Blog 13 - Light

Looking at this picture you would think that this straw is being broken when it is put in front of the glass and into the water.  In reality this is not actually happening, because air, glass, and water all have different indecies of refraction, when light passes from one substance to another it seems as if it bends.  The amount that the light bends depends on the angle of incidence that the object is at and the difference between their indices of refraction.  In addition to making things appear to bend when light passes through them, you can also make things dissappear when they are placed in each other.  If two objects have the same indices of refraction, and are either the same color or one of them is clear then you will not be able to see a difference between the two objects, MAGICCCCCC!  Physics is PHUN!?

Blog 12 - Rave Party Time

This Summer while I was in Europe for vacation, I went to many countries.  One of the countries I went to was England.  As England is the birthplace of dubstep, there are many raves every night in London.  Wanting to experience new things on my vacation, one night I decided to go to a rave.  Since the rave was so amazing and had dubstep playing all night, the decibel level at the underground warehouse was a dangerous 165 dB.  While you may be thinking that these levels of sound intensity may be dangerous, you are most definetely correct.  Raving until 3 in the morning, when I got back to the hotel I slept for the rest of the day.  However, when I awoke I had an unpleasent surprise.  I COULDNT HEAR ANYTHING!  Freaking out thinking that my amazing night of raving had left me deaf for the rest of my life, I cried in a corner until I fell asleep.  However when I awoke the next day, I was ecstatic when I heard the birds outside the window chirping me into another wonderful day of my European vacation.  The most important thing I learned from my time in Europe was to never rave while your party timer clock is set to ATOM PARTY!  Just like Hiroshima and Nagasaki, your ear drums will be completely devastated by the atomic bomb of Dubstep dropped upon them by last night's DJ.
 

P.S. This is Fiction

P.S.S I don't actually rave so don't ask me about this

P.S.S.S HAAAAAY

P.S.S.S.S Strobe light cuties.

Blog 11 - Magnetism

Over the Summer while I was visiting my uncle in Boston I went to his office.  My uncle is a orthopedic surgeon, and in his office he has an MRI machine.  At the time I knew what it was and what it did, but I did not know how, however, now with my knowledge of physics I know how this machine works.  The MRI is actually a large electromagnet.  Since it is an electromagnet, the machine can be turned on or off whenever it is needed, all it needs is current flowing through it.  The machine creates a magnetic field, and the patient is put into the middle of that field.  The machine then creates images with the Bfield, allowing your muscles and bones to be shown and recorded.  My uncle can then use the information gathered by the MRI to determine what procedure is needed for each patient.  While seeming complicated at first, with physics knowledge this highly useful machine can easily be explained.

Blog 10 - Defibrillator

This weekend I was helping my aunt and uncle pack because they are buying a new house, and then helped my family when we moved.  While going through all their belongings I found this old defibrillator in a box.  I asked my aunt about it and she said she got it when she used to be a nurse and never used it.  Assuming that it still works even though it hasn't been used in years, my aunt could shock someone back to life by using this device.  The defibrillator creates a voltage difference across a person by using the two metal panels, inside the defibrillator is a capacitor that stores a large amount of energy, and when she presses the button the energy would be released all at once and would shock the person.  While there are newer versions today, this defibrillator should still work because it contains all the necessary components.

Blog 9 - Electric Charges

While at my uncle's house this weekend, he was doing one of his old hobbies, fixing old cars.  While watching him, I saw that he was cutting iron parts, and that there were some iron filings falling on the floor.  I asked him if he needed help cleaning it up, but he told me its fine as he has an old speaker part that is magnetized.  He uses this part to pick up metal shavings that end up on the floor.  I realized that this was the perfect use of static electricity and charge.  His use of electric charge allows for fast clean up, and further proves that physics is everywhere.  This part works because metal easily loses electrons, becoming positively charged, and this part must be negatively charged, so that it can easily pick up the metal.  Also, while filling up my gas at the gas station, I saw the warning label for static electricity.  I don't know if this is still extra credit, but there it is!

Blog 8 - Torque

As inspiration for my blog, I asked my family members to try and balance a broom with 1 finger, after about a half an hour of laughter, they all finally were able to balance the brooms.  My family members didn't know how torque worked, that is t=Fr.  Torque is the force that causes things to have a net rotational acceleration, and to balance something, its net torque must be 0.  To accomplish this, there must be an equal amount of torque on both sides on the fulcrum, my finger.  The broom balances in this location because although the sweeping side of the broom is heavier, its lever arm is short, therefore, making its torque not very large, and the handle side of the broom has a low mass but its level arm is very long, making its toque big enough to balance the torque from the heavier side of the broom.  Torque is always a fun way to have an afternoon full of laughs with the family, and an excuse to not clean up my room!

Blog 7 Circular Motion

 Over the summer, my brother competed in the Waimea swim series race.  He and the rest of his swim team had to swim 2.1 km at Waimea Beach.  Although my brother did not win, and he actually got dq'd because he swam around the wrong side of the buoy.....However there is still physics everywhere, even in swimming races!  In this picture you can see swimmers turning to get around the buoy, where the center of rotation is somewhere out of the picture near the beach.  As the swimmers turn, they are moving in a circle, however with such a large radius, an average speed, and all the forces of drag and friction between the water, it is very unlikely that they will surpass their centripetal force and fly off in a tangent!  Although that would be very interesting to see.  As we continue to learn more physics, we realize that there really is physics everywhere and you just have to know what it is.