Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Quarter 3'.
-
So far this year, I have to say my favorite lesson this year is went we were working with the machine that shocked us when we touched it. I thought this was enjoyable becaue it was very funny to watch people get shocked when they went to touch or even kiss the Van de Graff Generator. I think the created a very enjoyable setting to learn about how proton, and electrons interact between each other, and what pain they an create when they or not ground. I personally tried touchig the machine and I quickly pulled my hand away because it hurt so bad! But some people were brave enough to go ahead and kiss the thing... I would never. I also found it so fascinating how we all could hold hands as a class and send one huge shock through all of use. I never knew soemthing was possible. But his wwas my favorite demonstration for a class period. I thought it also helped expand my knowledge on how proton, neutrons and electrons interect!
-
When I was in Jacksonville I went to a go kart place called the Autobahn Indoor Speedway. These weren't your typical go karts however. At the Autobahn the cars reached speeds up to 50 mph! Drivers have to wear helmets for safety and the speed made for some pretty intense races. There was a lot of physics involved in driving the cars. One of the most important parts of learning how to be as fast as possible was getting used to knowing how much and when to brake around turns. Braking too much will slow you down and can cause wrecks, however not braking enough can cause you to slam your car into the wall, also slowing you down and putting you at risk of wrecks. The only way to do this was through friction. By stopping the rotation of the wheels the tires then grinded against the concrete ground creating friction which is what would slow down your car. Also many forces were exerted with the bumping of cars and from running into walls. If my car ever rammed into another, the force exerted from my car onto his was the same amount of force his exerted onto mine. A lot of centripetal acceleration also takes place at all 4 of my wheels. Even if my car is moving at a constant velocity, the wheels are constantly changing direction as they spin and therefore accelerating inward. Finally the force of gravity is always constant on me and my car. Gravity exerts a force of 9.81 m/s^2, which is what keeps me and my car from flying off of the track. The Autobahn Indoor Speedway was a pretty intense go karting place and I had a lot of fun racing!
-
Lacrosse is a very physical and rough sport. People are always getting checked, pushed and tripped. I myself have taken many falls throughout the years I have been playing lacrosse, but Annie B takes harder falls then I ever have! One of Annie's most famous falls is when she was running very very fast and then from behind a girl cross checked her in the back and then... SMACK Annie's face smacked down on the ground. But as always Annie's stood up with a smile on her face and laughing. But, Annie's fall has allowed me to write this blog post because she fell and this connects to projectiles. We can assume that Annie fell at 9.81 m/s2 due to gravity. Also, Annie runs faster then normal humans, it might take her 10 seconds to run 100m. With this information, we can determine how far Annie ran and then if we know how long it took her to fall.. about .5 seconds we can determine her velocity while running and her velocity while falling. While she is running, we can use the equation v= d/t to determine her velocity, so v = 100//10s she runs at a speed of 10m/s which is pretty fast ( and I'm just guessing). Also is we know she fell with an acceleration of 9.81m/s2 and it took .5 seconds for her to hit the ground. We can determine her velocity while falling. a= v/t and rearrange it to v= at so (9.81m/s2)(.5s) which is about 5 m/s... ouch she falls fast and hard! Well Annie's falls are only part of how entertaining she is to watch aside from her amazing skills!
-
For those you that don't know, Hannah O'Neil has an amazing singing voice. Before every home game, she sings the national anthem, and it makes me so happy and gets me ready to play. Because of sounds waves, I am lucky enough to hear her. Sound waves are mechanical waves that are detected by the hairs in our inner ears. Sound waves can travel through air, water, steel and wood. But I like when Hannah is standing directly near me singing to me. However, if I am not lucky enough to have her standing right next to me, I can still hear her from a distance apart even if I cant see her. Therefore, we can use the equation, v= distance/ time to determine how far away Hannah is from me. In STP, sound moves at 331m/s and if it takes me .25 second to hear her voice from the moment she begins singing, I can determine how far away from me she is from me. By rearranging the equation to, distance = velocity X time, (331m/s)(.25s) Hannah is about 83 meters from me. Although not an ideal situation, but her beautiful voice allows me to hear her even when far away!
-
Over spring break I was able to go down to Jacksonville, Florida to visit my friend Aaron. While I was there we decided to go clay shooting at a shooting range with his dad's shotgun. It was both helpful and interesting to understand a little bit about how the physics if the bullets when they shot. First off, it is helpful to know that the velocity of the bullets once shot out, always stay the same horizontally. Neglecting air resistance, the velocity should stay exactly the same. However gravity also pulls down on the bullet at 9.81 m/s, so after a certain distance, the bullet will eventually hit the ground. One interesting discovery that has been made because of this reality, is that if you were to shoot a bullet and drop a bullet from the same height at the same time, theoretically they should hit the ground at the same time. Even though one is shot fast horizontally strait, they still have the same amount of force pulling the downwards so they should hit the ground instantaneously. There is also a lot of physics involved in the fun part, which is shooting the clay the disks or pigeons. If you are able to aim well enough and hit the pigeon you can see it explode in the air. This happens because the bullets exert an extremely strong force on the disk, which it then exerted back causing it to break. Shooting was a lot of fun and I definitely would like to try it again. Being able to understand the physics made it more understandable and much more fun!
