top ten of physics!

Top Ten Most Bizarre Facts I learned in Physics.... as they come into my head

10.

Notice anything truly bizarre about his video. Never mind the fact that Faith Hill is dwarfed by giant flowers, her riding on the outside of a rocket, or even when she swings on the cherry. No, its the fact that she says its a "centrifugal force" that is drawing her lover towards her!! First of all, Centrifugal forces are completely imaginary. Second of all, it is the inertia that repels the object from the center of rotation. So she is saying that 'this kiss' is imaginary and is repelling her lover because he was already moving to get away from her in the first place due to inertia. Talk about strong love!

9.




Quite beautiful huh? Who knew that the wonders that create this majestic lights are also key source in causing cancer! The light show is a result of cosmic rays entering the Earth's atmosphere, which usually protects us by a magnetic shield. However since at the poles the cosmic rays come not a perpendicular force but straight onward thus the cosmic rays do not feel a force. These cosmic rays can rip through DNA and cause cancer, making those at the poles more prone to cancer.

8. Once upon a time, Nikola Telsa got into a huge spiff with Thomas Edison about AC and DC current that went something like this....



Well maybe not exactly like that... but the point of the matter was that Tesla was right! AC always beats out DC (except in the case of batteries!! Why? Because of its efficiency!! AC current uses the change in the magnetic field to induce current. AC can produce high voltage with small heat losses and small use of current. This is because AC current can be controlled by coils of copper wire since it controls the amount of current and voltage going through the primary and secondary transformers. The more coils of wire the more voltage while less coils of wire have less voltage. Since this is related in terms of power, P=I X V and P(1)=P(2) transformers allow you to have either a small voltage and high current or a large voltage and small current.

7. Its amazing how much people get shocked! Its even more amazing that people are shocked due to the current going into the ground since it is actually the moving of electrons within your body that is causing the current. When the current transfers throughout your body and enters the ground, it creates a complete circuit. Therefore, if everyone knew when to jump when they are getting shock by an electric fence, the current would not be completed and thus they would not be shocked! so tragedies such as this would not happen, and people would no longer have to post funny, yet cruel videos on youtube



6. Did you know that Columbs law that attracts the force between teensy tiny atoms is almost exactly the same as the universal gravitational law that is used to measure the force between planets. Who knew that what happens on the teensiest scale also happens on a larger scale!! Pretty cool huh? It is because the both measure the forces between to objects whether it be charges or planetary bodies. The formula for Columbs law is F= K(q(1) x q (2)/ (d^2) while The universal gravitational formula is F= G(m(1) x m (2)/ D^2

5.

These solos are just too comprehension, right?? Nope, though they rock of epicness, physics explains the concepts behind their awesome sound. Within the guitar their are magnets, when the guitarist plucks a copper string his is creating a change in magnetic field  This change induces current which sends a signal for sound. Physics rocks hard!

4.

Wait, did that man walk across the Niagara falls with only a tight rope and a stick? Is that even possible? According to physics it is! The pole does two things, It increases the basis of support and increases the walkers rotational inertia. This means that the pole's center of balance is far away from its mass increasing its rotational inertia allowing the tightrope walker more time to adjust his footing.

3. We all know airbags save lives against harsh crashes.. Look at the difference of with and without airbags



But the reason they keep us safe is due to the conservation of momentum and impulse. Since momentum equal mass times velocity and the change of momentum means that the car goes from moving to not moving at all. However, no matter how you crash you will always have the same change in momentum. Impulse equals meaning impulse will remain the same regardless of how you are stopped. Since J= Force x Change in time, when we hit the airbags it increases our time which decreases our force in order to keep the Impulse the same. Without airbags it would be a large force and a small time period, however with airbags it is a large time period with a small force

2.

Whoa that girl spins fast, but how does she do it? Simple she decreases her rotational inertia by drawing all her mass closer to her because it is nearer to her center of rotational enabling her to spin crazy fast. this is because of conservation of angular momentum. Since the equation of angular momentum is Rotational inertia x velocity when she decreases her inertia her velocity must increase in order to compensate.

1. PHYSICS CAN ACTUALLY BE FUN..... wait what????????? CRAZY!

For, in physics you can apply what you learn to everyday life. When I went to watch baseball players bat, all I could think about is trajectory motion and vectors! When we made our motor our experimentation with current and how a motor converts electrical energy into mechanical energy was also super fun. I really enjoyed anything that had to do with current. Even learning about free fall had its perks as we dropped balls from third Anderson without even getting into trouble!

final unit post!!!

We began the semester off learning about magnetism. For, the source of all magnetism is electrically charged particles. When these particles align when the spin or have aligned domains, it causes magnetism. When a magnet is magnetized it has north and South Pole and a magnetic field. Magnetic field lines run from north to south outwardly and south to north inwardly. They explain why only opposite poles attract since the fields lines are running in the same direction. A common example of this concept is magnetizing a paperclip. To begin with the paperclip is neutral however when it comes near the magnets magnetic field, it causes the paper clips domains to align causing polarization. Since the internal field lines are in the same direction, the paper clip sticks. Magnetic fields also work with the earth. They protect us from cosmic rays. However, since the cosmic rays can only feel a force if they perpendicular to the magnetic field, the cosmic rays that hit the poles are parallel and thus the particles do not feel a force and can enter the earth’s atmosphere.

Next we learned about motors. Motors convert electrical energy into mechanical energy. They work when a current carrying wire is exposed to a magnetic field. Since the magnetic field is perpendicular to the current, it feels a force and thus resulting in a torque for the wire to spin easier and for longer. Such use of this method has been used from lawn mowers to fans.

Next we learned about electromagnetic induction. This means that the change of magnetic field causes current. This concept is applied to many of useful everyday technology such as traffic lights or credit card machines. For instance, within the credit card is a series of magnets and within the credit card machine there is a loop of wire. The magnets cause a change in the magnetic field causing current, which sends a signal to the credit card machine.

Finally we learned about transformers. Transformers affect how much current and voltage goes into appliances or even our households. There are two types of transformers step up and step down. We use step up with our power lines. Since current causes heat and the power lines could become overheated, there is less current going through them than what it takes to run a household. However the current goes through a transformer which has a primary coil which it enters and a secondary coil which it travels to the house In order for the transformer to work it must have AC current for there to be a change in the magnetic field. For the house there are less coils of wire in the primary coil than the secondary. The secondary produces more current for the household and creates efficient energy.

I really enjoyed this unit and I have come to understand it better than I have most. My greatest problem with this unit was figuring out AC currents affect with magnetic fields. However, I have grasped it more strongly due have to work on the podcast that deals with that particular topic. To improve in the future, I hope to try to apply this unit to more everyday activities instead of just trying to memorize the principles. Otherwise, it has been one of my favorite units and it has been a electrifying final unit.