ATVing

This weekend was senior camp!!! I hope you underclassmen are excited for it next year cuz its BOMB!!! I had so much fun, and also I pulled off a B for the quarter!!! I'm so proud of myself! Next quarter though, I'm gonna start off strong and finish strong, at least I hope to. So anyways, for senior camp, we went ATVing and its the funnest thing ever! I got up to 30 miles/hour on the course; it was one of the best adrenaline rushes I've ever gotten. During the "rush" I was thinking about how awesomely fast I was going and the velocity of my ATV as I made wide and narrow turns, went over small bumps and steep hills, and flooring it through the open terrain. The faster I went (higher velocity), the greater my momentum on the ATV was. Our guide, "Little" was a thick hawaiian-filipino man and I look tiny compared to him (even though I'm not). When "Little" was traveling at 20 miles/hour and I was traveling at the same speed, his momentum was greater because his mass was greater. If you've forgotten, momentum is velocity times mass; both play a significant role in the magnitude of momentum. So if you didnt go to the beach, like I told you to last week, then go ATVing! You'll enjoy every bit of it, promise! :)

Riding the wave

Ok, here's the deal: I'm getting owned in Physics, period. But I still dont have the balls to drop, but I know I should! Colleges will not like it..ughh. So, this week is all about impulse and momentum. I was at the beach this weekend at Makapuu and the waves were perfect; they were begging those in the water to ride them. If you've ever body surfed or surfed or boogie boarded you know what I'm talking about: that feeling of you and wave moving as one once you catch it. It's beautiful. When you see the right wave coming towards you, you start paddling harder and faster as it comes closer and closer. Then finally, the waves takes you away with it, increasing your momentum due to the increase in your veloctiy. The change in my mometum is equal to the net force (all the forces acting upon me: friction of water, my weight, gravity in the water, etc.) times the change in time (from the time I saw the wave (standing still) to the time of me riding the wave). If you havent been to the beach in awhile, go! :)

Pyramid

Hey guys, another week gone by and I’m Still alive!! This week we had a bullseye challenge for immortality. Sadly, no one from either AP Physics class fulfilled the task, but my group (Greg, Dylan, and David) was soo close! Doc said there’s only one chance at immortality though. ☹
My girlfriends and I made a pyramid the other day of ten girls! It was difficult but we ended up finally getting it almost perfect. We were able to complete the pyramid because of weight and normal force working together. The smaller girls don’t go on the top of the pyramid just because they’re lighter, but because they’re weaker. The bigger and stronger girls can handle a greater weight on their back. The bottom row in the middle is where the greatest normal force is exerted, whereas the Jill, the girl on the top, is where the smallest amount of normal force exerted. The normal force of Jill is equal to her weight (mass x gravity). The normal force of the two girls in the middle (me and Mahina) our weight plus the weight of everyone we’re carrying.

Do work!

Hey guys, another week conquered in AP Physics! If any of you are wondering, I'm not totally failing, yet! :) So this past week was about doing work! Not just any kind of work, but physics work, which is the product of displacement and the force in the direction of displacement. In other words, the amount of energy put into by a force in order to move an object. Now take a look at the picture above. In this case, the object is Julia's head and my fist is the force. (Don't worry guys, nobody was harmed during this photo session.) To find the amount of work done, you'd multiply the force of my fist times the displacement of my fist as is travels to Julia's head times cosine of the angle at which my fist comes into contact with her head. Another component to consider in this scenario would be the kinetic energy, or the energy of motion, of Julia's head in response to me punching it. The kinetic energy would be equal to half the product of the mass of her head and its velocity squared. Check this out, if you found the change of kinetic energy of Julia's head, that'd be equal to the work done by me: another strategy of computing work! Don't try this at home. Start simple, like moving a book or a chair. Do work.

Elevator!

Have you ever played the game with your friends, when you're coming down the elevator, to see who can jump the highest? And when you do jump you get that "light" sensation? Since I live in an apartment, I tend to feel this sensation a lot and I've always wondered why this was, until learning about dynamics. Your weight (or mass (kg) times gravity (m/s^2)) is equal to the normal force (or F sub N (N)) when on a solid, still surface. But, on an elevator this changes when going up or down. When traveling up floors, you tend to feel heavier because the normal force is greater than your weight (for a second). The normal force must be greater in order for the you to move up with the elevator. And when traveling down floors, you tend to feel lighter because the normal force is less than your weight (for a second). Your weight is greater because the floor is moves downward from under you quick enough that your weight doesnt move with it, therefore you are airborne for a split second. Now you know why this sensation occurs when you're in an elevator! :)

Physics so far..

This is how i feel about phyiscs: calm and collected. I had no clue what I was getting myself into, signing up for AP Physics. I thought I was good at science (apparently only Bio and Chem) and so I grew a liking for it. And then this class came along; science is actually a challenge now. This picture shows how I am on the outside but on the inside, my thoughts are a mess. I do enjoy learning the material even though its killing my GPA. I'm going to do whatever it takes to get a satisfactory grade: I'm not going to drop! Even if it takes me sacrifcing my free, lunch period and after school time, I will do it. I feel that I am able to conquer Physics, I will have a successful academic background graduating this year. I'm not sure what's in store for me, but I'm up for whatever other challenges Phyiscs has for me!