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.

A pair of lenses!

I never knew that I was similar to a cat as cool as this one! This cats eyes are like yellow! How awesome because after I looked at the photo, I realized that the cat and I both have lenses as a part of our eyes. It's awesome to look at someone's eye especially when one knows how eyes and vision occurs. When we see an image through a magnifying glass, the image in the back of our eyes is actually upside down. It is up to our brains to flip the object to be right side up. Speaking of a converging lens like a magnifying glass, there is actually one in the camera which took this picture! Wow a "pair of lenses"! Because of the converging lens in the camera, the pictures we take are able to be seen from far as the lens we look through makes the object larger, when focusing. Physics truly is all around us.

Diffuse Reflection

Wow, I can not believe there are more than one type of reflection. Not only can a reflecting device be seen in a bathroom, or a car, but also when reading a book, if you shine a light, the book becomes a reflector, but not the same as a mirror. When I started reading my book, I realized that diffuse reflection was ocuring because the book is not made up of an entirely smooth surface, but instead many small fibers. This causes the light rays to bounce off of the book and head in many different angles. I never knew that physics could even be found in a house on a rainy day when playing sports is not an option. When in class, Mr. Kohara turned over the mirror and shined the laser at it, and everyone was able to see the light as the laser bounced of the back of the mirror and headed toward everyone. That was the first thing I thought back to when I began to see the light on my book.

Specular Reflection

I know this is probably dangerous, but I was driving about 47 miles per hour out of a side street when I came up to what look like something Physics related. I immediately slammed on my new, anti-lock, breaks and came to a stop. I pulled out my camera and took a picture. I never knew that Physics could pop up just like that right infront of someone. I took the picture and am amazed how well it turned out. You can see the reflection in the water of the light pole, the electrical wires, and the sky. The pole, electrical lines, and sky hit the water and reflect back to your eye making it look like the images are actually underground. To be correct, the images appear as far away from the puddle as your brain makes them appear underground. Physics is trippy! I'm glad I just repaired my breaks or I would have not been able to take in the amazing Physics right infront of me.

Shades and golf in the farm lands!

What a great summer! Not only did I get to play golf, but here is proof that there is more to just farms then animals and crops. I was amazed to see how close this golf course was to being in the farm. As I reflect back on what I just said, it actually has no relation at all to what this journal is supposed to be about. The real, underlying reason for this journal is to talk about my sunglasses. When I'm on the golf course, I try to use sunglasses a lot because it keeps the glare out of my eyes. But what I realize now is that dark sunglasses like mine really attract the heat. When I play in tournaments, I often find out the heat because there is fog on my shades. But when I wear regular glasses, there is not really a sense of that kind of heat. When the infared light hits the dark glasses, the heat and light get absorbed by the glasses making it hot. But without the sunglass' tint, I would see so much glare coming from my metal golf clubs. Sunglasses are great, even though they can actually be hotter than regular sunglasses.

I broke my bro's guitar!

How amazing! This morning I woke up and accidentally kicked my brothers guitar. He is gonna be mad, but I will use this as a learning experience. I've never felt so close to an insrtument before, not including the drums. So here was my chance! I gained consience and looked at the string I broke. But then I remembered in physics how we spoke about the sound of an electric guitar. It looks simple, but I remember that the sound doesn't just filter into a chord which goes to the amplifier, the sound is actually from magnets. I looked at the guitar up close and was amazed to see the small round magnets under the bottom of the strings. When a string is plucked, the string vibrates making a sound and, because they are metal, moves the magnet. This results in a sound which people can hear when the guitar is properly plugged into an amplifier. I want to say sorry to my brother, but at the same time, I want to thank him for increasing my knowledge of physics in the world!

