Physics Blogger

Kicking off the new school year, we started off with the electrical force, not to be confused with magnetic force, which deals with magnets. As for the electrical forces, it’s like a spooky force since it’s not a force applied by an object, but more of something that is intangible, hence SPOOKY. The electrical force is just a force between something that is positively charges (lower number of electrons compared to protons) to something that is negatively charged (higher number of electrons compared to protons). When a balloon rubs against my hair, it collects excess electrons from my hair and transfers onto the balloon. Whatever side my hair rubbed against the balloon means that that area is now negatively charged. NOTICE HOW THERE NEEDED TO BE FRACTION IN ORDER FOR THE NEGATIVE CHARGE TO SEPARATE FROM MY HAIR TO THE BALLOON. I think of the friction as energy added to the system in order to get the electrons to move and to go onto the balloon. When using the bottom tape (negative char...

Here's what a free end of a spring looks like: (The end of the string is free to move loosely) When a force is applied on one end of the slinky and the wave travels to the other end, the wave "bounces back" and move back towards the direction it came from on the same side of the slinky. This is because of the forces acting on the slinky as it travels towards and goes through the free end of the slinky. As seen in the diagram, at the 5th dot, the net force is pulling upwards because the end of the slinky is not tied to a pole to counteract that upward force, resulting in the wave to continue the pattern on the same side of the slinky but in opposite directions. Here's what a fixed end of a spring looks like: (The end of the string is fixed and cannot move loosely) When a force is applied on one end of the slinky and the wave travels to the other end, the wave "bounces back" and move back towards the direction it came from on the opposite...

Force * change in temperature = mass * change on velocity Net force= (velocity^2 * mass) / radius Force increase = velocity increase Velocity increase = radius increase Mass increase = force increase Mass increase = velocity increase Tips: •use the pythagorean theorem when trying to solve for unknown values (Ex. Radius) Just make sure to use the conic section •use force diagrams to show the forces acting on the object (sometimes 2 are needed) In the current lab that I am doing, my group and I are trying to release a string at a certain degree so that when it falls, the string breaks. Right from the beginning, my group and I suffered from difficulties. The first string we had broke too easily. Right when we picked it up, it fell apart. As a result, we knew that it'll be inaccurate trying to determine a close value as to how much force it takes to break the string. Looking back, it is difficult doing the experiment. First off, the string did not work well at all. Second, using the fo...

Upon reflection on the last energy test I took, I realized that there is still a hole in my learning. I do not know how to write an equation for a situation that initially has no energy in the system and then has energy entering the system. For example, within a system there is a motionless car and the ground it is on. Then a person enters the system and pushes the car into motion. With an LOL chart, the initial moment of the situation would have no energy. The system would have the car, the ground and an arrow with a person with full energy bars (this is all qualitative) coming into the system. Lastly, the final moment of the situation would have full energy bars in the kinetic energy category. Comparing the initial and final moments of the situation, I would write the energy equation as 0= E k . However, this does not make sense. Nothing cannot equal to energy. Under these circumstances, how would I write an equation for this situation? Looking on the positive side, aspects of en...

Reflection: On the last post, I mentioned the second set of labs that were completed and the results we got in class. This week's focus was on the results of the labs. Although we were able to derive the equations for the energy equations together as a class, I still struggled as an individual. When deriving equations, we can figure out the missing variable of equations on one side if we know the units on the other. When it comes to working on that and trying to solve for the missing variable, I still feel hazy about it. What I tried to do was cancel out the units that were present on both sides, and if that worked, I was hoping to be left with the leftover unit equating to the missing variable that I was searching for. I was able to come up with an answer, however it was incorrect. I rechecked my process and it seemed correct (in my eyes at least), but I still ended up with the same result. When the teacher guided us along, I realized that what I could have done was substitute un...

The main focus for last week's topic was energy. Some energy we began focusing on was elastic, gravitational potential, kinetic, and dissipated energy. The main things we did were doing labs focusing on elastic energy and we did energy pie charts. For the labs, the first lab was about how the length of a spring affects how much force is applied. What we did was we grabbed a slinky and started stretching it with two force-o-meters on both ends. From this, we plotted the change in length (cm) as the independant variable and then the force (Newtons) was the dependant variable. From the data, we found out that the relationship between the length and force is directly proportional and is a positive linear relationship. Each spring will have its own positive linear relationship because each spring is affected by its own ability to stretch from its material type. As for the second lab, the experiment was to apply an elastic force to a cart on a flat surface and at an upward angle. The re...

