Electric Stuff

A Direct Current(DC)circuit is the type of electric circuit that carries enegy through a current from a battery to a load. in this case the load is a set of lightbulbs. This current goes through a condoctor, the wire, towards a resistor, the light bulb, and then back to the source to complete the circuit. Current is the flow of electrons through a medium it is measured in amperes. Voltage is the potential differece of the system or the energy, volts are the units of measurements for voltage
Energy is the ability to create heat it's units are the joule and the calorie. Power is the rate that energy is transfered its unit is the watt.

There are three basic kinds of DC circuits: Series circuits, circuits and parrallel, and complex circuits ( a cross between the other two.)

The above is an example of a series circuit. In a series circuit the voltage decreases across each resistor,the lightbulbs, while the Current remains constant throughout the intire circuit, in addition the equivilant resistance of a series is the sum of all the other resistances. As resistance is added in a series circuit the current decreases. If a
lightbulb is removed from a series circuit the entire circuit ceases to
function because the circuit is broken.

The above picture is a schematic of a circuit in parallel. A parallel circut has equal voltage across all resistors but has different currents in the different risistors the sum of the currents in each path is equal to the total current for the circut. In a parallel circuit the equivilent resistance is the inverse of the sum of the reciprocals of the individual resistors, this means that as more resistance is added the equivalent resistance is actually decreased. As resistors are added current
increases because the equivialent resistance decreases as more resistors are added. If a lightbulb is removed from a parrallel circuit the circuit continues functioning because the other routes still allow electrons to complete the circuit.

A complex circuit as show above is a circuit that is a combination of parallel and series circuits. A complex circuit components work like smaller circuits(parrallel or series) and then are put in series to
each other. If a lightbulb is taken from a part of the circuit in series the entire circuit goes out, however if a lightbulb is removed from part of the circuit in parallel the circuit will remain functioning.
As resistors are added in a parrallel section of the circuit the resistance decreases and current increases, while if the same is done in the part of the circuit that is in series the resistance increases and the current decreases.

SI Log Ride

The Sports Illustrated log ride, created by Ford, Ryan and I is finally opporational.  After hours of work we were able to produce a water ride out of PVC pipes that had no leaks and flowed proparly.   We fixed the problems with the boat getting stuck by modifiying the boat and were able to complete a test run of the full ride.  In addition, we also took measurements and thought out all the physics that happen during the ride.  I think that the unveiling of the ride should be a great sucsess.

Sports Illustrated Log Ride on Prezi

Change of Phase and Heat

In this picture heat and change of phase are demonstrated.  To stage the photo I heated up the griddle in my kitchen and lay a wet rag on top of it. This, in turn caused the water in the rag to reach it's boiling point then enough energy was added to vaporize the water and turn it in to steam, an invisible gas.  The steam then rose and cooled down and condensed back into liquid water which is what one can see in the photo.

Undae (waves)

Electromagnetic waves are types of radiation, or energy that redistributes itself as it travels.  All electromagnetic waves travel at the speed of light.  There are seven different types of electromagnetic waves in order of lowest to highest frequency they are Radio Waves, Microwaves, Infrared, Visible, Ultraviolet, X-rays and Gamma Rays.  All of these waves have impact on our lives even if we don't realize it.

Radio Waves are the waves we use for radios, (duh) and TV.  Radio Waves are the longest of the electromagnetic waves and thus have the lowest frequency. Radio waves were proved to exist by Henrich Hertz in the late 19th century and we now use the unit of frequency measurement the Hertz.  Radio waves, however, are not just emitted here on earth,  stars and planets emit them also.  By studying the Radio waves stars emit with Radio telescopes people are able to learn much about the universe. Radio waves can be produced by any object with a changing magnetic field.  Radio waves have wavelengths from 3X10^0meters to 8X10^6meters. While the frequencies vary from 6X10^2 Hz for the longer waves to 1X10^8Hz for the shortest waves. Modulation is the use of varying amplitudes or frequencies to prevent the signal from degrading this is how radio stations get information to us, for example FM stations use Frequency Modulation while AM stations use Amplitude Modulation.

