Post #27 - LAST POST

Physics is the reason why all things happen the way they do. Physics can answer most questions on why things happen the way they do. Physics is constantly happening all over the world and will continue to do so.

I thought the class was super fun and I had a great time learning about physics. I really enjoyed the "field trips" that we had that got us to be more interacted with concepts. It was paced really well and I learned a great amount of information. I learned about kinematics, forces, momentum, energy, waves, reflection, and refraction. The units were well organized and full of information.

Things that would improve the class would be a field trip to the beach so that the students can experience waves because its physics.

Post #25 - Refraction

Today in class we learned about refraction. Refraction is the changing of wave speed due to changes in medium. I took a picture of glasses because the lens is an example of refraction. Snails law states that when moving from a fast medium to a slower medium, light will bend toward the normal. When moving from a slow to fast medium, light will bend away from the normal. Glasses work by the shape of the lens. The shape of the lens changes to focal point which helps one see with better vision. Refraction also happens in torching. Since the index of refraction of water is 1.33, the light will bend toward the normal and the fish will actually be closer to you because of refraction. This is similar to the passenger side mirror. The mirror says "objects in mirror are closer than they appear." This is because of refraction.

Post #24 - Reflection

Today in class we learned about the law of reflection. The angle of incidence = angle of reflection. This means that the angle a light source hits a mirror, the angle of reflection will be the same. There are two types of reflections. The first one is specular reflection which means the reflection is off a smooth surface. The other reflection is diffuse reflection which means the reflection is off a bumpy surface so the reflection is all over the place. All angles are relative to the normal. The lab we did today helped us see specular reflection with a regular flat mirror and diffuse reflection with a curved mirror.
We also learned about colors and how mixing colors is different from mixing paint. The primary colors are red, blue, and green. Red + blue = magenta. Red + green = yellow. Blue + green
 = cyan. Red + blue + green = white. I learned that the sky isn't blue because of the reflection of the ocean but because the scattering of wave lengths in the upper atmosphere due to nitrogen.

Post #23 - Light

Above, I took a picture of a radio because we learned about light. Light has many different levels of energy which is called electromagnetic spectrum. Red light is considered low energy and violet is considered high energy. The energy levels are able to be read with ROYGBIV (colors). The radio is considered low energy because it requires low frequency compared to gamma rays which are high energy because of high frequency.
Light travels at 3 x 10^8 m/s. One light year is the distance light travels in one year. Opaque means that waves cannot go through something. Transparent means that waves can go through something. Light cannot be seen.

Post #22 - Sound Waves

My picture above is a speaker. Speakers produce sound waves so that we can hear the sound. Now that we have learned more about waves, I now understand how changing the music up and down makes the volume change with physics. When we turn the music up, we are actually increasing the frequency and the wave length. This results in a faster velocity of waves and therefore the sound is louder because the waves are traveling faster. When the sound is turned down, the frequency and wave length is decreased and the velocity is also decreased. The sound is harder to hear because the wave length is being reduced. Physics has helped me understand why things happen in life like the sound speaker.

Post #21 - Waves

Today in class we learned about waves, waves, and more waves. Waves are everywhere. Waves are present in sound, light, and at the beach. A wave is a wiggle in time and space. We learned a ton of concepts relative to waves such as wave length (measure of wave from identical points), period (time it takes a cycle to be completed), and frequency (the # of cycles that past in a second). The two types of waves we learned about were transverse waves (wave energy that moves perpendicular to the wave velocity) and longitudinal waves (wave energy that moves parallel to the wave velocity).
I encountered waves today when I went surfing. In the ocean the waves are transverse waves because its motion is perpendicular to the direction it travels in. 

Post #20 - Bottle Rocket

 In our rocket, design features included were fins, a nose cone, and a parachute. The things that worked were the fins and nose cone. The fins added an aerodynamic shape to our rocket helping it reach its maximum height. The parachute was the only thing that didn't work because it did not fully deploy. The parachute had a hard time deploying and keeping the rocket a float.

Our launch conditions were at 60-70 psi and the water level was a little less than half. There was a slight breeze going to the west and it affected the rocket by carrying it far.

This project taught me that the height at which the rocket is shot up does not matter. The parachute is the main key to success and the strings have to be sort of long. Mass is also a factor in success because typically light weight rockets float easier with a parachute.
The project also taught me that shooting up rockets can be frustrating. When things don't go the way you want it to go, it gets frustrating. Our last launch was terrible. The rocket didn't launch right away and got stuck. That was the most frustrating part of the day.

I thought this project was fun overall and it was a great project. Designing the rocket was probably the most fun part because we could experiment with different things. Though the results were mediocre, the project was really fun.

Post #19 - Bottle Rocket Building

Today in class we built our bottle rockets. Our group created fins out of cardboard for an aerodynamic shape. We hot glued four fins evenly apart on our bottle rocket. Zack brought a trash bag to use as our parachute. We had trouble thinking how the parachute would deploy in the air. At first we crumpled it up on to of our rocket and prayed that it would work. Sadly, it didn't and the parachute opened up while being shot up and crashed into the ground. After seeing this I got cardboard and created a cone. The cone is good because it helps the rocket in aerodynamic shape and it can hold the parachute. The next test we did, we got 5.5 seconds which was our best time for the day. We need to improve on the parachute's shape and make it so it catches more air and floats down slower. Longer strings will be very helpful in creating a better parachute. We will try to experiment with the trash bag.