What happened: A challenge activity that we did in class was set up with a diagonal ramp connected to a horizontal ramp that was set up on a table. Beside that table was a cup that the marble needed to land in. The goal of the challenge was to find out where to release the marble on the diagonal ramp so that it ultimately ends up landing into the cup. However, we were not allowed to test drop the marble at different places on the ramp to see where it would go.  During the process, my group tried to calculate the acceleration of the marble going down the horizontal ramp and the time it takes. We did this by finding the mass of the marble, finding the angle degree of the diagonal ramp, and by test dropping the marble from the horizontal ramp (but catching the marble right when it got to the horizontal ramp) and timing it. Our group realized right when the marble gets onto the horizontal ramp, the velocity would become constant (because the marble in not moving at an angle). Howe...

What I learned & Reflection: *If I were to drop a ball with one hand and simultaneously throw a ball sideways with my other hand, both balls will take the same amount of time to land on the ground. *A force diagram with unbalanced forces (the object is accelerating) does not show the direction of travel of an object. *When it comes to the topic of objects moving in parabolic motion, I feel comfortable with the introductory material we did in class. Given the angle of trajectory and the initial velocity, we can figure out the time it takes for the object to reach its highest point, how high the highest point is, and the landing point of the object. We solve these variables using sin/cos/tan and kinematic equations that we previously figured out. Although I feel alright with this topic, I still feel iffy about moving on to more difficult questions. For example, the challenge question given from last class was that if we were given the angle of trajectory and the initial vel...

What I learned: *Ways to find friction:     ->If an object has balanced forces (it is either not moving or has a constant velocity), that means the force opposite to the force of friction is the same as the force of friction. (A car is moving constantly on the road. For the vertical forces, the downward force of the Earth and the upward force of the road are balanced. For the horizontal forces, the force of the car in the direction that it is traveling is ___Newtons. That means the force of friction in the opposite direction is the same amount of Newtons too.)     ->If an object does not have balanced forces (it is accelerating), then one can use sin/cos/tan to solve for the force of the friction. (Some variables you might need are the quantitative forces of the other vectors and/or the angle of the forces if it is diagonal.) *Surface area, speed and shape DO NOT AFFECT the force of friction *The type of material and mass AFFECT the force of friction *For...

What I have learned: *Force Earth= the force exerted by the Earth that is pulling an object vertically downward     -> Force Earth pulls down at an object at 9.8m/s^2 *Force Ground= the force exerted by the ground that is perpendicular to the ground *Force Normal= the perpendicular force to the surface     -> If the ground is horizontal= force ground is vertical, but if the ground is tilted at an angle= force ground is pointing 90 degrees perpendicular to the ground     -> It does not have to be specifically the ground. It is just the force of the surface. If I want to draw a force diagram of a cup on a table, the force of the surface is called Force Table. *Force Net= Mass x Acceleration *Newton= (Kilogram)(meters/second^2) *1 Newton is 100 grams *When finding forces, you can use sine, cosine, and tangent. Another way is to add vectors and to use trigonometry there too. *Newton's First Law: An object at rest tends to stay at rest a...

As our first lab of the year, the mission was to find the relationship of the height of water being added to a flask over time (height v. time). Since we cannot control the rate of water coming out of faucet, we just added 20mL of water to the flask to represent every second to make sure that the rate would not be an issue (however, errors do occur later on). WHAT WE LEARNED AND WHAT HAPPENED *if the flask is 500mL, we expect to pour 20mL of water 25 times. By the 25th pour, if the flask is not completely filled or it is overfilled, that can be an indication that there was errors when adding the water. *It is difficult measuring 20mL of water each time because during those 25 times, each pour could have been off from the 20mL = opportunity for error. *Measuring the height was a challenge itself. Since the flask is not straight but is curved, measuring the vertical height of the water with a ruler is difficult. Some ways to measure could have been sticking the ruler in the flask...

