Grip and Rotational Axis

Wow, I can't believe states is over. It has been that our team has been looking forward to play in this tournament. Golf has so much Physics in it, which I thought about during my rounds. A golf swing itself has many different Physics related movements. First of all, the golf shoes have spikes just like baseball, football, track, soccer, etc. These spikes not only look cool but they give a golfer more grip on the ground. If it was not for the spikes, I would not be balanced like in the picture, but instead slipping and possibly very off balance. Secondly, when swinging the golf club, the head of the club moves faster than the grip of the club. The reason is that the further away from the center of rotation, my hands, the faster it goes. This is cool because usually people think that all parts of the club are going at the same speed but in actuality, the head of the club is going faster than the parts closer to the hands of the golfer. Physics is in everyday life and in everyday sports!

Weightlessness

Great fun! It's amazing that I went jumping off a waterfall right after we talked about weightlessness. Even though this does not show the same type of weightlessness as the orbiting space vehicle, it does show something that is similar. When I jump off the edge of the waterfall, I don't have weight as I am not at equilibrium with gravity. It is quite amazing to think that an airplane can demonstrate the same feeling one would feel in space without weight. The orbiting space vehicle works as when it gets to it's apex and starts to descend, the passengers are basically at freefall. Everyone has experienced freefall and weightlessness, when flying on an airplane. When the airplane flies through turbulance, the slight drops felt by your stomach shows that weightlessness is occurring. It is fun to actually be in a weightlessness activity and know what is really going on! Physics is cool....

Canada Physics

While I was skimming some absolutely amazing pictures of past vacations to our house on Hornby Island, British Columbia, Canada, I noticed a very very small piece of physics. In this picture, on the right side of the glass door, there is a flower pot hanging from the roof. In this small but legit example you can see the pot balancing perfectly similar to the rulers in our past lab, "Seesaw Physics." If one of the strings, balancing the pot, were longer the pot would be leaning one way or another. Also, speaking of the door, we learned that in a door there are two points of rotation. One is in the center of the door knob while the other is at the hinge. The door knob is located toward the side of the door, on the left because if it was in the center of the door then it would difficult for the door to open as where you would pull the door is in the center of the majority of the mass. See everybody...Canada has physics too!

Air Bud...DO WORK!

Besides from the fact that she dropped the ball, my dog is almost like Air Bud. She can catch, and run with the ball, but she dropped it and decided she had enough play, today. As I was throwing the ball for her, I noticed that the ball is an object similar to what we have been talking about in Physics, which is work. When my dog picks up the ball and carries it back to me, she really is not doing any work to it because she raises the ball then moves it, and according to physics, if it is perpendicular, no work is being done. It's sad to think that even though she is running and using energy, she isn't doing work. But right after sitting down, my dog was trying to get my attention by pushing the ball with her nose, making the ball role. It dawned on me that my dog did work! She actually did work, because she pushed the ball in the same direction she was moving. Wow, I don't know what to say besides wow!

Golfing Physics!

So I was standing over my ball on the driving range before a recent tournament and it came to me....Physics is right in front of me sitting on the ground. The little white thing also called a "golf ball" was about to be overcome by a large explosion. My metal golf club was sitting up against it and was about to go back and strike the golf ball at a speed close to that of the golf club. But because the ball was at rest, the golf club lost some momentum due to the weight of the golf ball being contacted. The change of the golf ball was much greater than the golf club. My club was traveling about 117 mph, but after it was closer to 105-108 mph. As for the golf ball, it went from sitting at 0 mph to moving at about 117 mph. Also, the ball is made out of rubber, making the golf ball excell off the club face at a greater rate than that of a sand bag, or an object that does not bounce as easily.

Newton's 3rd Law

So I'll admit, I walked out of class thinking we just learned something that definitely cannot be true. This of course was Newton's 3rd Law which basically states that when an object is pushed, it pushes back on that object that pushes it. Yes, that's how confusing it is! But anyway I got home and had a wave of thought to go play my drums. I sat on my seat and started to play. The very first time I hit my snare, I never thought anything of it, but when I hit it again, I figured out that the drum is pushing back on the drumstick after being struck. Also, the drum pushes back on my arm as the stick triggers a vibrating reaction to the strike of the snare drum. I finally can believe that this law is somewhat believable. I want to apologize to Mr. Kohara for not believing at first, but more importantly to my boy Isaic Newton!

Acceleration!

Wow, I'm almost as cool as Mr. Kohara! I was driving down the windy road near my house when I thought about how acceleration is the difference in velocity. When making my way down the road, each turn I make increases my acceleration because I started on a straight road, and with more changes in my line of path, I increase my acceleration. I can also admit that my speed was varying as I went from 30 mph to about 10 mph in the turn. This shows an example of incident with increasing acceleration and decreasing speed. Mr. Kohara always takes awesome pictures while he is driving, so I tried it. The picture shows the turn that I will be on in about 2 seconds. I know it's not as great as Mr. Kohara's pics, but it does show acceleration and one more thing in life that relates to Physics.