Reflection

According to Wikipedia, physics is the study of nature and it's motion through spacetime. As this is an official definition, it is not my personal definition. My definition of physics is the study of how things work. This is broad and generic, but so is physics. Physics can be found in every aspect of our world, and everything we do. From playing football to sitting here typing this, physics is demonstrated. Whether it is kinematics, or waves of light, we experience it through physics.

This class was very entertaining. At first I thought that physics would be boring and have a lot of math, which it did, but it definitely was not boring. I am impressed how much I learned in such a short amount of time. I thought it was definitely worth it to take this class, because now that it's over, I don't have to take it during the school year.

In this class, I learned about a large variety of subjects of physics. From pendulums and kinematics, to lasers and light properties. I learned how waves work, and now can see each of these in my everyday life. Before taking this class, I never knew that much about how things through out life worked. Things like a ball falling, or a wave of light. But now that I have taken physics, I know how this stuff works.

I liked the upbeat feel of this class. I rarely got bored. Mr. Blake kept the class entertaining and enjoyable. I also liked that we were able to cover a lot of subjects in a short period of time. I know that during the school year we would go much more in depth and be bored. The reasonable amount of homework was good to, I never had to stay up too late or miss anything extracurricular due to homework. I think the blog posts were manageable.

The only thing I would do to modify this class would be to make it a little more hands on. There were a couple lectures and lessons that I could have learned better if I had been able to apply it to my life or feel it for myself.

The picture I have represents physics because there is more to it than meets the eye. Inside the large jar, there is a small jar that can't be seen due to the liquid inside. This is how physics was this year. There was a lot more behind everything we do in life than meets the eye. For example, when shooting a basketball, there is 2d kinematics as well as many more factors involved. This is more than simply chucking a ball into the air.

more unit 10

The last day of unit 10 talked more about reflection and refraction. Refraction is the change in the direction of a wave due to a change in speed. Reflection is when a wave bounces off of an interfering thing. The picture is of a laser beam reflecting off the lens of Sho's camera. The beam hits the lens and reflects in a different direction. Unlike reflection, refraction is when the speed of the wave changes usually due to it passing through different materials. Mr. Blake's example of torching really showed me a lot about refraction. When you go torching, you walk around with a spear and light, and spear fish that are attracted to the light. However, the refraction caused by the water makes the fish appear to be further away than it is. I have first hand experience of this. The first time I went torching, I missed every time because I though the fish was in line with my eye sight when in fact, the refraction of the water on the light caused it to be closer. I thought refraction was interesting, and have noticed it all around me.

unit 10, lasers and stuff

Today we learned about lasers and light reflection. The picture I have is of a laser beam reflecting off my hand. The types of reflection we learned about were diffuse and specular. The reflection of the laser on my hand is a diffuse reflection. This type of reflection occurs when the surface the light is reflecting off isn't smooth relative to the wavelength of the light. This causes the waves to scatter instead of reflect in a uniform fashion. This can be seen when the area around the impact of the light is lit up with the color. A specular reflection is when the light waves bounce off the surface without scattering, this is because the surface is smooth relative to the wavelength. Some of these surfaces include mirrors, or calm water. We also covered blending light. The primary colors of light are red, blue, and green. Not red, blue, and yellow. When you combine these colors, you get other colors like yellow, cyan, and magenta. Overall, today was a pretty cool lesson. The characteristics of light are different then what I would've imagined.

Unit 10 (EM, visible light, light properties)

Today we learned about light and electromagnetic waves. One of the things we learned that I found interesting was how light reflects off objects. You can't see actual light, what you see is the light reflecting off of objects. The picture I have is of a green pillow. The pillow is actually every color but the exact shade of green that can be seen. Since it isn't that color, the shade of green is reflected back to the eyes. I also learned more about light years, it is the distance that light travels in one year. Overall, this has been an interesting unit, a lot of what we learned has been confusing in a cool way. I am looking forward to learning more about it tomorrow.

Unit 9 waves and sound (again)

Today we learned more about waves. One of the focuses of the day was standing waves. This type of wave has nodes and antinodes. The picture is from the experiment we did involving the vibrating rope. The rope is experiencing standing waves. A node is where there is the least movement, it is at each end of the rope, and at various places throughout the length of the rope, depending on the frequency. The antinode is where the rope moves the most, unlike nodes, these are not at each end of the rope, however, they are spaced at various places throughout the rope depending on the frequency. A standing wave is created when, in this case, a rope is experiencing vibrations on one side, and is attached to a solid point on the other. The wave travels down the rope, and reflects off the other side, it returns exactly opposite of the original motion. At certain frequencies, the waves will line up creating nodes and antinodes, or in other words, standing waves.