Rule: When naming a force, you must describe the object giving the force and the object receiving the force. Original statement: Force an object to accelerate, a force needs to be applied. Second statement: In order for an object to accelerate, an unequal force needs to be applied. If an object is either moving in constant motion or is not moving at all, then the force diagram is 2 equivalent vectors with force earth pointing down and force normal (ground, floor) is pointing perpendicular from the plane. If the object is accelerating, then there is an odd number of forces (ex. 2 equal forces and a third force) or a pair of forces is unequal. CORRECTIONS: (UNIT 3 TEST) *Do not forget fence method! example: 5secs in motion= 6 dots and 5 vectors *Acc vectors are placed on the same dot *Dots on motion map can equal more than 1 unit of time. It can be each dot equals 2 secs too * Use "midpoint method"(the notes are in notebook!) on curved X vs T graph to find instan...

Our new topic in Physics is acceleration (speeding up or slowing down). With the motion sensor, the class was able to see what position, velocity and acceleration graphs look like in certain situations. 1. When an object accelerates (speeds up) forward from the reference point. 2. When an object accelerates (slows down) backward towards the reference point. 3. When an object accelerates (slows down) forward from the reference point. 4. When an object accelerates (speeds up) backward towards the reference point. The Situations: Velocity           Acceleration 1.   +                       +                    Speeding up forward 2.   -                       +                    Slowing down backward 3.   +     ...

     Over the past few classes, we have discussed about speeding up graphs and the equations that go along with it. So far I can conclude(?)... 1. Speeding up graphs are quadratic graphs 2.   m=  m/s^2   s^2 +  m/s   s+  m      means... m= speeding up + average velocity? + starting position 3. m/s= m/s^2 s + m/s     means... m= speeding up + starting velocity     #3 EQUATION 1st TERM=                                                                                                                                               ACCELERATI...

       In physics class, my class and I whiteboard multiple topics. Including... Distance : the total amount of travel Position : where an object is in relation to the reference point Displacement : change in position from stating point Speed : the rate at which an object moves, ex. meters/second Velocity : the rate at which an object moves in addition with the direction (expressed by a + or -) X vs T Graph : shows the position of an object at a certain time (independent variable is time, dependent variable is position), velocity is derived from the slope V vs T Graph : shows the velocity of an object at a certain time, a horizontal line shows a constant velocity, unless it is zero then it has no velocity, a instantaneous change in velocity is shown by a vertical line connecting the line of the first velocity to the line of the second velocity, displacement can be found by multiplying the area of the "box" Average Speed : the total distance of an objects mot...

       In physics class, it felt refreshing to do the Buggy labs yet again this year. From the lab, my group and I learned the the Buggy travels at a constant velocity (but some may argue that it is speed). In my lab, for every second, the position increased by 9.3 inches. This meant that the velocity is 9.3 inches/second. Both velocity and speed can be found by slope (but the speed will always be a positive number since it does not show direction).        In relation to the graphs, different graphs represented different situations. A graph with two parallel linear lines with different y-intercepts indicate that the velocity is the same, but it is just that the starting positions are different.        On the other hand, a graph with two perpendicular lines that intersect show that the two buggies travel at the same speed but at different velocities (because one line is positive and the other is negative). Also, the intercep...

       In science class, we collect data and show the relationship of the data by using a graph. Graphs range from linear to rational to all the others. So far, in my class, we have only gone over the linear graphs and the rational graphs.        Within linear graphs, there are graphs that show a relationship that is directly proportionate, directly linear and no relation. In a linear graph that is directly proportionate, the line is straight and crosses the y-axis at zero. This indicates that the rate of change is constant and that when the x value is zero, the y value is also zero. On the other hand, in a directly linear relationship, the line is straight but does not cross the y-axis at zero. This shows that the rate of change of the data is constant and that when x is zero, y is something other than zero. For example, when I did the Hex Nut lab in physics, the y was not zero, it was 16.4. This y intercept represents the total mass of the con...

       Sometimes, I ask myself, "What is the limit? What is the limit to learning? To gaining information? To understanding bodies of facts upon facts? Is there a boundary that will stop me? Will I learn so much information to the point where I am incapable of learning more?" Sometimes, I would like the answer to be yes. That way, I do not need to work so hard in school. But at the end, I always come to the conclusion of no. There is no limitation that keeps a person from learning. There is no limit nor will there ever be. However, there is one thing that is capable of detaining us though, and that is ourselves. There is no line that we cannot cross to learn more information. But, sometimes, we create that line for ourselves. That line that separates us from grasping knowledge.       The people who create that line are the ones who set it for themselves. They are the ones who think that what they know is what they know and anything more than that ...