It's Physics Baby

Physics is the study of the real world. Physics has everything to do with and how we live in it. There are so many different parts to learning physics because everything around us is the real world. :D
This was probably my most favorite class that I've ever taken even though some of the concepts were a little confusing. I didn't not have a lot of fun. Everything that we learned in this class was pretty much new to me. All the kinematics, momentum, work, energy, waves and all the cool light stuff were really surprising and interesting to me.
I like how even though we weren't not having fun, I was able to learn and actually understand pretty much everything that I was taught, which usually doesn't happen because my brain is kind of slow.
I wouldn't change anything because I think this class was perfectly paced, perfectly balanced between fun and learning, and overall perfect.
I'll miss you Mr. Blake. You were the best teacher everrrrrrrrrr. :) and Jon! (And Riley and Cade)

My babies

Unit 10: Refraction

Today we learned a lot about refraction. Refraction is the changing of direction of a wave due to changes of wave speed due to medium. Refraction is dependent on the medium because the medium affects the speed of light, which changes the direction of the light. The larger the index of refraction, the slower the speed of light in that medium. Faster medium to a slower medium, light will bend towards the normal.
We also learned about lenses. Converging lenses make light come together whereas diverging lenses make light spread out.

We learned about image characteristics as well. Real is when the light converges at one point and can be focused. Virtual is when light does not converge at image and the image will appear inside of mirror lens. That would be an example of a regular or flat mirror. Upright is right side up with relation to object. Inverted is upside down with relation to object. Magnified is larger than the actual object. The mirror is always curved not flat. Reduced is smaller than the actual object.

This is a magnified mirror because the mirror is curved and in the mirror objects seem closer and larger than actual.

Unit 10: turn out the LIGHTS

Today we learned more about how light works. We cannot actually see light because light is invisible. We can see light's reflection and the light emitter. The light emitter is a thing that emits light so that we can see it. The path that light takes is a straight line. Lights from the ceiling emit light downwards in a straight line and reflects off of the floor or tables or anything in it's way so we can see things. The primary colors of light are red, green and blue. Opposite color of red is cyan, green is magenta, blue is yellow. We learned that the sky is blue because of scattering of light in the upper atmosphere, not because it's reflecting off of the ocean. The ocean is blue because it absorbs red wave lengths. The lower the frequency, the higher the wave length. Frequencies will be what defines the waves. ROYGBIV are the colors. Red has the lower frequency and violet has a higher frequency. Ultraviolet waves are above violet, which have a ultra high frequency.

X-rays are high energy waves that can cause mutations in cells, skin burns and cancer. X-rays are opaque to bones, but transparent to skin and muscle. X-rays can see the bones, but ignore and make the skin and muscle invisible.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This picture shows how the light travels in a straight line all the time. These lasers are the light emitters and the light travels in a line. We can only see the ray of light because there is stuff in the air. Otherwise, we will not be able to see the light because light is actually invisible.

 

SHADOWS!! When there is one light source, there will be one shadow. When there are two light sources, there will be two shadows and so on. One this white board, the green light will make the board green and the red light will make the board red. When the red and green mix together they make yellow. The shadow that's blocking the red light will be green and vice versa with the green light. Where Mr. Blake is blocking both lights, the shadow will be black. (Mr. Blake is dancing :) )

This is just a picture of the light ray coming straight from the light emitter into the camera. :D

Unit 10: Electromagnetic waves

Today we had our unit 9 test and lab practical(s), which were kind of sort of hard.
In the last fifteen minutes we learned about UNIT 10!!! Unit 10 is about electromagnetic waves and light behaviors. Electromagnetic waves are transverse waves, but they are different than sound waves. Electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light, which is 3x10^3 meters per second. Electromagnetic has two parts to the word, electric and magnetic. Electric is the wave that has the motion going up and down. Magnetic has the motion that goes side to side. Therefore, electromagnetic waves are waves that go up and down and side to side at the same time.
 
There are also transparent and opaque waves. Transparent waves are waves that are able to travel through something. Opaque waves are not able to travel through.
In order to see an object, light has to come back to your eyeball.
Deep thoughts:
Light is the only thing we see.
Sound is the only thing we hear.

Waves in the ocean go side to side and up and down at the same time sometimes, which could sort of be an example of electromagnetic waves.

