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!