-
We have recently studied the concept of circuits. there are parallel and series cicuits. In the parallel circuit in one of the circuts breaks then the circuit continues to work fully. However, in a series circuit, if one part of the circuit breaks the whole things stops. Well, in the beginning of march we had our morning sessions for lacrosse. Some days we would do circuit workouts. We had 6 different stations and with in our groups we had to all do the different work outs together and try to motivate eachother. I belive in this team situations we are a series circuit. This is becasue, we are only as strong as our weakest link. In the circuits, we all have to work our hardest for the one minute we are doing that one exercise. But, we all have to stay strong becasue the moment one of us starts to complain or gives up, we all fall apart and loose sight of the ultimate goal. We all have to work together and stay strong just like a series circut if we want to win. Becasue if not, we do not have the sucess we want! Go Lady Eagles Lax
-
Over Spring Break I was fortunate enough to cross the Atlantic Ocean and travel through out Italy. For the last few days we spent our itme in Venice. If you do not know, Venice is a cluter of islands and is then called a region of Italy. Aside from its beauty and uniqueness, there is a lot of physics in the water surrouding the islands. The days we had to travel off of the smaller islands we had to take a boat to one of the larger islands. Now I can barely stand riding shotgun in a car on the road without getting car sick. Now i am expected to ride over water and their waves and not throw up my breakfast. But I distracted myself with the beautiful sites around me. But also, looking back I could have practiced calculating the speed of the waves. This can be easily done by measuring the distance between the waves and how many times in completes a full cycle. With this information, I can easily use the equation. Velocity= frequency x Lambda. This will allow me to understand the physics behind the waves and just how many times I will feel the waves while I am riding in the boat. Maybe some how this information could help me not feel as sick while riding the waves!
-
I have a dog named Bailey and she's 3 years old. She's a golden retriever Rottweiler mix, so her and I often play tug of war! She'll grab on to one end of her rope and I'll whip her around with the other end. I realized that there s actually a lot of physics involved in this! Both me and Bailey are pulling on the rope and creating tension. If both Bailey and I pull on the rope and the ball doesn't move, keeping it in the same position despite our pulling, that means that the amount of force in each direction we are exerting is equal. That would then mean that the rope is at equilibrium because there is no acceleration in either direction. Also i notice that Bailey bites down very hard on her end of the rope where there is usually a knot. The amount of force Bailey puts on the rope from biting down, is the exact same amount of force, the rope exerts onto her mouth. This would be the reason her mouth might be sore from biting down so hard. Because of the force of the rope pushing back. Me and Bailey have a lot of fun playing and turns out there's actually a lot of physics involved!
-
This spring break I'm getting to flying down to Florida to visit my friend Aaron! Aaron is a big surfer so while I'm down there I'm going to get to learn to surf along with him. With break now approaching, i figured it would be a good opportunity to look into a little bit of the physics of surfing! First there is a lot of basic application such as the fact that the force that the board exerts on the water, is exactly equal to the force the water exerts onto the board. However as a researched more I found there is more complexity to it than I had realized. One major principle that plays in buoyancy. Buoyancy is the ability to float which is due to the density of the board. Another reason that board is able to so easily glide across the water is due to the surface tension. If you've ever gone skiing or tubing, you may recall that when you fall off the water is seemingly hard. Well the reason for this, is because the molecules that make up water are attracted to each other, therefore their bonds are very strong at the surface. Finally, some of the basic forces play into surfing. Gravity is what keeps the surfer on the water and it pulls it down, just as the normal force, equal in strength pushes back up from the water. Then there is also the frictional force from the water between it and the board. However this is attempted to be kept at a minimum, which is why surfers wax their board to create a very smooth surface, decreasing the amount of friction. Obviously there is a lot of physics involved in surfing and I can't wait to give it a try next week!
-
This past Sunday I was able to play dodgeball in the Dodge For Josh tournament. With our team being American themed, we were The Star Spangled Ballerz. It was very fun and after I played I realized that there was a lot of physics involved in our dodgeball games! The first thing I noticed is how the ball would dropped whenever I would throw it. Part of this is due to air resistance that slowed the ball down, but most of is from gravity pulling the ball down. Neglecting air resistance, gravity should have pulled the dodgeballs we threw down at an acceleration of 9.81 m/s^2. Something else I noticed was the forces exerted when the dodgeballs I threw hit our opponents. As a ball i threw hit the leg of someone on the other team, the ball exerted a force on them the same magnitude as them pushing back on the ball. However the balls were also very squishy which made it so they did not hurt very much. The reason for this is because they could be squished, the force absorbed took a longer amount of time therefore spreading out the force. Similar to an airbag in a car, it decreased the amount of damage done by absorbing some of the force and spreading it out over a longer period of time. Overall I had a very fun time playing dodgeball and I enjoyed connecting it back to physics.
Terms of Use
The pages of APlusPhysics.com, Physics in Action podcasts, and other online media at this site are made available as a service to physics students, instructors, and others. Their use is encouraged and is free of charge. Teachers who wish to use materials either in a classroom demonstration format or as part of an interactive activity/lesson are granted permission (and encouraged) to do so. Linking to information on this site is allowed and encouraged, but content from APlusPhysics may not be made available elsewhere on the Internet without the author's written permission.
Copyright Notice
APlusPhysics.com, Silly Beagle Productions and Physics In Action materials are copyright protected and the author restricts their use to online usage through a live internet connection. Any downloading of files to other storage devices (hard drives, web servers, school servers, CDs, etc.) with the exception of Physics In Action podcast episodes is prohibited. The use of images, text and animations in other projects (including non-profit endeavors) is also prohibited. Requests for permission to use such material on other projects may be submitted in writing to info@aplusphysics.com. Licensing of the content of APlusPhysics.com for other uses may be considered in the future.