11) Surprise Attack

      Last night, when I was brushing my hair in front of my sister's mirror my cousin quietly crawled towards my back and grasped my shoulders quickly, which made me scream and jump.  I was really surprised and flustered because I did not even see her in the mirror while I was brushing my hair.  This reminded me of the lab that we did in class, Mirror Mirror on the Wall, which relates to physics concept of reflection.  The definition of reflection given in the book, Principles of Physics, is light "bouncing back" from a surface.  The mirror that I was looking at as I was brushing my hair is a planar mirror.  This kind of mirror is a flat, smooth surface that reflects light.  An object's image created from a planar mirror has the same height, equally far from mirror, and the image is right side up.  So, I was not able to see my cousin in the mirror as I was brushing my hair because she was not in my line of vision from the mirror.  Now if she was directly behind me I would be able to see her, but she crawled from an angle from the door.  Below is a picture of a similar mirror to  my sister's mirror:

 

~My sister did not want me to take a picture of her mirror. :)



10) Cars Go VROOM!

     Today after working all day at Subway in Pearl Ridge Uptown, I came home and sat outside on a chair exhausted and relieved to finally relax.  Today was a very busy day for us at Subway since the inspector came today to check everything at the store.  As of right now I don't feel so good, but anyways, sitting down feels awesome.  As I removed my shoes, I watched and listened as the cars drove by.  I noticed as the cars were coming closer in my vision that the sound each car made was different from the sound that each car made after each one passed me. This simple observation can be explained by an Austrian physicist named Christian Doppler.  His idea is called the Doppler Effect, which is a change in the frequency of a wave due to motion of the source and/or the listener.  There are three equations that are based on a moving and listening source.  In my case, I am the listener and the car(s) are the moving source(s).  In order to solve for any of the terms, such as the frequency of the moving listener or source or even the stationary listener or mover, I would have to use the equations that Christian Doppler came up with.  Below is a video of a few cars displaying the Doppler Effect.







KABOOM!

     Tonight my family and I went to the Honolulu Festival to watch the fireworks display at Waikiki beach. This event was really important to not only me, but the city of Honolulu as well because the people who donated the fireworks display are the people of Nagaoka, our sister city in Japan. The fireworks or はなび remind me of my amazing experience in Nagaoka with my host family.  This makes me want to go back to Japan again.  The fireworks show was awesome. We were able to watch the fireworks show from the balcony of a hotel in Waikiki.  The fireworks were many different colors and figures.  One of the images reminded me of a Pokemon ball.
     For fireworks there is chemistry, but also physics behind this wonderful spectacle. However, I will only discuss the physics in a fireworks display. Some of the important factors to a successful fireworks show are the relationships between vectors, velocities, projectiles and their trajectories, explosion forces and so on. For example, larger aerial shells produce greater initial velocities. Pyro technicians have to work with many different Physic equations for the fireworks to work.  Here is a photo of the fireworks at the 2013 Honolulu Festival:

 

8) Girl's Varsity Basketball Upsets Punahou on their Senior Night

     Yesterday night my sister and I went to 'Iolani Girls Varsity basketball game against Punahou at Punahou School--the city bus took forever.  The game was very exciting because of how close the score was towards the end.  Fortunately, 'Iolani humbly took the win from their opponents in the last three minutes.  Although Punahou had lost their senior night, which is sad, the 'Iolani girls played their hearts out and deserved to win.
     Basketball is an excellent example of Physics.  Especially when a player shoots for a three-pointer or basket.  When a player does that the basketball has projectile motion.  Here is another recap of this concept:  Projectile motion is the movement determined by an object's initial velocity and the constant acceleration of gravity.  During projectile motion the horizontal velocity remains constant, whereas the vertical velocity increases due to gravity.  Another note is when two objects are released at the same time, both objects will land at the same time despite the difference in their horizontal velocities.
     After the game my younger sister and I caught the bus to Pearl Ridge center to eat dinner and watch a movie.  That night was tiring, but also really FUN!!!