Gamma Rays are the shortest type of electromagnetic waves and thus have the highest frequency.  Gamma Rays occur with things that are sublime in nature such as nuclear explosions, lightning, and radioactive decay.  Even though Gamma Rays are not common in our daily life they are more common in space.  Gamma Rays in space are created by stars, supernovas, pulsars and black holes. Gamma Ray bursts which occur when some black holes are formed are the most energetic occurrences in the universe, they can energy in 10 seconds as our sun is predicted to in its 10 billion year life span. Amazing.  Gamma Rays have frequencies greater than 10^19 Hz and wavelengths less than 8X10^-10 Meters.  these wavess are used in radiation treatments for people to kill cancer cells but unmonitored exposeure to Gamma Rays can kill other types of cells as well.



 Works Cited
http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/science/know_l1/emspectrum.html

http://lectureonline.cl.msu.edu/~mmp/applist/Spectrum/s.htm

http://missionscience.nasa.gov/ems/01_intro.html

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/lessonplans/interact/electromagneticspectrum.html
Images
http://startswithabang.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/01/swift-gamma-ray-lg.jpg
http://www.thepunkguy.com/music/antique_radios_25.jpg

Physics My Foot

Three days ago I pushed a cow out of an airplane in the air.  The following glogster will demonstrate the physics stuff going on with the cow.  Cow picture courtesy of  http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/ezraklein_archive?month=04&year=2009&base_name=the_great_amendment_hunt_leave

Dazed Confused and Dizzy

Centripetal Force,  is the force that allows uniform circular motion. As Newton said an object in motion tends to stay in motion at the same speed and direction unless acted on by an unbalanced force.  Therefore it is necassary to have a force to keep an object in circular motion.  The centripetal force is always in the direction of the center of the circle the object is moving around.   Knowing this and the equations for centripital force and acceleration I can now find the acceleration, mass, velocity, and necessary centripetal force for the object to stay in circular motion.  Most of my troubles with centripetal force have come when the centripetal force has x and y components.  Of course to find these components all one has to do is use cosine and sine of theta multiplied by the magnitude of the resultant force.  The problem I have had is putting the components in to the proper equations for centripetal force after I get them.  Now I know however that once I have the components I just drop them into the correct equation whether it be ac=v^2/r  or Fc =mv^2/r or T=1/f  etc. As for universal gravitation my problems rested in scientific notation and the fact that I sometimes cut corners as far as showing my work and this caused me to make errors in calculations.

Newton's Laws

Newton's First Law of Motion

Newton's first law states that,   "An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force."  
This resistance to change in motion is called inertia.   The more mass any given object has the more inertia it has therefore when the mass of an object increases the amount of force required to change its motion by a given amount increases. This allows one to solve equations for objects that are in equilibrium which means their motion is not changeing from this law we are able to calculate Forces and the angles at which they are applied for objects at rest or objects moving at constant velocity. For me the most difficult part of applying Newtons first law is figuring out which direction forces are applied and their resultants.  So in order to over come this problem I worked problems and asked friends for help and now I understand them just fine


Newton's Second  law of Motion states that "for a particular force, acceleration of an object is proportional to net force and inversly proportional to the mass of an object the direction of the force is the same as that of the accelration.
 The more mass any given object has the more inertia it has therefore when the mass of an object increases the amount of force required to change its motion by a given amount increases. The proportion for this in SI units is a one kg mass requires 1N of unbalanced force to accelerate it at 1m/s^2.   This information allows one to calculate accelertaion on objects given the forces applied to them and th mass of the object or the ability to calculate forces on the object given accelration and mass or to calculate mass given accelration and forces. 
The most difficult part about applying Newton's second law for me is making sure I do the net force equations correctley.  this is basically the same issue I had with hisfirst law and I solved it in a similar fashion.

Newton's Third Law of Motion

Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equall and oposite reaction
These forces never balance out because they act on different objects. 
So the idea is that if one hits a wall with their hand,  the wall hits their hand back.  These types of reactions happen all around us all the time,  in fact they happen for every action.