Elastic vs. Inelastic

Physics homework for 5/12/15:

Flexibility! 

          Today we took some notes on elastic and inelastic collisions and afterwards we did a lab involving smashing toy carts into each other because science YO :D.

Wait, wait...What the hell's an elastic and an inelastic collision though? Well, time to get the ol' science vocabulary out...

An elastic collision is when two items "bounce" off each other when they collide and an inelastic collision is when two items stick together when they collide. The main difference between  an elastic and an inelastic condition is what happens as the items collide. Either the items "bounce" off or either they stick together and the items either bounce or stick depending on momentum and a variety of other factors.

One time I saw an elastic collision when I was playing at a pool table. What happened was when I used the pool stick to hit the white ball with the stub of the pool stick, the ball did NOT stick together with the stick as they collided. Instead of sticking, the ball rolled away from the stick after they collided and the ball usually rolls away pretty fast until it hits the other balls. Even more elastic collisions occur as soon as the white ball hits the other balls and all of the other balls roll off in different directions.

I have also seen an inelastic collision when I collide with my bureau to move it. I usually run into it so that it will move a bit and instead of bouncing off, both the bureau and I stick together and slide one way. I have also had to move these huge blocks during gym class and I would usually run into them to move them and as soon as the block and I collided we stuck together and move forward!--So inspirational *tear*...

Have a good day everybody! :3

Phase Change

Physics homework 4/30/15:

'Cause You're Hot Then You're Cold

Today we learned about phase changes and took notes on phase changes :D.

          So today, like on many days, I was eating chocolate! I had a chocolate chip cookie as soon as I got home because I am fat and while I was eating it my fingers got all sticky because the chocolate had begun to melt off. Basically, it was me eating for a few minutes and then noticing liquid chocolate on my fingers. I did not see the melting, but I did notice the sticky chocolate afterwards. But why does this very inconvenient situation occur whenever we eat chocolate? 

The reason why our fingers get melted chocolate all over whenever we eat chocolate is because of phase changes and thermal energy. When you are holding the chocolate, the chocolate is most likely colder than you are and since objects like to be at equilibrium the chocolate and your body will try and match up in terms of heat. Also, heat always goes to the colder objects so your body heat transferred some of its energy to the chocolate. But the chocolate does not just take the heat and remain nice and thick, it begins to slowly melt off because of its temperature. Once the chocolate hits its melting point it'll begin to melt off. 

Of course heat energy was added to the chocolate and part of the chocolate changed from a solid to a liquid. This transition is called "melting" and it occurs when an object hits the melting point. 

But yes, chocolate! Make sure to eat veggies too if you don't already!! :DDD

Bye bye :3

Too Hot/Too Cold

Physics homework for 4/28/15:

It's Getting Hot in Here...♫

Today we took some notes about the three different temperature scales (Fahrenheit, Celsius, and Kelvin) and then we did a lab involving different temperatures of water for the rest of class :).

Water, milk, and chocolate all heat up at different rates - whether you use a stove, a microwave, or the sun to heat them up, they all heat up at different rates. Water is easy to heat, milk takes a while longer than water, and chocolate is the easiest of all of them to melt. Water takes ten minutes or so to boil on the stove and heats up at a steady rate, milk takes maybe fifteen minutes on the stove and is not as steady as water but not relatively bad, and chocolate usually begins to melt as soon as you throw it in the pan and heats up as well as melts away in a matter of minutes. But why do some substances heat up faster than others and why do some heat up at different rates? 

The physical state of the substances (gas, liquid, solid, plasma - usually just the first three) can affect the rate at which something heats up as not all substances have particles closely packed near each other. A solid probably heats up faster than a gas because the particles can transfer energy quickly as they are packed right next to each other, but a gas needs to take its time to find another gas particle to transfer energy to. It is like passing a ball to a group of people in a line, the people can quickly pass the ball because of how they are aligned. But if the people were scattered around on a field more energy is required to pass the ball and you have to throw the ball or run over to pass it to someone. So chocolate might melt faster and heat up quicker because it is a solid unlike milk and water. 

Whether the substance is pure or not is also a property that could affect heating rates. If I have pure water it will probably heat up fine, but salt water or water with some other solvent or whatever might take longer because the materials in the water can affect its melting/freezing point. Once that is affected, then heating rates change too. Plus, the salt and what not gets in the way of heating. So milk might heat up the slowest out of all of them because it is not pure like water, milk DEFINITELY is more than just milk - milk at least consists of water and other substances. 

Water is pure so it generally will heat up fine, but again, it is not a solid so it will have trouble passing energy from one particle to another. 

This is what I generally think, but I hope this is fine! Have a good day! :D Eat lots of choco--VEGETABLES not chocolate...

no but really eat chocolate <3 

ALL IN A DAY'S WORK BATMAN

Doppler Radar

Physics homework for 4/9/15:

Doppler Weather Forecast

         Physics and science is super important - as we all know! - and today we learned a bit about the Doppler effect and what not! But how does the Doppler effect relate to the weather and what do Doppler radars do? Well, simply put, Doppler radars ("radar" being short for RAdio Detection And Ranging)  tell us about the precipitation in the area and helps us prepare for the upcoming weather! Now, how does this work? Doppler radars work by using their transmitters and receivers. The transmitter emits pulses of waves (specifically microwaves or radio waves) out in a circular pattern like with other waves. The precipitation then scatters these waves and that in turn sends energy back to the transmitter where it is then detected by the radar's receiver. The strength of the signal that ends up being received (AKA a "radar echo") determines the intensity of the precipitation. Measuring the time it takes for the wave to leave and return tells the meteorologists how far away the storm is, and the direction the radar points locates the storm. In brief, waves are used to locate and detect intensity and what not by sending them off and receiving them back. The energy could affect the frequency/wave length of the wave which helps the radar see what the storm will be like. Additionally, the storm is like the observer who interacts with a source's waves because as the waves approach the storm and as the storm moves where ever (which is an example of the Doppler effect!) the waves start to probably compress and/or get affected by everything else in the way. Case in point, though, this is how the radars work! :D

Bye bye!~ :3

Interference

Physics homework for 4/2/15:

Interferences

          Today we watched videos, made flashcards, took a few notes, and just generally discusses more about waves. 