Unit 9

     Today we learned primarily about waves. The waves we learned about were not necessarily ocean waves, although they do apply. A wave is a movement to and fro with a swaying or undulating motion while remaining fixed to one point. An ocean wave is caused by some sort of vibration, which is An oscillation of the parts of a fluid or an elastic solid whose equilibrium has been disturbed, or of an electromagnetic wave. The video I have was shot by a friend of my Dad's at the surf spot Jaws on Maui. It is known as the biggest ridable wave. The swells that role in at jaws, or any beach for that matter are waves, and carry the characteristics of what we learned in class. An entire wavelength could be measured from the top of one wave to the top of the wave behind it. In class, Mr. Blake talked about the way's people measure a wave, the common way accepted around the world is to measure from trough to crest, this measures the face of the wave. I as well as many people in Hawaii measure the back of the wave, this is the same as measuring the distance from the amplitude to crest, it is about half the size of the face. The surf spot shown in the video is best when it has 40+ ft faces, or 20+ ft when you measure from the amplitude. Overall, this lesson was interesting to learn. Being one who spends a lot of time at the beach, I understand waves fairly well. 


Video: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Panasonic+GH13+%2B+JAWS+11-2-10+%2B+Zoom+H4n+%2B+Redhead+Windscreen&aq=f

Bottle Rocket day 2

 
 Today was the day we launched our rockets. The goal was to get around 10 sec of hang time. My rocket, the one in the picture, got a best time of 10.7 seconds, even thought the parachute didn't fully deploy. Using the orange cone as a nose cone worked really well. It was shaped in a good shape, and had room inside to stuff the parachute. Unfortunately, the only flaw was that the parachute would often get stuck in the nose cone and not pop out to save our rocket. One of our launches ended up with the nose cone buried literally 4-5 inches deep in the ground. On our last launch, we left part of the parachute hanging out of the nose cone, the parachute ended up fully deploying, but it slowed down the rocket on the way up by causing more air resistance. We filled the rocket to about 1/4 full, and attempted to get between 80-100 psi before launching.

     From this project, I learned about the importance of balance and the movement of projectiles. Once our rocket was launched, it became a projectile. In order to achieve the best flight, we had to balance the rocket so it would fly straight, the fins greatly helped this. The mass in the nose cone helped keep the rocket on track, but if it didn't deploy the parachute, it fell super fast. Overall, I didn't learn a large amount of new physics, but it was good to see what we had learned put into practice when shooting the bottle rocket.

Bottle Rockets

      This week we have started our bottle rocket project. The goal of the project is to get a rocket to stay in the air for at least 8 sec, but ideally 10 sec. There are many factors that go into play when going for maximum time. Weight, balance, stability, and a parachute are four of the main factors.
     The weight of the object is important, if the object is too heavy, it will affect the flight, but the additions to it cause the weight to increase. Weight distribution is also important to the flight of the rocket. The nose cone needs to have a mass in it, this will stabilize it and cause it to hopefully fall off and let the parachute deploy.
     Balance is similar to weight distribution, but involves the placement of each additional item on the rocket. By making the rocket balanced, it will prevent it from going any where but up.
     Stability can be increased by the addition of fins. Fins help guide the airflow around the rocket. This keeps it from spinning or turning in the air. The fins should be equally placed around the rocket.
     Finally, the parachute is crucial to keeping the rocket in the air. The rocket goes up fast, and without the parachute, returns to the ground fast. By causing a slower descent, the hang time will be increased. Today, corey and I had problems getting out parachute to deploy, the pressure of the air on the nose cone prevented it from falling off the rocket. We are going to solve this by putting supports under it so it can't fall any further down the rocket. If the parachute deploys, it will cause the time to greatly increase.
    Overall, this lab is a good test of our understanding of how physics will affect the rocket. It will be interesting to launch our rockets more tomorrow.

Unit 8 day 2 (Power)

Power is work over time. The picture I have was as the weight room at TCU. Lifting weight is an example of power. You are able to measure power when lifting weights. It requires work to lift up the often large amount of weight, and it can also be timed. By finding the work and time, you can find power. Power is found all around us. Whenever we lift something for a certain amount of time, we can find power. In class, we used the example of running up the stairs, by calculating the work of a person, and timing them up the stairs, we are able to find the power they generate.

