electricity!

This week of physics was pretty fun :) We got to finally play our project, and might I add it was a success (although we definitely had a rocky start!) So anyways, this week we started learning about electricity! When I was little, I used to love getting free balloons from my dentist :) When I got home, I used to rub it against my mommy's hair, so that her hair would stand up. Only recently have I learned how that worked! When there is FRICTION, the balloon becomes negatively charged since the electrons from our hair move towards the rubber. When our hair loses electrons, it becomes more positively charged while the balloon becomes more negatively charged. We also learned that like charges REPEL, while opposite charges ATTRACT. Since the hair and the balloon become oppositely charged, when the balloon is raised, the hair sticks up. Also, when the hair sticks up, each strand is far apart, because each strand of hair is positively charged, aka have like charges therefore they repel!

Baseball Physics

This weekend Iolani held its baseball tournament, and yes, I am a new manager :) Yay! I realized that baseball is all about physics, which is probably why Doc coaches! As we know, there is projectile motion happening everywhere, from base to base, and also when the ball is hit. In order to hit the ball, the player must know when to swing. Although each batter does not mentally calculate the velocity of the pitch, they must observe in order to have a good idea of when to swing. When the ball is hit into the air, aka pop fly, the defensive players must be able to estimate the distance of the hit in order to catch the ball :) 

Punahou Carnival

This weekend was the Punahou Carnival. As much as I would like NOT to support our enemy, I thought I would go since it would probably be the last carnival I go to in the next four years or so. There were so many cool rides, including the roller coaster, which used to be called the Ring of Fire (it's called something else now, though). As I watched the roller coaster, I thought of physics and how normal force is always in the radially inward direction. Because this ride is so scary, I also thought of the sound waves these screams produced. When I stood close, I could hear people screaming when they were on the top of the ride, upside down. However, when I was farther away, I could hear their screams, but by the time I looked up, they were already on their way to the bottom (facing right-side-up). This is because it takes sound a longer time to travel a longer distance, which also has to do with the Doppler effect, because I, the listener, was moving away :)

PS. I haven't had any pictures because I lost the memory card for my camera :( I am extremely sad, but hope to get a new one soon.

:)

This weekend was pretty exciting considering that the Super Bowl and the UFC Championship took place around the same time. Unfortunately, BJ Penn was not able to live up to his reputation, losing three out of the four rounds that took place (yes everyone, he did not make it to the fifth round.) Then today, the Steelers won the Super Bowl championship, and I won $30 from bets, even though I was at work the ENTIRE day. Lame. 

So ironically, the entire weekend I saw ambulances everywhere (okay, well three times minimum!) And boy are those sirens LOUD. I noticed that as the ambulances drives closer to me, the noise gets louder because the sound WAVES become more frequent. As it passed me, the sound waves were a lot softer and took longer for me to hear because the waves were much less frequent than before. Physics is amazing, isn't it?