Souuuund

Today we learned about sound waves!! wheeee!!
Sound has a lot to do with waves because when something or someone makes a sound, that sound travels through the air making waves. All sound travels at the same speed depending on the temperature. If the temperature is higher, then the sound and speed are also higher. Sound waves are longitudinal waves and need a medium to go through. An echo is sound that hits the walls and comes back, which is why you hear it again and again and again.
Terms we went over today were refraction, natural frequency and resonance. Refraction is the changing of wave direction and speed due to the change in mediums. Mediums are always consistent. Natural frequency is the frequency an object will vibrate with after an external disturbance. These frequencies are usually discrete and depend only on the physical quantities of the object. Everything has a natural frequency depending on shape and material. For example, if someone is mad they're walk and tone would sound different than if they were calm.
Resonance is the increase in amplitude or oscillation or an electric or mechanical system exposed to a periodic external force whose frequency is equal to or some multiple of the natural frequency.

In the stadium, when people scream and holler, you can hear it echoing a little. This is because the stadium is shaped somewhat like a dome. In this shape, the sound is able to bounce around on the walls with no place to escape so that makes it echo.

Unit 9: Waves and Sound

Today we learned about WAVES!!!! whoooooo!!
Waves are a transfer of energy, not material. A wave starts as a vibration or a wiggle. A wiggle  is a to and fro and to motion. So it goes back and forth and back. The top of a wave is called the crest and the bottom is called the trough. The amplitude is how big, how tall, or how much energy the wave has.
A medium is the material that a wave is going through such as a slinky. Today we did an activity to understand how a wave works transversely. Transverse waves is when a wave energy will move perpendicular to wave motion. The other type of wave is a longitudinal wave, which goes parallel rather than perpendicular.

Some ways that help us measure waves are wavelengths, periods, frequency and amplitude. A wave length is how long a wave is. (pretty self explanatory) A period is the time it takes to finish a cycle. Frequency is how frequently the wave comes by and amplitude is how big or tall a wave is. If the speed changes, then it changes how frequently a wave will come by.
When a wave interacts with another it's called an interference. It could be a constructive or destructive interference. This is when the waves join together. Constructive is when they go on top of each other when they interact. A destructive interference is when they go flat, when they interact. If a wave hits something, then it will bounce back.
A superposition is when the wave is in the same place at the exact same time.

The waves in the ocean are a good example of understanding waves. We always have to understand wave lengths and frequency and all that when we go swimming or surfing or anything like that.

Last day of BOTTLE ROCKETS!

Today didn't actually work the way that we all hoped and expected it to.
Starting off from yesterday, we kept our two bottles taped together. We cut new wings because the other ones were falling apart. We used manila folder and made them slightly bigger than the last one. We also made smaller wings for the other two sides out of manila folder. We duct taped the wings to make them have a little bit more weight. For our parachute, we used a bigger bag out of a large, black trash bag. We cut eight holes, evenly spaced in the ends of the trash bag. Then attached the string through each hole. The other side of all the strings, we tied to a rubber band for absorb shock. We tied another piece of string to the rubber band and taped that one too the top of our bottle rocket. Last we added a cone with holes in it on top of our parachute.

When we shot this rocket, it stayed up for about a range of 4-6 seconds. When we changed it, we cut the wings a little shorter, took off the little wings, added a weight to the cone. The time was about the same. We tried putting the weight on the bottle instead and adding more or less water.
Our final time was about 6 seconds.

The longer the rocket, the longer it will stay up in the air because it adds a little more weight and the weight is distributed evenly between the two ends of the rocket. The wings help the rocket to have more stability when shooting up into the air. The weight helps to keep it going upwards during the shooting and the parachute helps to slow down the coming down of the rocket. The cone would help it to shoot higher up and adds more mass.

We learned that the factors that made our rocket not shoot correctly was not having enough weight, the water was leaking, not enough pressure, too much water, or the cone came off too early. We also learned that it helps a little bit to have wind in the air when we're shooting. It was sort of frustrating so we should have paid more attention to all the physics senses when making the bottle like how big wings should be in order to keep it stable, how long a bottle rocket should typically be, the size of the parachute and the length of the strings to make the parachute actually work.
Other things we could have fixed would probably be making a better cone system somehow and adding a little bit more weight somewhere probably on the cone. :)

After our lots of failed attempts! :D

Bottle Rocket Día Dos!!

