So this weekend I helped my cousin move from her house in Kaneohe to her new house in Aina Haina :) They had lots and lots of trucks, including a Uhaul! So as they were unloading, I realized physics was taking place right in front of my eyes. These two guys (my cousin's co-workers) were carrying a super heavy looking desk. They were positioned at opposite ends, and I noticed (yup, I'm SUPER observant :) ) that their hands were not directly on the edge of the desk at the bottom. Instead, they were placed more central. Their hands were equally the same distance from the center of the desk, therefore distributing the weight evenly amongst the both of them.
And I hope everyone stayed safe from the rainy weather! :)

Blinkers

Dear Physics Blog,
So this weekend as I was driving home, I waited in the left lane of West Hind Drive to turn into Aina Haina Valley. As every good driver does, I turned my left blinker on. As I waited behind another car (with their blinker on as well), I made a very good observation! The blinkers were in sync . . . for about three seconds, and then came out of sync for another three! I thought it was quite fascinating how the blinkers went in and out of sync repeatedly. I brought my observation to my friend, Leslie's, attention. Because she was in physics last year, she calmy said, "Taylor, it has something to do with beats, which has something to do with physics!" This inspired me to write a physics blog about car blinkers :) I do not know exactly HOW it has to do with physics, but I do know that it has something to do with beats and stuff (which pertains to physics). Sorry, I just got sick of ALWAYS writing about soccer! :)

P.S. I am in lack of a picture, because when you're driving . . . don't multi-task. It prevents accidents :)

Slides

Dear Physics Journal,

I live across the street from Wailupe Elementary School. And on campus, they have a jungle gym. My friend, Lia, and I thought it would be fun to ride slides again and play with the tic-tac-toe feature just to rekindle our childhood memories. As we began to ride down the slides, I realized that it has everything to do with physics! As I climbed up the stairs I increased my potential energy while my kinetic energy lessened. As we rode down the slide, our potential energy became less, and our kinetic energy increased! Without this, slides would not be fun...at all! How thankful I am for physics!

Grid Jumps

The grid kinda looked like that, but without the hurdle part, Haha.


Basically, I have no life. All I do is go to school, work, and play soccer. Unfortunately soccer is my least favorite, but I do it the most. On Thursday our Coach whom I currently am not too fond of, thought that it would be a GREAT day for fitness. Besides the 2160 yards that he made us sprint, he made little square grids for each of us. One side of the square was A, one was labeled B, C, and D. He would give us an order (ex. ACDB=Jump to side A then C then D then B), and we would have to jump in that order for about thirty seconds. We jumped for about 20 minutes. Because I have an ongoing knee problem, I originally didn't want to participate. But then I thought, "Ah, better suck it up." And then dundundunDUN...I remembered PHYSICS! First of all, thank GOODNESS we were jumping on the grass/soil, because the pressure on my knees and feet would be a lot less than if we were jumping on concrete! Phew! Then I remembered from the last chapter (which I did not do so well on), that if I were to bend my knees when landing, I would be increasing my landing time therefore less force would be exerted on my legs! How fantastic! Even though my knee was sore after practice, I knew that the pain could have been a lot worse. And any of this could not have been possible without PHYSICS!

More soccer

Ah, back to physics. This weekend all I got to do was watch soccer, soccer, and more soccer. On Friday night we played Kamehameha and due to my sickness, I was happily sitting on the bench all cozy in my warm ups while everyone else was playing :) And then I remembered I had to write a physics blog, but I didn't sweat it since soccer has EVERYTHING to do with physics. This past week I was absent, but I know we learned about momentum. Momentum equals mass times velocity. And although it may not have registered in my head quickly, each person on the field was exerting a certain amount of momentum as well as the ball. When the ball hits our heads as we play (headers), it is much more sore than if it were to simply stop complete motion at our heads because headers require a force to exert the ball in another direction (Thanks Doc). Oh and I couldn't snap a pic at the game soooo here is a picture of the oh-so-attractive Christiano Ronaldo :)

So soccer practice starts this week, and I am oh so not excited. Running is going to suck suck suck. Anyways, at practice I realized there was a lot of physics around me. As training, we run up and down the Kozuki Stadium stairs as training. We are each working in order to get to the top. The higher you go, the bigger the potential energy gets, while the kinetic energy goes down. When you come down the stairs, you use up that potential energy so it goes down, and your use of kinetic energy goes up. When a ball is kicked out of bounds, it is usually replayed with a throw-in. As the ball arches in the air and reaches its peak, the kinetic energy is zero and it is converted into potential energy. On its way down, potential energy is used up and turns it into kinetic energy.

