The Reflection Wall

I was laying down on my bed with my laptop on my lap, thinking of what I should write about for my physics journal. As I think, I look up at my wall and see the main light in my room on my wall. I was like how is that possible! Then I started to think about physics and remembered we learned something about diffuse reflection. I remembered that we did a lab on reflection and my wall reminded me of it. The main light source in my room reflects off my wall in all different directions, making it so that you can see the light from any angle. Because of this, my wall is performing diffuse reflection. I was so glad I looked up at my wall because now I have a journal topic!

light

As I was laying down in my room thinking of what to write about for my journal, I see these bright colors stand out in my closet. It ended up bein my rastah colored suspenders. Being that the colors are red, yellow, and green, and that we just learned in physics about color, I figured that this would be perfect to talk about. As I examined my suspenders, I concluded that the suspenders reflected red light, yellow light, and green light from the light source. As we learned in physics, white light is a combination of red light, green light, and blue light. So with that being said, we can conclude that as the white light hits the suspenders, the suspenders reflect the red light and absorb the green and blue lights in order for us to see the red part of the suspenders. In order for us to see the yellow, the suspenders absorbs the blue light and reflects the green and red lights, which is then mixed to produce the yellow light we see. As for the green part of the suspenders, the suspenders absorb the red and blue lights, reflecting the green light. That is how we are able to see the rastah colors. Now, we can take this concept and apply it to all objects reflecting the white light and see how the different objects appear a certain color. Isn't that amazing.

TRANSFORMERS

This is a picture of a transformer right outside of my house! I went outside of my house this morning and saw this transformer. I immediately took a picture because I knew this would be great to use for my journal. My whoe life I never realized there was a transformer right outside of my house. Thanks to Mr. Kohara and physics, I not only know that there is a transformer outside my house but how the transformer works. Electricity basically needs to be transfered from the power source to places like my home. The energy that the source sends out is much greater than what our houses need. That is where the transformers come in. It basically transfers the energy from a high voltage and steps down the voltage to the standard voltage of 120V, which our houses require. If it was not for the transformers, all our houses would be on fire because then the energy sent from the source would go straight to the houses and exceed the voltage in which the houses can handle. Thanks to the transformer, my house can safely use the energy without having to worry about creating fires from too high to handle voltages.

My impressions on this course  up to this point is pretty good.  I am not a big science fan, so coming in to this course, I assumed the worst.  But, after a quarter, this course is turning out to be a fun one.  I am going to admit that I have a hard time understanding science.  But one thing that this course has done was made science fun and interesting.  Therefore, it is now at least a little easier for me to learn and understand science.  Basically what I am trying to say is that this is probably the best science course I have ever taken.  I think the reason why this course is so interesting is the fact that we can relate what we are learning to our daily lives. 

My goal here are to gain knowledge that would help me with whatever physics-related encounters jump at me in my life.  I am hoping to apply what I learn here in this course to my life.

As of right now, I feel like I am falling behind.  After the trip, I missed a lot of work.  I am trying to catch up as well as do the work that is for that day.  As soon as i get settled with everything, I feel that I will be on the right track.  Though before the trip, I feel that I have been doing well and trying my best in the class.  I will continue to stay positive and work hard.  

electric current

For the past couple of weeks, we have been learning about electric currents. Thinking for a topic to write for this journal, I thought about a question that we had on a worksheet which asks if a thicker wire is better for charge to flow than a smaller wire. As I thought of things we use daily around the house that has to do with electric current, I thought of my washing machine and dryer. My family uses them everyday washing clothes and I thought to myself, "Ho.. the washing machine and dryer must require a lot of power and electricity in order for them to function." I was right. My dad and I pushed the washing machine and dryer out in order to see the back where all the wires are. What did we see? We saw very thick wires connecting the washing machine and dryer to the outlet. I was suprised at how big the wires were. Just as we learned, it is easier for the charge to travel through a thicker wire than a smaller thinner wire. That way, more charge can flow through, giving the machines the electricity they need to function. When you think about it, it is true that objects which requre a lot of electricity have thicker wires than objects that do not require as much electricity to function.

SHOCK!

Every Sunday, I have pitching practice at my coaches house. At his house, my coach has a cage where I can pitch to a net and practice and improve my pitching. The ground in the cage is all turf. Having turf is way better than having grass because unlike grass, you don't have to water the turf. Each pitching session, I pitch about 100 balls. Each time I pitch the ball, my feet rubs against the turf, causing friction. Each time my feet rubs against the turf, my body becomes that much more negatively charged. After a hard session of pitching, my body is full of negative electrons due to the friction between my feet and the turf. As I exit the cage, I open the gate. As soon as I touch that gate, I get shocked. This happens each time. Then, as I got shocked again today, I began to think about physics and how we learned about what happens when you get shocked. Because the gate is metal, it is a good conductor. Therefore, "electons will spread to all parts of its surface because the transferred electrons repel one another" (Pg. 419 of txt book). So, all of the negatively charged electrons from my body will transfer to the gate, which is the neutral object. This is called "charging by contact." Now I know why I get shocked each time I leave my pitching practice.

Sound Waves: Sub Woofers

Everyday when I drive, I listen to music. I did not realize that what was happening when I was playing the music, sound waves were being produced. I thought of this because of what we are learning in class. The sub woofers in my truck are good examples of sound waves. They make a lot of vibrations to creat the loud booming sound. If we were to take the sound of the subs and use that sound in our first lab, the waves would have long wave lengths and huge amplitudes. Subs are longitudinal waves because the sound generated from the subs are pushed outwards. It is not like a flag where the motion has to go up and down to create the wave.