal acceleration would be. Also, the force that the cart applies down on the tracts is equal to the force the tracks apply back onto to cart. The Whirlwind was a very fun part of childhood and it is cool to now know all of the physics involved in it!

It was a great tuesday night for some high school girls basketball. Irondequoit hosted the Hilton Cadets and it was a huge game. It was very physical and very close in score. However, the back of my head took the worst blow of the night. One of the girls just absolutely laid me out and well.... i landed on my head. Although i was in a lot of pain, I can look back now and see just all of the physics that this girl did to me. Well she had a lot of momentum which when she made contact with me, I conserved the same amount of momentum she had when she was running at me with a head of steam.Lets say she was running at 5.5m/s at me and she weighs about 55 kg i can use the momentum equation (p=mv) to find out the amount of mometum she had. p=(55kg)(5.5m/s)= 303N/s. Thats a lot... well enough for me to fly off my feet and land right on my head. I guess my intertia was not very high that night.

Well one night I thought it was a great idea to go to the gym and lift some weights. Well i was wrong, becasue the next day, i could not lift my arms, and if i tired i almost cried in pain. Well, i started to think about it and there was a lot of work done while i was lifting those weights. I picked up my 3.6 kg dumbells and started to lift them above my head .46m. I did 3 sets of 12 and that was enough for me. But, i can calculate the amount of work done for one rep. Well, W=Fd and the force= ma there for F=(3.6kg)(9.81m/s2) = 35N and when plugged into W=Fd= (35N)(.46m)= 16.1J. May not seem like a lot, but it sure did feel like it! maybe next time I'll pass o nthe gym and do some serious work sitting on my couch and watching tv!!

Well hunting season just ended and for people like my dad this is a very sad time. However, my dad loves to go bow hunting and wanted to teach my a few things while shooting at a target. It was pretty cool to see how the bow helped the arrow most so fast in the air and hit the foam target with so much force. And I thought about all of the physics that connects to this. Well i look mostly at the interaction between the arrow hitting the target. The arrow starts at rest and after it is released moves at about 67 m/s in horizontal motion and he stands about 20 meters from the target and it takes about .3 seconds for the arrow to hit the target. With this information I can use my projectile equations and solve for the acceleration. And if you use one of the projectile equations you get the acceleration to equal 444.4 m/s2 which is super fast. I think its so cool how one of my dads favorite activities can help me understand projectile equations better.

Over the summer I was playing basketball with some of my friends. We had decided to take a break so I was walking around and looking at my phone. While I was walking my friend took a shot and air balled, knocking my phone out of my hand causing it to fall and smash the screen on the driveway. There was a lot of physics involved in this sad occurrence. First when my friend shot the ball, once it was in the air gravity started pushing down on the ball with an acceleration of 9.81 m/s^2. This is what caused the ball to come falling down and hit my hand knocking away my phone. Because of the momentum the ball had applied to my hand and phone, that is what resulted in my phone getting sent downward. Then my phone flew down flat on the driveway applying a force on the pavement. What smashed my phone's screen was the force applied back up from the ground to the screen. Obviously there was a lot of physics involved in breaking my phone.

Another sport that enjoy playing in my free time with many of my friends is basketball. There is a lot of physics involving forces in the game of basketball. One of the most important aspects of the game is dribbling. To dribble a player must push down and apply a force on the ball so that it hits the ground with another force. Next the ground pushes a force back onto the ball which causes it to bounce back up to the player. Whatever force the ball exerts on the floor as it is dribbled, is the same amount of force that the floor then applies back up on the ball. Another important aspect is making sure that you have appropriate basketball shoes so that you can keep a good grip. Players often get new shoes because there shoes will ware down and become smoother causing the force of friction to decrease. This then makes it easier for players to slip and fall which is why having good traction on your shoes is so important. Finally a lot of physics is done on a basketball when you take a shot. Once the ball is in the air it has a certain vertical and horizontal initial velocity. While neglecting air resistance the horizontal velocity should stay the same until it reaches the hoop, while the ball accelerates downwards vertically at 9.81 m/s^2 due to gravity. Obviously physics plays a very big role in basketball and it is constantly affecting the game.

One of my favorite things to do with my friends over the summer is play pickup football. There is a lot of physics that is involved in playing the game of football. First off when the quarterback throw the football to a receiver he must apply a force to the ball so that it can travel in the air to the receiver.Whatever force he applies to the ball, the ball then applies back onto his hand. Once the ball is in the air its horizontal velocity should stay about the same(neglecting air resistance). However once it is the air, gravity then begins to apply a downward acceleration of 9.81 m/s^2 on the ball so that it can only stay in the air for a certain amount of time. Another big part of football is tackling and the contact made by players. When a defensive player tackles an offensive one, whatever force is applied onto the player getting tackled is then also applied back on the player tackling him. You can determine the momentum of the players running before based upon their masses times their velocities. You can then determine the players speed and direction after the collision based upon the total momentum because it is conserved through the collision. There is obviously a lot of physics involved in football as it takes a very important role in every aspect of the game.

Wrestling is a very fun sport that I enjoy taking part in. It takes a lot of work, however it is completely worth it and it is very fun. There is a lot of physics taking place in wrestling. One example is when two wrestlers are in neutral or standing position. While wrestling the two wrestlers when fighting for hand control will often be banging heads or putting pressure on each others' foreheads. The force that one applies on the other will always be the same as the force that the head applies back. Another instance we see physics in wrestling is when a wrestler is in the down position and is trying to stand up. The top man is applying pressure trying to keep the bottom man down by doing moves such as a spiral ride or a chop, while the bottom man is applying pressure to try and stand up. Sometimes the bottom man will begin to stand up and the top man is forced to mat return the bottom man, lifting him up in the air and sweeping his legs to return him to the mat. Once the wrestler is in the air if the top man returning him lets him fall applying no other force, he will fall with an acceleration of 9.81 m/s^2 due to gravity. During wrestling there is a lot of forces being applied between the two wrestler and a lot of physics explain how many moves work and how they respond to them.

All of my memories go back to this summer when I went to Seabreeze wiht some friends. We were sp excited for only one ride, THE SCREAMING EAGLE. Its the ride that turns you up side down and make your stomach hurt after only the first turn. The worst is when you chage direction and for that moment you stop upside down and yo uthink for sure you are stuck. But other then this being a terrifying ride that makes me almost burst into tears, it connects to physics. Its design and funtion allows it to act as a perfect circular motion example. Its acceleration is pointed towards the center where it is sturdy. The Screaming Eagle has the circluar motion characteristics which would make it an awesome ride to study for the unit!