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.