ENERGY

 

The law of conservation of energy states that the total amount of energy in a system remains constant, although energy within the system can be changed from one form to another or transferred from one object to another.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed, but it can be transformed.  That’s really what we mean when we say we are “using” energy.  The law of conservation of energy means that when energy is being used, it is not being used up.  Instead, it is being changed from one form into another.  A car engine burns fuel, converting the fuel’s chemical energy into mechanical energy to make the car move.  Windmills change the wind’s energy into mechanical energy to turn turbines, which then produce electricity.  Solar cells change sunlight (radiant energy) into electrical energy.

 

In this picture it shows the law of conservation of mechanical energy.

The statement of conservation of energy for the ideal mechanical process is known as “conservation of mechanical energy”. The equation for the mechanical process is :

 WE+WF=ΔK+ΔU

 

BOOM!!

 

One of the most powerful laws in physics is the law of momentum conservation. The law of momentum conservation can be stated as follows.  For a collision occurring between the blue car and red car in the picture above, the total momentum of the two objects before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision. That is, the momentum lost by the blue car is equal to the momentum gained by  red car.

For this collision, the forces acting between the two objects are equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. This statement can be expressed in equation form.  The forces act between the two objects for a given amount of time. In some cases, the time is long, in other cases the time is short. Regardless of how long the time is, it can be said that the time that the force acts upon object 1 is equal to the time that the force acts upon object 2.

 

Whiplash

 

Today I wil be talking about the effects and cause of a car whiplash.   A whiplash injury can happen any time you are subjected to sudden acceleration or deceleration, such as in a car accident. The forces on the muscles and ligaments in your neck cause your head to rapidly move backwards and forwards, with a ‘snapping’ motion.

The rapid movement over-extends the ligaments (in particular the anterior longitudinal ligament) and soft tissue in the neck, stretching and tearing the soft tissue. It is the damage to the soft tissue which causes the often long lasting pain that is the major complaint of whiplash-sufferers. In many cases this soft tissue damage can actually take longer to heal than a broken bone, as it is more difficult to keep soft tissue immobile, particularly in the neck.

Whiplash is a common injury reported by people who have been involved in a car accident, particularly a rear-end collision, where another car or vehicle has driven into the rear of their own vehicle. You might not think it, but the direction of force in a car accident is a factor in the likelihood that an accident cause a whiplash injury to the victim.

THE RAINBOW

In the state of Hawaii, we are blessed with the beautiful tropical nature.  I have seen so many rainbows in my life that I just think of rainbows as another thing.  I don’t realize how lucky I am to see a rainbow about everyday because I know the people in the mainland are not blessed to see such a beautiful rainbow like ours.  So today I would like to explain what a rainbow is and how it is created.

 Light is made up of a collection of many colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet. That is why a prism can take in white light on one side and produce its own mini-rainbow on the other side. To understand rainbows, you have to start by understanding what is happening inside a prism to let it separate white light into its colors.

The dispersion of colors in a prism occurs because of something called the refof the glass. Every material has a different refractive index. When light enters a material (for example, when light traveling through the air enters the glass of a prism), the difference in the refractive index of air and glass causes the light to bend. The angle of bending is different for different wavelengths of light. As the white light moves through the two faces of the prism, the different colors bend different amounts and in doing so spread out into a rainbow.

Electromagnetic Induction

 

There’s something almost magical about magnetism. As people, we’re amazed by a magnet’s ability to affect metals like iron, nickel and cobalt without touching them.  Electromagnetic induction occurs when a circuit with an alternating current flowing through it generates current in another circuit simply by being placed nearby. An alternating current is the kind of electricity flowing through power lines and home wiring, as opposed to a direct current, which we get from batteries.

This past weekend I was at the North Shore with my boy Kyle Kekina and we drove past the wind generators.  The wind  pushes the turbine causing the wires to move around the magnet which induces a current.  The current is induced by the spinning of the coil.  The wind provides as a energy for the wind generator.  This week was very fun to see the wind generator in action because the north shore was very windy so the turbines were moving a lot.

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In this picture you see above is picture of a Solar wind.  A solar wind is a stream of charged particles that comes from the sun at a speed of 400km/s.  The particles comes from a place in the sun called the corona.  The corona is a very hot place on the sun reaching temperatures up to 1 million degrees.  The hot temperatures cause the particles to move faster and since the suns gravity cannot hold the particles it flies off and it becomes part of the solar wind.  The solar wind can take between 2-4 days to reach the Earth, depending on how fast the particles are travelling. If we see a solar storm happen and know that it’s heading our way, then there is time to take some precautions or watch out. Energetic particles from solar flares can take from just a few minutes to several hours to reach us.

 

 

 

 

In this weeks blog I will be talking about current electricity.  In this picture above, there is a waterfall and it ressembles a circuit.  In class we worked on a project and we had to make an anology to a circuit.  So Reece, Travis and I made a poster of a waterfall resembling a circuit.  We worked hours on the project cutting out pieces to make a waterfall.  What we did was we explained to the class that the height of the waterfall represented the strentgh of the voltage.  Higher the waterfall higher the voltage.  The flow of the water represented the current and the rocks in the river or stream were the resistors.  I truly felt that waterfall analogy given to me from one of my peers was a really good idea.  I feel like we did very well on our presentation representing current electricity.

POOFY HAIR

You walk across the rug, reach for the doorknob and……….ZAP!!! You get a static shock. Or, you come inside from the cold, pull off your hat and……BOING!!! Static hair, that static electricity makes your hair stand straight out from your head. What is going on here? When your hair receives a charge of static electricity, it loses its normal smoothness as the charged particles interact with the air around your head. Three factors can contribute to static charge in hair.  As you can see in this picture my hair is very poofy because of the static electricity.  I was in a very dry environment causing static charges can build up on objects more easily because the electricity has no path through which to travel. In moister environments, it would simply disperse through the air and not build up. Static electricity, by its nature, does not flow until given a path. The static charges in your hair, for instance, would normally flow through the water particles surrounding your head.

Thrilling Plane ride

 

You’re probably wondering why this picture aren’t you? well I had a dream one of those final destination dream! Let me tell you it was trippy! The dream reminded me about my trip to San Diego where I thought there must be something wrong with the plane.  The amplitude of the jet was fiercely loud!  The scary part about this moment of the plane ride was that I was not in my seat with my seatbelt on.  I was walking to go to the bathroom and as the plane kept shaking due to the heavy turbulence, I felt shocks, electric shocks as touched very metal object.  It was a very uncomfortable shock because it gave me a very sharp pinch.  The jet of the plane was soooo loud that it sounded like a big sub that had a ridiculously  mean or “Knarly” base!  Even though I was pretty scared, I was thinking what if I had sounds like that big jet? Then I thought after playing a second of the song, I would be deaf.

Thrilling Run

The early stage of what turned out to be a WAR with the score 0-0, I was handed the ball by my best friend Reece Foy and was pursued by  long haired giants.  As I had the pigskin in my arms tightly wrapped, I could hear the pounding in my heart of excitement but also fear.  I was worried that big number 9 would come and demolish me.  His 6 foot 250 pound frame was indimadating but what was more intimidating was the sound waves he was sending with his roaring voice when he said “OH I’M COMING”.  His forceful stops gave me a vibration to my feet which was so powerful that it went to the tips of my hair.  As he came closer, I ran faster until three guys came and delivered a booming hit that sent a vibration through my whole body.  After I got up and gave a loud roar to my teammates saying “LETS GO!!!!” The sound waves of my voice was sent through the whole stadium.