Today was the second day of bottle rockets. We had to keep our rocket in the air for at least five seconds. In order to do this, most people added parachutes.
First we cut the top of another bottle and taped it to our other bottle. We did that because it would add length, which should make our rocket stay up a little longer because most rockets are longer rather that stout and short. Then we added some wings out of cardboard and taped them to the side of our bottle rocket.
We went and tried it out a few times without adding a parachute before lunch break. The first time it stayed up for about 3 seconds. The second time we tried shooting it up it slanted completely sideways and shot parallel to the ground for about 2 seconds. That obviously didn't work very well. We came back in to make the parachute. We just cut little circles out of a longs plastic bag. Then we cut strings and taped them to our bottle and cut holes in the side of the parachute.

Our bottle rocket still stayed up for 5 seconds at least twice. The other times that we tried to shoot it, it didn't stay up long enough. For tomorrow, we concluded that we need to have a larger parachute with the same length strings. We also need to remake our wings since they kind of fell apart.

Unit 8: POWER!!

Today was continuing unit 8, which is about work, energy and power. Power is the rate at which work is done. Power=work/time=joules/second=watt

Today we did an activity to determine work and power. The activity was to run up a certain amount of stairs and find out how much work and power we used during the run. First we had to weigh ourselves because that will help us to determine the work, which will after help us to determine the power used by each person.Then we had to measure the height of the stairs and make sure that all the stairs were the same height. Then we chose the amount of stairs we wanted to use. Sophie and I chose to use six stairs that were each 16.5 cm high. Then we timed ourselves running up the stairs. After timing ourselves we used w=FD. For me, I had 2241.164 joules of work and Sophie did 2561.328 joules of work. The larger the mass, the more work there is. For power, we used p=work/time. For power, the more work done the less power there is and vice versa.

If you swing a bowling ball hanging from a string at a certain spot, without pushing with intentional force, it shouldn't hit you when it comes back down if you don't move. This is because it loses power because it loses work because it's going a lesser distance since gravity is pushing it down to the earth. It should keep swinging forever unless acted by other forces like gravity and normal forces.

Driving in a car is an example of power and work. You are doing work because you are going a distance and have a force for instance the weight. You have power because you have work and it takes a certain time to get places.

Unit 8: Work and energy

Unit 8 is about work and energy. Work is any change in energy. Work is a scalar quantity, which has magnitude or muchness. The units of work are Newton-meters also known as a joule. (J) Work can also be defined as working against a force. Work is equal to force times delta distance. (W=F∆d)

We also learned about energy. The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. It can only change forms. Energy in is equal to the energy out just like momentum. The energy an object has due to its position in a gravitational field is a product of mgh. Mgh is mass, acceleration due to gravity and h stands for position. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. (KE=1/2mv^2)

Power is the rate at which work is done. Power is equal to work per time. (work/time=joules/second=watt) Joules per second is also known as a watt.

The elastic limit is the most the string can stretch before deforming. 

For graphing for a force versus distance graph, the slope is spring constant. Spring constant is N/m. The area under the curve of a force versus distance graph is work done.

We also learned today that potential is a bad word because if someone says you have potential it means that you're good, but not actually. Instead of having potential, we should want to attain it.

This shows work because while we are all holding our slippers, we're all walking or moving. If you're not moving but carrying your slippers, that does not mean that you are doing work.

egg DROP!

Sorry it's kind of an ugly picture, but this is our egg protector!

Our egg capsule was a liter bottle. Dax cut the top off. We used the bottom part of the bottle and taped bubble wrap on the inside of the walls. Then we put little bean bag beads inside the bottle. We also wrapped the egg in a layer of bubble wrap. Bubble wrap and bean bag beads are soft and light so the force of impact won't be too hard on the egg. Also it should reach it's maximum velocity, but it's maximum velocity would be low. It's better to be low so that it's impulse would be low too. At the bottom of the bottle, we taped a paper cone so that it's contact time will be longer and slow it down. We also put in a bag of water for some weight otherwise the bottle would flip over since there's more weight on the top of the bottle. To cover the top of the bottle, we just used styrofoam.

These are the forces that acted upon our egg capsule. Because of it's weight and gravity, the egg was accelerating down, which is pretty obvious. Even though our capsule didn't fall the way we expected, it still survived!!

Our cone didn't work out very well only because our bottle flipped on it's side. In order to have our cone work better, I think we could've added a bit more weight to the the bottom of it. We had a plastic bag filled with a little bit of water, but I guess it wasn't enough since it wasn't heavy enough to stay at the bottom. The only reason it really survived was because of all of the cushioning. The little bean bag beads helped to slow down the eggs impact on the walls of the bottle or the ground and the bubble wrap around the egg protected it from cracking at all. To make it better for next time, We should have added more weight to the cone or maybe not have even had one. I think the cushioning with bubble wrap, styrofoam and beads would have been enough. Maybe some stuffing would've helped to slow it down too like if we just put the egg in the middle of a really fluffy pillow. :D

Our capsule and our egg being dropped! :D

Momentum continued...

