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.