Maui Wowie

When we went to Maui this past week for the State Volleyball Championship, I took the time to notice some physics around me despite the distractions. Since we were recently studying colors and light, I took a picture of a street light on an intersection that we passed everyday. In fact, Makawao became one of our team's favorite words throughout the trip. Anyways, I realized that street lights are actually not made up of three primary colors, but rather two. Previously to studying the primary colors, I thought that red, yellow, and green were the primary colors of light. However, only the red and green lights are primaries and yellow is a combination of the two. When white light is projected through each of the bulbs, the respective colors are absorbed, and the others are reflected. For the red light, blue and green are absorbed, for the yellow light, blue is absorbed, and for the green light, blue and red are absorbed. Interestingly enough, yellow is a combination of both red and green both literally and metaphorically. This is because red and green light colors mixed create yellow, and stop and go mixed creates a slow down signal for drivers. Just thought I'd mention that. =)

Gyu-Kaku!

This past weekend, my family and I went to Gyu-Kaku to celebrate my Uncle's birthday. While we were there, I realized that the charcoal grills presented good physics. Although it isn't always visible, there are powerful heat waves coming from the charcoal grill. When we ordered our raw meat and placed it on the grill, the heat waves transfer its energy to the meat. This transfer cooks the meat and makes it edible and tasty. On the edge of the table, our server could alter the amount of heat being emitted by the charcoal grill. The more he added, the higher the frequency of the heat waves. If too many powerful heat waves are transferring energy to the meat, the meat just gets burnt. I hate burnt meat. Yuck!

The Science of Sport

This past weekend was pretty busy, with the exception of watching a little tv here and there. When I wasn't watching the NBA playoffs, I watched some sport science on Fox Sports Net. I originally wasn't going to use the show for my journal, but it was so appropriate. The people in the show were observing the mystery behind hang time and jumping ability. The guy they were testing was a player who plays street ball, and he had a fifty inch vertical (I wish i had that). Anyways, they made him jump over a 5'8" person, who he cleared easily. They placed sensors on his legs, and calculated that he generated 14,000 newtons of force to jump over the person. They said that that was enough force to carry the entire Detroit Pistons starting lineup while jumping. Incredible. Next, they made him jump over a car, that was five feet wide. Although they didn't calculate the force required to do this, they explained what his muscles needed to do to allow him enough air to clear it. They said he needed to lower his center of gravity, and then fire up all of his muscles while running at a decently high velocity towards his take-off point. Once he actually took off, he transferred all of his force down his body and into the ground, allowing him to jump and dunk the basketball. Although I have always been awed by high flying dunkers in the pros, the idea of force generated by the body amazed me even more.

Strobe LIghts!

This past weekend, I went to sophmore banquet and had a great time. The food was alright and Brad Lawson's band was playing super awesome music. When the dinner was over and it was time to hit the dance floor, physics took full effect. The strobe light was one of the first things I noticed while dancing. Because the frequency of the light waves is less than if a light was simply turned on, it seemed as if everyone was moving in slow motion. Similarly to physics class, people's faces seemed entirely different everytime the light flashed. Another physics effect that took place, was the speakers blasting music. As I moved from one end of the dancefloor to the other side, the music sounded slightly different. This was most likely due to the sound waves bouncing off different types of surfaces before being heard by my ears. Also, the music was blasting with such powerful amplitude that it felt as if the ground was shaking. I could actually see part of the speaker vibrating during down beats in the rap songs that were being played. (Sorry, some of the pictures I took didnt come out good at all)

While I was driving around on Sunday, I found this light post that was overlooking Manoa Park's Pool. It reminded me of current and electricity especially because this type of light needs to be lit extremely bright at night. Therefore, either the current needs to be high when it is switched on or the power source connected to the lightbulb needs to transfer large amounts of energy. Judging by the height of the light, the electricity must have to travel a fairly long distance before finally reaching the light bulb. To make the light as efficient as possible, the people who structured the light would have to have the least amount of energy lost while it is traveling to the top of the post. Copper wiring is probably used in the energy transfer as it is used in other infrastructure appliances. The entire circuit which involves the light post, probably has a switch that completes and then in-completes the circuit when it is turned off. Although it may seem simple, this light post relates to physics very well.