Today was another day of momentum!! YAAAY!
It was mainly finishing our lab and having a lab practical on the air tracks and the carts. We used a bullet to move the carts instead of just pushing it. The bullet made it go a little slower because it obviously had a lot less mass, which is less force and the bullet has less force than a hand pushing the carts.
We also just worked on our egg project during class. My partner is Dax. We are putting our egg inside plastic bottle. He cut the top off and on the bottom part I taped bubble wrap to the inside of the walls so that if the egg was to come free of the stuffing then it would have a somewhat soft landing. Inside the bubble wrap we're putting little styrofoam ball things, which should be soft enough to keep it from causing too much impact for the egg.

This is a picture of my friend and I watching the fireworks. (The fireworks are in the back round) Fireworks have to do with momentum because first the firework has an initial velocity when it goes up into the air. When it reaches the top of it's path, it bursts into a million different pieces going all different directions. When it goes off in all different directions it's momentum changes. It's initial momentum when it's going up though is equal to the momentum of all the millions of pieces of fireworks added together because the momentum in is equal to the momentum out. :)

Momentum

It's the start of the second semester! yay.
Today we started unit 7. Momentum is the focus of unit 7.
Momentum has lots of different ways to describe or define it. Momentum is the quantity of motion of a moving body, measures as a product of it's mass and velocity. Momentum is the force gained by a moving object. Momentum is moving inertia. Momentum is mass times velocity. Mass times velocity seems to be the easiest way to understand momentum.
Momentum is a vector quantity. It is always conserved because of the Law of conservation of (p)momentum, which states that momentum cannot be created or destroyed, only changes forms. In an isolated system, momentum will be conserved.
Impulse is the average force upon the object multiplied by the time the force is acting on the object. In other words impulse is the change in momentum of an object. If momentum is changed, it is only because of an outside force.

We did a balloon toss today too! In order to keep the balloon from popping, you had to slow down the balloon by making the catch longer rather than stopping the balloon instantly. If you catch it fast, the impact of the balloon on your hands will be too much and the balloon will want to pop. 

This is a picture of my friend and I at Costco. I was sitting in the wagon thing. She would push me and let me go down an empty isle. This is sort of an example of momentum because as she pushed me I would gain momentum in the beginning because she would push me at a certain velocity. Then I would slow down because of impulse or the change in momentum of an object. This is only because the wheels of the cart create friction with the floor, which is an outside force causing me to slow down and lose momentum. I'm losing momentum because my velocity is becoming less and less since my speed is decreasing. Another reason I stopped is because I would hit something, which is also an outside force. That would be a sudden-stop while the slowing down would be a gradual-stop.

2nd quarter review!

First semester is already over!!
In the 2nd quarter we learned unit 4-6. Unit 4 was about projectile motion. Projectile motion had to do with objects moving up or down and side to side at the same time. A projectile is any object that is only under the influence of gravity. We learned that the axes are independent making it okay for something to move on the x-axis as well as the y-axis at the same time.
Unit 5 was about equilibrium forces. That basically means that the forces are balanced or cancel out. For example, a person just standing has equilibrium forces because the weight and normal force cancel each other out. So the person is standing still. The person could also be walking or moving at a constant velocity to have equal forces.
Unit 6 was forces too, but forces that accelerate. So instead of the forces canceling out and being equal to each other, one force is stronger than the other. This just means that the forces are unbalanced. When this happens, it means that an object is accelerating. Like if you threw a volleyball in the air and it's coming back down. The ball is only under the force of gravity and is accelerating downwards. There is no force pushing it upwards so the force of weight and gravity is the strongest and only force making it come down to the ground.

My beautiful physics table!! <3
This picture could also represent how gravity pushes us down and normal force pushes us up.
Yay semester 1 pau!!

FREE BODY DIAGRAMS!

Today we learned about the construction of free body diagrams and went more into depth with Newton's laws.
Newton's Laws
1. Object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. Object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.
2. F=MA which is force equals mass times acceleration
3. Between 2 interacting objects, there are equal and opposite forces between them.

