Maximize Torque

Today while I was at home I decided to make some toast. After the toast was ready I decided to apply some jelly to it to enhance the flavor. I first tried to open the jar with most of my arm inside of my shirt because I was cold at the time. I was unable to open the jar because it required more torque then my short arm could provide. Then I realized that if I increased the lever arm distance, a measure from the point where force is applied to the axis of rotation, then I would be able to maximize my torque. After I increased my arm I was able to successfully open the jar of jelly and apply it to my toast. Thank you physics!

Sticky Collisions

Today my brother and I were playing football in our backyard. While I was getting tackled I realized that physics was taking place as I was thrown to the ground. What had occured during the tackle was a sticky collison. Before the tackle my brother and I had seperated masses and velocities of our own. But as he tackled me we had a combined mass and a final velocity. Luckily my mom was able to capture this beautiful physics taking place at our very home. I glad it did not rain today.

Potential & Kinetic Energy

While I was up on my wall trimming the trees I took a moment to step back and think about the physics that were taking place right in front of my eyes. As I stood there I realized that I had a certain amount of potential energy with relation to the ground below me but no kinetic energy. When I jumped off the wall and onto the ground I observed that my potential energy decreased as my kinetic energy increased. I also noticed that while both my potential and kinetic energies were changing, my total energy remained constant throughout the jump. What a beautiful day.

Last Journal of the Quarter

This picture I chose is the best example of the way that I feel most of the time when I am doing physic problems during this first quarter. My anxieties about the course are the different equations and when to use them. My goals are to improve my scores on both tests and quizes from here on out. My effort and performance have been different levels. My performance has been lower than my effort by I am going to try much harder to make my performance reach same level as the effort that I am putting forth.

Newton's Law of Equilibrium

Today while I was napping on the couch I thought of Newton's Law of Equlibrium. The law states that an object at rest will remain at rest unless an outside force is acted on it. As I continued to nap and run tests on Newton's Law I discovered that it is true. As I was sleeping and at rest I stayed at rest the entire time. I did not find myself moving because there was no outside force present. My tests and experiments on this law ran for about an hour. Luckily my mom was able to record me in action and take a picture.

A Day At The Beach

This past Saturday I went to the beach in Waimanalo with my friends Pablo, Breland, Nick, and Brandon. While at the beach we were throwing the football around. As each pass was flying throw the air I could not help but notice that the football was traveling with two different types of velocities. I was able to identify that each pass had a horizontal velocity and a vertical velocity. After I spotted the two types of velocities I was also able to notice that although the vertical velocity was changing as the football traveled up and then down, the horizontal velocity of the football remained the same throughout the flight of the football. Each throw amazed me because it reminded me of the demonstration in class on friday when I risked my life on the top of the ladder to show that two objects will always hit the ground at the same time it they are both released from the same point. Physics is fun.

While I was playing in a baseball game last season against Mid Pac I noticed something for the first time. While I was batting I saw the positive velocity and positve acceleration of the ball as it traveled toward me. After I swung the bat to hit the ball the velocity remained positive but the acceleration of the ball was negative because it was traveling in the opposite direction. I also noticed that the ball's velocity reached zero at the point when I hit it and it changed direction.