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.