Free Body diagrams are simple diagrams that shows the size and direction of all forces acted upon an object.We learned when and how to use weight, normal, friction, and tension, which are all forces that we use in our everyday life. Weight is a force usually used because of gravity pulling weight down to the center of the earth. Normal is anything that you touch. Friction applies force opposite the direction that an object is going. Tension, a lot of times in a string, is always constant.

When I am holding the bottle, the force of gravity and the weight holds down the bottle in my hand. It also keeps it from floating upwards. Normal force keeps the bottle from going farther down than my hand because my hand is stopping it from going down any further. If I were to move my hand, the force of gravity would let the bottle fall to the ground.

Projectile Motion Day 2

We shot rockets today! Class went by pretty fast since we spent the first half outside shooting rockets and almost the second half taking our test and bidding our farewells to Mr. Blake..kind of not really. For our rockets, we used 4 different types of caps to see which one would go the farthest, but was the most consistent with the amount of time it was in the "ayer." After we did all of the trials shooting straight upwards, we put our rocket at an angle to try and hit Mr. Blake since he's leaving us for almost an entire week. D: We found out the most consistent of the 4 caps and used that one to try and hit Mr. Blake. We were super close the first time, kind of, but we never got to hit him.

Another cheerleading picture, but this picture is when we're stunting. When you come out of a stunt the people on the bottom throw the flyers (or the top people) in the air just like shooting rockets. You propel into the air when they throw you, slow down, stop at the top then come back down and land in their arms. The rocket does the same, but lands on the ground. :)

Unit 4: Projectile Motion!!

Second quarter!!!
Unit 4 is about projectile motion. First thing's first. A projectile is any object that is only under the influence of gravity. Examples of that could be a bullet or water coming out from a water fountain. So projectile motion has to do with an object in motion. It could be moving horizontally only, vertically only, or both at the same time. The main focus was on the x and y axes or the horizontal and vertical lines in which the object is moving. We learned the Vegas rule which states that axes are independent because "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas." What happens on the x axis stays on the x axis and what happens on the y axis stays on the y axis. Because the axes are independent, an object can move both horizontally and vertically at the same time. For example a ball that is being thrown up into the air, but also being thrown forward. It's direction is up and forward or horizontal and vertical.

It's another flippy picture!! A friend and I are doing aerials for a dance show. This shows projectile motion because doing an aerial, you have to push off the ground in the vertical direction AND the horizontal direction at the same time. You have to go forward just because the trick takes up horizontal space and you have to go up otherwise you'll land on your head.

Quarter 1!!!! woop woop!

First quarter is already over!! The first three units that we went over so far were unit 1, introduction to physics, unit 2, kinematics and unit 3, acceleration. 

Unit 1 was all about introducing us to a few simple physics concepts. Physics is the study of the real world. We learned units, measurements, relationships and analysis. Basically stuff about interpreting and making graphs, variables and relationships of the graphs, units of measurement and measurement with the metric system.

This picture is of a group of paddlers. It's a simple example of motion and how fast they have to paddle in a certain amount of time and distance. Since we also learned about qualitative and quantitative qualities. A qualitative observation could be that the people are paddling at a fast pace and a quantitative observation could be that there are six paddlers in the canoe.

Kinematics is the study of motion so Unit 2 had everything to do with motion. Motion is always relative meaning it's moving in relation to another object or person, but usually relative to the ground. To help us understand motion better, we were taught about different measurements such as speed, distance, position, velocity, displacement, acceleration, magnitude and if they were vector or scalar values. We memorized equations and graphing rules. We practiced lots of equations too!

This is a picture of my kitty, Jasper, "attacking" me. He was running towards me. He started from a rest position and ran with speed and direction, which is velocity. Since motion is relative; his movement can be relative to objects around him such as the ground. Since he is moving relative to the floor, the floor is moving.

Acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes. In unit 3, we found the different between acceleration in the positive direction, acceleration in the negative direction, and no acceleration. If the velocity is constant, which means the speed doesn't change, then it's not accelerating. Positive direction is just away from the origin, like in a graph, and negative is towards the origin. We did a lot of problems with acceleration too. The force of gravity is also a an important part of acceleration.

Even though this wasn't the assignment, Mahina and I ended up playing volleyball. It's still an example of acceleration though because when we hit the ball up, it has to come back down. It comes down because of the force of gravity. The force of gravity has an acceleration of about 10 meters per second per second. So the ball is always accelerating either upwards or downward, but still yet, always accelerating. When it reaches the top of it's path though, it's velocity stops for a moment, but it's always accelerating.