Evaluation

Wow one quarter is over and I'm still enthused with Concepts!   This course is a lot of fun, with different activities and observations which we get to see through labs and videos.  Watching "How it's made" is a great way to see exactly what we do in class and learn about because it's fun to learn about how things in our world really work.  Magnets, static electricity, electricity, and sound waves are all things that I see in my everyday life.  It is great to know how they work.  My goals are to learn the basics as well and obtain a B or better throughout the entire year, showing I understand what I am learning.  I feel that my effort has been great as I turn in my assignments on time and try my best to learn the most information possible during the class.  It would be great not only to learn the facts about Physics to everyday life but also to be able to point them out and understand how they are formed and keep working.  

Beav Mobile!

Wow...Look at that Beav Mobile! I went to visit Oregon State University, and decided to go to their home golf course. Instead of stopping there, I amazingly saw the OSU golf team's golf cart so I decided to steal it. SHHHH don't tell! It was amazing because that little cart could speed up to about 35 mph. But when my mom took the wheel, I told her "Mom, let me stand on the road and you drive by holding the horn, because I love physics and want to see if something works." She replied by saying, "Okay." So the test started, and I stood in front of my Beav Mobile. My mom started the cart and pushed the horn and the noise was honestly annoying, but I went with it. As the cart passed, the sound got quieter as the sound waves were heading in the opposite direction and I simply could not hear them as clear. After the astounding experiment, I told my mom what I found happened and she said that Physics are everywhere. Here ends the great Beav Mobile sound test!

Waves in Hawaii Kai

Good thing I'm not afraid of heights! When I went up to the top of Kamehame ridge, above Hawaii Kai, I was amazed that there was phyiscs just over the edge. I looked down at the ocean and was amazed to find that small waves were rolling in and turning around the islands you can see. It is weird to think what possibly could have caused the vibrations in the water. Perhaps there was a ship way out at see which was creating waves, and they turned into what we see in the picture. Or possibly there was a earthquake deep in the ocean and created vibrations which made waves. But that isn't the point, the point in this picture is that waves are rolling in which show a transverse wave as whatever caused the wave, was in a different direction of movement the up and down flow of the wave. Physics is all around us, now I understand!!!

Summasound waves!

In this image, Summasounds is playing a concert! This image is great to show how sound is produced. If it is possible to see, behind Pablo, there are two amps on top of each other. Also, there is an amp behind Vlad, infront of the drums. These amps are the reason sound is possible to hear throughout a venue like Pipeline Cafe. When a string is plucked, the vibration causes sound waves which we hear through the amp. The cables which connect the guitars to the amps make the sound waves travel to the amps which cause a louder sound than we would hear without the amps. In a concert like ours, there are mics for different instruments, that connect to amps all over the concert hall. For instance, there are mics by the drums I am playing on, in order to produce the volume of sound similar to the guitars, the base, and the piano. Without amps, the sound we would hear at concerts would not be very loud and equal for each instrument.

Conductors and insulator

In golf, clubs are used to smash the golf ball from place to place. In this photo, I have a club in my hands, which can show to be both a conductor and an insulator. It is tough to see the insulator part of the club in this picture. If you can find the part of the club where my hands are holding, behind my head, it is called the grip. The grip is made of rubber which is an insulator as it does not allow electrons to move throughout the club. The conductor is the metal part of the club, which includes the club head, which is the round shaped part of the club, as well as the shaft which connects the grip to the club head. These are conductors as they are both made of metal, which allows electrons to move throughout the club allowing it to heat up. It is cool to think that one object, such as a golf club, has both an insulator and a conductor.

David Fink Physics Journal #1

In this image, my brother and I are standing in Oregon on a golf course. I was golfing that day and my mom took a picture on the third hole showing that the wind moves the flag. The golf course was very windy which is amazing the picture came out with the flag, as sometimes the flag will be moving so fast it would be too blury to see the details. As wind blows, different types of waves. But in this image, transverse waves are blowing the flag making it wave. The reason it is called transverse is because the flag is blowing in the same direction the wind is blowing. This is how it relates to physics, as the flag clearly shows that it is moving with the side to side or left to right wind. If the flag was waving up and down, the term of the waves would be longitudinal.