Unit 8

Unit 8 taught us about energy and work. One of the things we learned about was the conservation of energy. The system of pendulums above is a good way to view the conservation of energy. When you drop one pendulum, it makes contact with the other balls in the system. The energy from the dropped pendulum is transfered through the other pendulum, and finally enters the last pendulum on the other side. The energy causes the pendulum on the other side to swing up and come back down, causing this cycle to go on and on. Ideally, the system should work forever, but in our unideal world, the energy is sometimes lost. This also follows the work energy theorem. This basically states that energy in equals energy out, meaning that the energy that passes through the system should be equal to the energy returning in the other direction.

Picture - http://www.newgeology.us/presentation6.html

Today we did the egg drop experiment. The goal of this was to build a device to help a raw egg survive a 3  story fall. In order to do this, we needed to use our knowledge of collisions and momentum. The picture is of my groups system. We used a lot of padding and a box to attempt to cushion the fall. Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful. We went for a lot of padding and protection around the egg. The principle sounded good before hand, but ended up not working. The groups that were successful used devices that collapsed or broke, absorbing force away from the egg. Looking back at our device, I think the problem may have been the box. The box created a rigid outer shell, allowing nothing to bend or change shape. Had we not used the box, our bags of cushions would have flattened out on impact, potentially saving our egg. Overall, this lab showed me a lot more about collisions and the importance of time of contact on the surface it is hitting.

unit 7 day 2

On the second day of unit 7, we learned more about collisions and momentum. At the start of the day, we observed a car crash by the pool. This fit in perfectly because it was quite a collision. The picture I have is of my cousins car. He crashed it on a rock. The reason the car is so banged up is because the car came to a very sudden stop. If the car was able to come to a more gradual stop, the damage wouldn't have been so bad. Had he hit something like a pile of dirt, or a mound of hay, the impact time would have been increased, causing the car to slow down slower. As we work on the egg drop, we need to take into account the physics behind a crash. The purpose will be to increase the time of contact enough to prevent the egg from looking like my cousins car.

Unit 7

Unit 7 introduced us to momentum, impulse, and collision. This unit has very direct relations to my sport of football. The picture I have is of my friend Luke. I used it because it shows examples of a tackle. A tackle is a version of collision. On the football field, the collisions are not as uniformed or as perfect as our lab in class, but they occur constantly. As a defensive player approaches an opponent to make a tackle, he commonly has a greater momentum on his side. The velocity of a defensive player is usually greater because we don't have to do much dodging or turning, our goal is to go toward the guy with the ball. The best hits experience a larger impulse, the more momentum you transfer into your opponent, the better chance you have of trowing him off balance and to the ground. Overall, football demonstrates the factors of physics we learned in unit 7.

Semester review

This semester has covered a lot of ground in a few short weeks. From pendulum motion to balanced and unbalanced forces. The picture I chose is of my little sister playing volleyball. Volleyball can provide examples of the better part of the curriculum we covered in this semester. First off, the ball demonstrates the  different factors of movement. Distance, time, velocity, and acceleration can all be seen in volleyball. As the ball is hit, it accelerates forward, it then travels at a fairly constant velocity until it is hit by an opposing player. It also travels a certain distance in a certain amount of time. The ball is also a projectile, and demonstrates 2d kinematics. Finally, it demonstrates balanced and unbalanced forces. When it is hit, it is unbalanced. These are only a few small examples of how volleyball covers most of what we learned in this semester.

Unit 6

 

Unit 6 taught us about unbalanced forces. In the video the person is shooting an arrow. This demonstrates an unbalanced force. The bow applies force that causes the arrow to accelerate forward. Because the arrow accelerates, it is not balanced or doesn't experience equilibrium. Once airborne, the arrow is only under one force, the force of gravity. Since it is only experiencing one force, it is considered unbalance, because a balanced object is experiencing at least 2 forces. Overall, Unit 6 has been a big leap forward, it is different with a new equation, f=ma.

