Physics after Prom

Last weekend was prom. After prom, my friends and I rented a suite at Embassy Suites for the afterparty. In the picture we took outside of the hotel, you can see a bright spot of light on the "M" in Embassy Suites. This is light reflecting off of the metallic surface. The metal had a reflective coating that caused it to reflect light by acting like a mirror. When the light from the camera, the lights, and surrounding car headlights struck that "M," it hit the surface at an angle of incidence. It then reflects to your eyes at an angle of reflection, which is always equal to the angle of incidence.

Physics at a Party

Last weekend, our group of friends celebrated Adrian's birthday with a party at the Hilton. At night, we went on thttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=6965819012876089579
Blogger: Physics at Iolani - Create Posthe beach for a walk after dinner. Being the nerd that I unfortunately I am, I noticed how the waves at the beach are genuinely waves. If you observe the motion of the ocean, it looks like each strip of water is moving up and down from the horizon to the shore. However, this is in fact not the case. The waves are caused by vibrations in the tides. Each particle of water moves up and down with the motion traveling through the water such that the water goes up and down toward the shore in a successive pattern. This pattern is mirrored in many other types of waves, such as sound waves.

Physics in Drivers Ed

During Spring Break, I took Driver's Ed at Accurate Driving. It was a funny class that got a bit boring at times. A major theme of the class was that it is really bad not to wear your seatbelt. Glenn kept telling us that refusal to wear seatbelts makes drivers and passengers "MAKE! DIE! DEAD AT THE SCENE!" If you think about it, the world of physics leaves you with a perfect explanation as to why seatbelts are a good thing. Without seatbelts, the human body has a lot of inertia after a crash. When you crash, your body is in motion and will want to stay in motion. This inertia can lead you to smash into the dashboard or worse, the windshield. When your body smashes into one of these things at 50 mph, the force will jolt through your body and smash your brain into your skull and your internal organs into your ribcage and stomach lining. This leads to internal bleeding, septic shock, and permanent brain damage. However, when you are wearing a seatbelt, the belt prevents you from racing forward and absorbs the force. Thats good physics.

Physics in the Car

A couple weeks ago, Jordan, John, Jon, Adrian, Robert, and I went to the California Pizza Kitchen in Waikiki. We were all at John's house before that. Jordan was the only one who could drive, so all 6 of us climbed into his car. As a result of the order of calling seats, Adrian had to sit on Robert's lap in the backseat. Partially because we were all clamoring the entire car ride, Jordan was driving a little jumpy driving. Whenever he braked suddenly, Adrian would shoot forward. This can be explained through the physics concepts of inertia and momentum. Because Robert was moving with the car, he had inertia and wanted to stay in motion. When the car lurched to a stop, he kept moving. Because Adrian was inhibiting his course of motion, Robert was unable to move forward. Thus, his momentum, which was his moving force was transferred to Adrian. Therefore, Adrian lurched forward as the car lurched to a stop. (Photo credit: Jordan Rubio)

Powering Up Obama

While I was in New York last May for Economics Challenge nationals, there was a lot of hype over the about-to-be-crowned then nominee Barack Obama. While we were walking around in the city, we noticed that many buildings had electronic newsreels snaking around the ground floor. The pictured reel features an "Angry Obama." Like almost everything in New York City, this reel is powered by electricity. Electricity is created by a flow of electrons carrying electric energy. In order for electricity to power devices, there needs to be circuit connecting the device to a battery or some other electron generator. The circuit should be made of conductive material and must be continuous in order to allow the electrons to travel through the device. (Photo Credit: Leslie Kawano)

The Physics of Tubing

Every summer, I visit my grandmother and her boyfriend in California. They live in a small town in Northern California on a lake. They own a speedboat that they keep on the lake. Whenever I visit them in the summer, I go tubing on their boat. The above picture is from the summer before sophomore year. It is quite fun. When I tube, I lie down on a tube attached by a sixty foot rope to the back of the boat, which zooms around the lake at speeds approaching 45 mph. The rope creates an angle of about 30 degrees above the horizontal. Thus, when the boat pulls the tube, it exerts a force roughly equivalent to cos 30 X mass of me and tube X g. The weight of the tube with me on it was probably equal to 50 kilograms. This means that the boat exerts 424 Newtons of force as it pulls me. When I tube, I try to steer the tube outside of the wake when the boat makes sharp turns. When this happens, I shift my weight such that the tube leans to one side. It then speeds up. This is the equivalent of a car making a banked turn. When the tube leans over, it reduces friction by theta, which allows the tube to move faster.

The Physics of Airsoft

Every long weekend, my friends and I like to play Airsoft. Similar to paintball but much cooler, Airsoft is a game in which guys use replicas of assault rifles to shoot bbs at each other in military skirmish games. We play at an Airsoft place at Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. We play in a variety of fields, such as grasslands, forest, and close quarter battle fields. An Airsoft gun is an example of several physics concepts. My gun, and SR 16 M4 Carbine shoots bbs at upwards of 380 feet per second. As the bbs fly, they become a projectile, eventually hitting the ground unless they hit a person or bunker due to gravity. Although the bbs are small and light (0.20 grams), it stings to be shot by one. This is because they are traveling at a high velocity. Some people, like Preston, prefer to use 0.25 gram bbs. Theses bbs go a little slower as they resist the force of the gun more, but they go in a straighter path since they are less susceptible to air resistance. They also hurt more on impact as they weigh 25% more than 0.20 gram bbs. (Photo Credit: Robert Moran)