Kelli and I :)

Soooo this weekend seniors went to camp :) YAYYYYY! I was on the Brown team, and we rocked :) Yes, Reid & Kelly, you guys did beat us; but don't deny that we browned in everyones face :) Cause we're suuuupah . . . BROWN! Haha. Definitely an inside joke. Anyways, while we were at KMC, each night we were given a couple hours to just hang out and do whatever we wanted. There was a bowling alley, so on both nights, my friends and I bowled. The alley is a frictionless surface, allowing the ball to abide by Newton's first law: the law of inertia. The ball will not stop unless acted upon by something else, which was the pins :) Unfortunately for me, that was not the case considering I bowled gutter balls repeatedly over and over again :( But I still thought it was fun!

Monster Bowling was also an activity for each team to participate it. However, it was not like regular bowling, but you had to bowl granny style between your legs. It was funny watching Chris Llarenas bowl because as he released the ball with his hands, he would thrust his body forward and land with his chest on the ground. As he entered the frictionless surface, his body would travel forward as well until he was forced to stop himself using his hands.

So, yay for a fun filled weekend :)

Elevatorrrrs

Well, this week I am far overdue for a blog because I was barely home since I was working, and also because it was Erin Manago's birthday :) So happy birthday Erin!! To help celebrate her birthday, Erin rented a hotel room at the Ala Moana Hotel. We were on the 23rd floor. And no, we did not WALK up 23 flights...we caught the handy-dandy elevator which we learned about in physics! As the elevator accelerates upward, you feel light on your knees because the normal force is pulling you up. As the elevator approaches the floor you want to get out on, it begins to decelerate. The acceleration of the elevator decreases, as well as the normal force which makes you feel heavy. Once the elevator door opens, it is stationary and your weight will equal the normal force once again. So in conclusion, acceleration goes up, down, then back to normal :) Just like the picture.

Rain rain go away :)

This weekend I turned 17 :) I know that turning 16 is super cool because your supposedly "sweet" not to mention you're eligible to get your license! Unfortunately, I still only have my permit :( This weekend, I encountered light showers as I continued to drive from Ewa to Aina Haina. As we all know, when it rains, the roads become slippery. It was easy to determine that the friction between the asphault and the wheels of my car had less friction than if the road was dry. This is because a lower coefficient of kinetic friction is present between the two surfaces. Therefore, it is important to try and avoid puddles as much as possible, because there will be less friction, making it much more dangerous. And don't forget to double check those tires to make sure that there will always be enough friction so that you will be as safe as possible when it rains!

Newton, that clever fellow :)

So, on Friday we discussed Newton's third law. The phrase we learned was "A force exerted by ___________ on ________." And the harder you push on something, the harder it pushes back onto you. Both objects will always have an equal amount of force. However, friction can fool the eye, and make it appear as if one thing has more force upon the other.

For instance, at the market, Elissa pushes my cart around the store (as shown above). Although both have an equal amount of force, the cart is being moved. This is due to the friction from Elissa's feet to the ground. Therefore, "A force exerted by Elissa on the shopping car" is my bunch of physics for the weekend :)

Soccer :)

Hey guys! Well, this is my first REAL physics blog, considering my last one was just a bunch of rambling :) Anyways, I play soccer. And it just dawned on me that soccer has almost everything to do with physics. First of all, I'm a defender. When there is a lot of pressure put on the defender, the safest thing to do is to blast the ball as far as you can to the other side of the field. To avoid a collision with other players, we usually kick the ball in the air. And guess what?! I bet that the ball has an acceleration of -9.8 m/s (squared!) when falling back onto the field! Amazingggg! :) And when we occasionally make that super nice pass to our team mate, the ball is undergoing Newton's first law. And the grass provides friction which is the reason why the ball eventually stops motion. Yayyyy. Well, considering we haven't learned lots&lots of things in physics, this was the only relation I could come up with for the time beinggg. Seee you guys later!

my first blog :)

Compared to all of my other classes, physics is by far the hardest! Chem was way more fun, I just think physics doesn't like me. Oh well :) From the time I walked into the classroom, the first thing that made me laugh was Doc's scooter picture with his helmet on :) Totally unepected!! Anyways, I like our lab book because it forces me to stay organized, versus loose papers all over the place. I also really enjoy our labs. Although it may seem boring, our class somehow always manages to make it super fun. However, I may not be the best lab partner, considering that I really suck at catching cars that fall off the table (yeah, Kelli?!) Not to mention I seriously suck at jumping. Doc could easily grab the tape I put on the wall...when I jumped! How pathetic. Hahaha. Well, other than that, I'd say that our first test was pretty successful, all thanks to Doc! The present most definitely made me smile! :) And I'm sure it made everyone else happy too. Well, as much as I'd like to ramble forever, I have to go to work :) Okay physics, bring it on :)