          We learned about interferences today and about the two types of interferences: constructive and destructive. Firstly, what is an interference? Simply put, an interference is the reaction that occurs when more than one wave travels through a medium and an interference can either have a constructive reaction or a destructive one. In a constructive interference, two waves will "hit" each other and the troughs or the crests will be positioned with each other to make a bigger wave/amplitude; though, this only occurs for a moment and one the waves pass by each other they will go back to their original amplitude. This also applies to destructive interferences except with destructive ones the crest and trough of two waves will be super positioned to make the wave's amplitude smaller. When the waves hits the wave will become smaller for a moment before the waves pass by and act as if nothing happened. To find the amplitude of the interference you would add the nets of the waves. Is there a difference to these waves though? Yes! Absolutely! The main difference being that one type will make the amplitude bigger while the other will decrease the amplitude, but also with the constructive interference you can have the troughs and crests positioned and with the destructive can have the trough and crest positioned. A constructive type can only have that and the destructive type can only have that; in fact, the troughs and crests define which interference it is! 

       Moving along, just as waves have interferences our daily life also has interferences! Some we may enjoy or not, it depends. This first example I like and partially dislike, when my mom comes into my room to talk that is an interference as usually I am always doing something like homework or chores. Technically this would be a destructive interference because it reduces my progress as I usually talk to my mom for a while and I like it because I don't get to spend enough time with my family but I also slightly dislike it because sometimes I get less done or feel demotivated after because I lost track of what I was doing. A constructive interference would be the bridge opening up near my house because more and more cars would be waiting due to the interference of the bridge. Can't say any one enjoys this one, but hey, it is "constructive" in a sense.

Bye guys! Happy early Good Friday! :D

(Because Obama)




Plus, a Japanese UTAU singing this song called "iNERTia" : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpeOWk2-mP4

Standing Waves

Physics homework for 4/1/15:

Standing Waves

        Today we did a lab involving standing waves. A standing wave is a set of waves that look like they are not moving or are stationary. The lab involved us using Super Slinky at the front of the classroom. Super Slinky was tied to one side near the desk and Miss Reid held the other end about 6 meters away. For the lab we did around a few trials (maybe five or six?) where we timed Miss Reid shaking the slinky for ten seconds to see how many waves were done in that time. Each time Miss Reid shook the slinky a different way, the first time she shook it relatively slowly and the slinky had one crest but by the end she was manically flailing just to create five bumps! Poor lady :(. We did this to see how wavelength and frequency were related and to see if either of these things affected the wave speed, which it didn't. We also took down the data during the lab and calculated the speed and all. Since the velocities were the same no matter the frequency and what not we concluded that neither frequency nor wavelength really affected the velocity at which a wave travels.

      What did I get from it though? I learned that if, say, wavelength goes down then the frequency goes up and vice versa but that in the end the only thing that can affect wave speed is the medium the energy travels through. I also learned that there are parts where waves are stationary which I really never noticed before, and these are called nodes. Also, I learned how the crest, trough, etc. are related and how it all makes up a wavelength. It also showed me how different the transverse wave was in comparison to the standing wave because with the transverse wave we did trials where timed how long it took for a wave to travel back and forth whereas with this lab we timed how many waves Miss Reid could do in 10 seconds. Finally, I learned that wavelengths are measured a certain way and that they look different from a diagram of a wave. A "S" shaped wave means it is one wave length but a "U" shaped one is half of a wave length.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNZ1C_BWEAM 

Plus an appropriate Japanese song called "WAVE" :D!!~~~

~~vuv *dances her way out of the blog post*~~

No Effect

Physics homework for 3/31/15:

Ripple Effect

           Today we learned about waves and we did a wave lab using slinkies and what not. We also checked our data and what have you. 

           The amount of a solvent does not change the density of it or the buoyancy of other objects. For example, if you dropped a beach ball in the ocean and in a sink it would still float because the amount of whatever does not affect it. We know density is only affected by mass and by volume because the formula for density is D = m/V. Thus in turn buoyancy is not affected by the amount of a solvent because buoyancy depends on density. Plus, I have tested this before and as an example when I leave a plastic bowl in a slightly filled sink it floats and when the sink is a bit fuller it still floats. I feel like the amount should affect it though because it is really annoying having all those bowls float around in your sink and the whole purpose of me filling the sink is usually so that the bowls soak all together. Instead I have to manually fill each bowl and what have you. Adding on, usually people add more solvent to make things sink but things like ice and what not unfortunately still float. I guess it would just be more practical some how. And while quantity can be a part of density everything is proportional to volume so it just remains the same. It is like having a 10 kg tub of water take up 2 m or whatever be the same as a 20 kg tub of water take up 4 m of space because in the end the density is still 5 and the buoyancy of the object remains the same. 

Bye guys :33~