This past weekend, I got a haircut at Supercuts. Because we were studying electrical currents and magnets, I was sure that I could find something that involved either of those topics. I realized that the buzzers used to cut my hair most likely contained motors that are powered my magnets and electricity. Those motors are probably similar to the small motors we attempted to generate in class as the blades being turned to cut the hair probably don't require much energy. Although the blades do need to move relatively quickly, it would not require as much energy as a model car motor or other small motorized objects. The hairdryer also probably requires a motor to blow the air quickly through the shaft. That motor must be slightly larger as the amount of air being pushed through the hairdryer is relatively large. This is all speculation, but I think I have somewhat of an idea of the electricity and magnetism in these specific objects.

Scoreboard Mania

I just watched a few of my brother's basketball games recently and happened to notice that the scoreboard relates very closely to what we have just studied. Every number displayed on the scoreboard is generated by an electrical current that probably is altered in course depending on what number it is displaying. For example, every time the number is changes, the sequence of lights on the scoreboard is changed. Each of the bulbs in the scoreboard is lit up according to the actual controls of the board. For example, when the scorekeeper flips the switch from 0 to 2, some lights are disconnected from the circuit, while other lights are connected to it. This goes also for the time keeper, except that the time constantly is changing, as the time winds down in the quarter/game. When the time keeper stops the clock, he is maintaining a certain circuit that freezes the time. Then, when he continues the clock, the circuit continues to switch every second.

Light Switch

This past weekend, I tried to turn on my light in the family room and found that it didn't turn on. Fearful of a burnt out light, I proceeded and tried to flip the switch on several times. After about the fourth time, the light did switch on to my relief. Because we are studying currents in physics, I thought this would be a related topic as the energy and circuit being completed does not turn the bulbs on when the switch is flipped initially. most likely, the circuit is completed but there is somehow not enough energy from the electrons flowing through the bulbs in the light when the switch is first turned on. After about the fourth time, there is enough energy to turn all of the bulbs on, causing the light to work. The energy probably travels very slowly and doesn't reach its full strength until the switch is flipped several times.

Recently, my family had a giant get together in which we all rode around in a trolley through Waikiki. It was pretty fun and interesting, as we saw lots of lights and people walking the streets. I was having a great time until I needed to stand up and grab onto the metal pole to get off the trolley. I was shocked immediately as I reached for the pole and it kinda surprised me. Apparently, me rubbing on the seat as the trolley moved must have charged me, causing me to get shocked as I came in contact with the conductor. It is completely relevant to the static electricity we are learning now. This happened to me before but I never expected in on the trolley ride. Las Vegas as well as in airplanes are the two places I remember getting shocked the most.

Mythbusters

This past weekend, I was watching the Discovery Channel and came across a cool show known as Mythbusters. In this show, they actually attempt to confirm myths, or else they reject their existence if their experiment shows so. In the past they have tried to prove which appliances have enough voltage to kill a human if dropped into a bath tub. It really is an interesting show if the myth is proved correctly because most of these outcomes are unpredictable. The myth they tried to prove this weekend involved a car going on a freeway, and trying to load onto the back of a car-carrying truck. The myth says that if a car going a certain velocity tries to load onto the open ramp on the back of the truck that is going at a lesser velocity, than the car will speed up as it mounts the ramp. However, they found that the car does not speed up as it hits the ramp and it loads on fine. They explained it by saying that the truck's velocity becomes part of the car's velocity as it loads on, allowing it to seem as if the car loads onto the ramp slowly. This was extremely interesting because I had originally agreed with the myth.

Christmas Vacation

During Christmas Break, our basketball team and my family traveled to Tennessee for an annual tournament held there called the Arby's Classic. Besides the usual projectile motion that I use to discuss basketball, we were able to experience the majority of what Bristol, Tennessee can offer. For example, one of the most famous raceways in the country is the Bristol Speedway which is used for a couple of Nascar races throughout the racing season. Although we weren't allowed on the actual speedway, my brother experienced a bit of physics himself when he raced in a gocart. Because the track he was on included several turns in it, my brother needed to slow down to complete the turns and allow the friction to maintain the car's general direction. He was able to do this for the most part, but did end up losing some control of the gocart on a few occassions. Overall, it was a fun but grueling trip in a sense that the plane rides were at the worst times of day.