Unit 5 - Day 2

On the second day of unit 5, we learned about equilibrium and balanced forces, by going more in depth on Newton's laws. In the photo, the ball is experiencing equilibrium. Equilibrium means that two or more forces are acting upon the ball. The forces acting on the ball in the picture are weight, and the force of the table pushing against it. This prevents the ball from accelerating down or up. The ball is experiencing to kinds of force. The force of weight or gravity, which is an at a distance force, this means that the force doesn't make direct contact with the ball. The table is providing contact force. This means that the force comes in direct, physical contact with the ball. A free body diagram would look like this:

The arrows represent the forces acting on the ball. The downward arrow represents weight, because it pulls the ball down. The up arrow means normal. This is the force applied against the ball, it is equal to the downward force causing the ball to be in equilibrium.

Unit 5

Newtons laws of motion are:


1. Every body remains in a state of constant velocity unless acted upon by an external force.


2. A body of mass subject to a net force undergoes an acceleration that has the same direction as the force and a magnitude that is directly proportional to the force and inversely proportional to the mass.


3. For every action there is an equal and opposite action.


This video of one of my favorite basketball players, Ron Artest, blocking a shot is a good example of Newton's laws of motion. As the ball goes up, it remains in the state of a constant velocity, as he hits it away, it is being acted on by an external force. When Ron hits the ball, the acceleration of the ball accelerates in the same direction as the force applied to it is going. And finally, there is an equal and opposite action for hitting the ball. The equal action would be hitting the ball in the same way, the opposite action would cause the ball to accelerate in the opposite direction. While researching this topic, I   began to realize how much Newton's three laws apply in our life. Almost everything we do incorporates this in one way or another. 

Unit 4

In unit 4, we covered trigonometry in physics. This basically involves using Soh Cah Toa to solve for problems involving kinematics. A good example of this is this small rocket I built in 4th grade. After the initial launch, it becomes a projectile. Using soh cah toa and 2d kinematics, it is possible to calculate the distance, time, velocity, and multiple other factors of the flight of the rocket. I thought that learning to find where a rocket will land was interesting. What we learned in unit 4 was pretty much what the second semester of geometry was about. Being able to apply these principle in physics shine a whole new light on them. In geometry, I was wondering how much I would actually use soh cah toa, so it was great to put my skills to work.

Unit 4

Unit 4 was the beginning of learning about 2d kinematics. 2d kinematics involves movement on both the x and y axes at the same time. The first rule of 2d kinematics is known as the vegas rule. This is based off the saying "what happens in vegas stays in vegas." When applied to physics, this rule basically means that movement on the x axis doesn't affect the y access, and vice versa. The picture I have is of the target for the donkey lab. In this lab we used different formulas to find the exact spot where a small ball would land when rolled off the table. Applying the basics of 2d kinematics caused us to be successful in the lab. One example of 2d kinematics in life is basketball. when shooting a basketball, the ball goes forward on the x axis, and suffers the affects of gravity on y axis. In order to make a shot, you must compensate for gravity. The NBA stars today may not use formulas to find the exact shot, but the basics of 2d kinematics applies. Unit 4 has really put all we have learned so far together.

Review of Quarter 1

This quarter has gone by so fast. I never knew how much I could learn in just a week and a half. Unit 1 was a good start to physics in summer school. The material we learned was new, but simple enough to grasp it quickly. Through out Unit 1, we covered the basics of motion, and graphs. Unit 1 taught me how much of our everyday life revolves around physics, after the first day of class, I started noticing things I always do, like drive in a car or throw a ball. Unit 2 went much more in depth of both motion and graphs. Unit 2 brought more about velocity into play. Before this unit, I never knew the difference between speed and velocity. I learned much more about graphs then I ever thought I would, for example, how the slope of a D vs T graph is velocity.  In unit 3 we went even further into motion and graphs, then added gravity and free falls. This unit again caused me to notice things throughout my everyday life. Things as simple as water dripping from a faucet. I learned a bit about galileo and how he proved to the world that the laws of physics were different then what was accepted. Over all, I have kind of enjoyed this quarter, other than the long class hours, but putting in the time now will pay off in the regular year. I am looking forward to learning more about physics through out the next 3 quarters.

Unit 3

When a person leaps out of a plane, they are free falling toward the ground. In unit 3, we have covered the physics behind a free fall. Similar to rolling the ball down a ramp, a sky diver accelerates uniformly. The force of gravity pulls the person toward the earth, the person accelerates more the further they fall. In a perfect world, each sky diver would accelerate the same, and have the same speed as they fall, but as we have learned, there are many factors, including aerodynamics, that contribute to acceleration toward earth. I have learned many new things so far in unit 3, especially about Galileo's experiments. I thought it was interesting how he discovered that two balls of different sizes and weight would accelerate at the same rate.