Unit 3: Más acceleration

Today in class, we learned more about acceleration, but more so to do with gravity. Gravity is the force that pulls something towards the center of the earth. We learned about the acceleration upwards, or away from the center of the earth, and the acceleration downwards, which is the force of gravity. We also discovered how to use acceleration versus time graphs and compare them to the position versus time graphs and the velocity versus time graphs.

Galileo's concept of "uniform acceleration, he defined it as equal increases in speed in equal intervals of time." This represents and backs up the picture on the left because even though the volleyball and tennis ball are different sizes, masses, weights, etc., they still hit the ground at the same time.

On the right is a picture of an activity that we did to figure out the acceleration, velocity and position when we throw the ball up and comes back down because of force of gravity.

Unit 3: Acceleration

In class today, we learned more about motion. The main focus was on acceleration though. Acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes. An object that is not moving at a constant motion could be accelerating. If an object is moving in the opposite way then it is accelerating in the negative direction. If an object has a constant velocity, then there is no acceleration.

We did an activity today that helped us to understand acceleration. Someone sat on the skateboard and we timed how long it took every 5 meters until it reached 50 meters. As the skateboard went down the hill, it picked up speed, which means it was accelerating. We also learned some equations that helped us determine the velocity, acceleration and/or distance.

More kinematics

In class on Friday, we learned more about kinematics and graphing. We focused on position versus time graphs to help us determine the average speed, velocity, displacement, distance traveled, equations, etc. We also focused on the velocity versus time graph to determine the same objectives and variables.

The activity that we did in class was all about position vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs. We learned more about how the graphs work according to your position and how fast you're moving, obviously. We were given already made graphs for both position and velocity. We had to figure out how to follow the lines of the graph by choosing when to stop, when to go, when to speed up, when to slow down, when to move closer, and when to move farther away.
This is a picture of Mahina trying to figure out how to follow the graphs. This isn't a very good example because her speed wasn't very constant. She wasn't very good at it :)

Unit 2-Kinematics

Unit 2 was all about kinematics or the study of motion. All motion is relative. It depends on how you're referencing motion to another object. Everything is moving relative to an object that's moving. A lot of the time motion is relative to the ground since the ground is always still. We learned lots of new vocabulary words as well like magnitude, distance, speed, position, velocity, scalar, vector, displacement, and acceleration. Magnitude is how much something has or the muchness of it. Distance is how far. Speed is the rate at which position changes per unit of time. Position is where you are relative to an object. Velocity is speed with direction. Scalar is quantity that has magnitude and vector is value that has magnitude and direction. (Oh yeah) Displacement is the distance with direction and acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes. We also learned the graphing rules.

This is a picture of me at a cheerleading competition. It has to do with kinematics because when you're flipping, it's obviously motion. In order to flip up into the air though, you must start from your starting point and accelerate to gain momentum and speed. You also need to travel a certain velocity in order to maintain enough energy to flip over.

Unit 1 Introduction

Unit 1 was basically a introduction to physics. It contained a lot of review and refreshing and some new concepts. In this unit, we learned a lot about numbers and graphing. We studied about pendulums, graphing, scientific notation, conversions, metric units, accuracy and precision.

This is a picture of me swinging on the pendulum during the pendulum lab. We weren't actually supposed to swing though. In the pendulum lab, we learned about how pendulums work, the independent and dependent variables and how to graph as well. We discovered that the mass, us humans differing in mass, and angle, which are independent variables didn't have an effect on the dependent variable, or the period. The period is the time that something takes to finish it's cycle. The length of the string of the pendulum, however, did have an effect on the period.

Letter of Introduction

Hi I'm Alana. I'm 1/8 Hawaiian and I tried out for Kamehameha 3 times and didn't get in any of the three times. I'm a cheerleader. I did gymnastics for 8 years since I was 2. I used to play soccer, until I fractured my wrist from being tripped and landing on it.
I took summer biology my freshman year and chemistry last year. I thought I did pretty well, but a few of the concepts confused me and I struggled with them quite a bit. Even though, I'm probably not the best at science, it's my favorite subject because everything is so fascinating. I took geometry last year.
Basically I hope to learn more science and of course physics. I also hope that I will be able to find a stronger grasp on some of the concepts that I've struggled with that we will continue to learn. I also want to get this class done so I can take other classes.

 I chose this picture because cats are my favorite animal in the entire world. I'm a 100% a cat person. I also think that he's just really cute, happy, innocent and likes sugar and happy things. I think I am, or try to be a happy and innocent person. I also like things that make me happy.