Picture: http://aloharentalactivities.web.officelive.com/images/SkydivesSkydive-Hawaii.grid-6x2.jpg

Acceleration

Acceleration can be found all through out life. One example in my life is football. This is not me, it is of my friend Austin, who is quite a stud. Throwing and catching a football incorporates acceleration. When you throw the ball it accelerates forward, heading toward the target. When you catch the ball, it accelerates to a stop. Every time the ball is thrown and caught, acceleration happens. Another example in this picture is when you jump. Austin is showing an example of acceleration when he jumped for the ball. He pushed off the ground, changing his speed toward the ball, and then changed his speed when he hit the ground. Each of those demonstrates acceleration.

Unit 2 again

Angry birds is a good representation of acceleration. When you shoot the bird, it accelerates toward the target. When it hits the target, then it accelerates to a slower speed and then to a stop. The flight of an angry bird could be measured by a d vs t graph. It takes so many seconds for the bird to reach a certain distance. By creating that graph, you could find the velocity. You could also use a velocity vs time graph. This would be a way to measure the displacement of the bird. As you can see, physics is very applicable to many aspects, important or unimportant, to life.

Unit 2

In unit 2 we learned about motion, specifically distance, velocity, speed, acceleration, and time. A car is a great example of each of these factors in physics. A car demonstrates acceleration when it starts, stops, and changes speed. This is an essential part of a car because if you couldn't start, stop, or change the speed of a car, it would either not work or be very dangerous. As we covered in class, speed is measured by a speedometer. A car is capable of traveling great distances in a short amount of time, and at a relatively high rate of speed. This is an important way that physics makes life easier. A car on a freeway is a great example of velocity. On the freeway, you can't turn around. You are kept to going in a relatively same direction. On a regular road it is more difficult to track velocity, due to turns and potential complete change of direction. Overall, the uses for a car are a great example for what we learned in unit 2.

post 2

This represents some of what we learned in unit 1 of summer physics. A track is 400 meters around, using the metric system. The activities performed on a track have a lot to do with physics. From speed, velocity, distance, and time, a track sees them all. People are timed for speed on a track in races. Distance is also measured in meters. However, one lack around the track has a velocity of zero this is because when you run around the track, you cancel out each stretch by going in the opposite direction on the other side. Most tracks encircle a football field. There is a lot of physics involved in football. Precision and accuracy are very important in football. When a quarterback throws the ball, it is important for him to be both precise and accurate. If he lacks accuracy, he will rarely complete a pass and not score points. Precision is important because receivers will often be in the same spot. If you can have a good grouping in the receivers direction, he can fix himself to be where the ball will be. Precision itself may not be good. If the quarterback throws it bad, but groups it very well, it makes no progress in scoring points. This is just one example of physics in a small aspect of life.

Picture: http://www.uhsecho.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Track.jpg

About Me

I am 16 years old. I play football and surf. I have taken biology and chemistry in science thus far. For each of those classes I have done fairly well. I took bio over the summer before freshman year, and took chem during the regular year. I found it a lot easier on my schedule to knock out science prior to the school year. I took regular geometry last year. I hope to get a good grade in this course. Taking it over the summer allows me to focus only on one subject. I find this easy because I sometimes get overwhelmed during the year. The driving force behind taking this class is to finish it so I don't have to take it during the school year. I am doing this because it will free up my schedule. Between sports, school, family, and other activities, I rarely have free time. The breaks this will create in the year allow me to finish school work at school, as well as let me focus more on the other classes.

I took this picture last winter up at pipeline. This is somewhat a metaphor for me. First off, I love the ocean, I love to ride the waves whether it is surfing or bodysurfing. So this picture is of one of my passions. Second, a wave can be a very enjoyable experience. Riding a wave is fun and gives the rider one of the greatest experiences of all time. I am a fun person. I enjoy being around people and am a kind person. For those who surf larger waves, it is common to figure out the wave. By this I mean where it breaks on the reef, how it beaks, what the best direction to drop in is, and where to line up. For some people, it takes time to figure me out. Waves deserve respect. They can hurt you and even kill you. Now,  im not saying that I hurt people or kill anybody, but I don't like disrespectful people. Not only to me, but toward others and their surroundings. Being Hawaiian, I have a good connection with the land. It bugs me when others disrespect it by littering and other bad acts. I am looking forward to taking physics, because the sacrifices I make now are going to greatly benefit me in the near future.