Here is a photo of 'Iolani vs. Punahou Girls Varsity Basketball:

7) Start off the Season

     On this past Saturday morning the 'Iolani Paddling program had their first race of the season. Now, paddling is not an easy sport. There is a lot of practice and dedication from each individual for a crew to succeed. Although I was not able to race yesterday, I was happy to support my team and am sure I will be given the chance to paddle in the next race.
     Since I had to leave early for a baptismal service for my cousin and a baby shower, I do not know who won for the girls’ races. On the other hand, I know the boys did their very best.  As I was watching the girls paddle out to the starting point, I recalled that energy and force is necessary for the canoe to glide forward. Similar to Newton's Third Law: For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, the paddle is pulling the water backward as the water pulls the canoe forward. Here are some photos of the girls paddling out to the starting line.

5) Wishy Washy Centripetal Forces

     This Sunday morning I woke up to discover that my pile of clothes were starting to pile up more and more as the clothes in my drawers were becoming less and less.  Some people believe that washing clothes is a hassle and I am not going to lie. Washing clothes is a very tedious and time consuming job, but hey you need clothes so you have to do what you gotta do! hahaha Well, I decided to wash my clothes before school starts.  So, I began to separate my clothes into different piles/loads:  whites, jeans and blouses.  I  went downstairs, loaded the washer with my clothes, soap and water. As my clothes were in the washer my grandma made breakfast downstairs.  As I was eating, I realized that I needed to do a physics blog.  It struck me that washing clothes is a great example of centripetal force.  First of all, centripetal force is any force that makes an object move in a circular path.  The centripetal force always points toward the center of the circle.  In this case the water in the washing machine is moving in a circular motion.  However, if the centripetal force is removed from the motion, then the object reacts by continuing in a tangent direction from the center of the circle.  Therefore, when the centripetal force is removed from the washing machine the water will travel tangent from the circular motion of the washer.  Here are some photos of my family's washing machine:

6) Projectile Motion & Water Guns

     This past Sunday afternoon my younger brothers and cousins were playing outside in the yard.  My younger brothers and cousins were having a water gun fight.  After the water gun fight I told my brother, Daysen to aim the water gun in the air and shoot water into the sky so I could take a picture of the projectile motion of the water.  However, the water ended up all over my younger brother Nilasoni, and my two cousins Issac and Keoni on the swing set.  That was such a cute and funny moment.  In physics class we learned projectile motion earlier in the course.  On the other hand, a brief reminder of projectile motion is the movement determined by an object's initial velocity and the constant acceleration of gravity.  In this case, the movement of the water is determined by the initial velocity of the water exiting the water gun and the constant acceleration of gravity.

 

 

4) Do WORK!

On a Saturday night my family and I went to Times supermarket to shop for groceries and other necessities for the week. We ended up purchasing a lot of food. There was so much food that when we got home, we had a lot of work to do. We had to carry about five to six packages to the second floor of our home. Now, this was no easy task because the stairs to the second floor of our house was long and the inside of each package was filled to the top with canned goods, milk, juice, vegetables, eggs, etc. You name it…we bought it!

Well, this tiring task relates to what we are learning in physics, WORK. Now, work has a very specific meaning in physics. The equation for Work is force multiplied by distance. Work requires two things: force, and motion in the direction of the force. If you are only holding an object overhead motionless rather than lift or change then you are not doing work. However, in this case, as my sister and I carried the bag of groceries up the stairs from the car to the second floor, we were doing work.  The force (our pull on the plastic bags) is in the direction of our motion (upwards).



My sister Cierra carrying some of the groceries up from the car into our house.

 

3) Swimming in the SECRET cave

Zablands Beach in Nanakuli

      This past Sunday my family and I spent the entire day on the Waianae coast. To start our day off, we had to wake up at 5:00 in the morning to go to my little brother's Tiny Mites football game in Waianae against Nanakuli Hawks at 7:30am. The game was really fun and interesting to watch, but the most fun did not start until we were at the beach.

      After the football game everyone drove to Nanakuli Beach/Zablands to swim barbeque and have lots of fun together as a family. My cousins and I went to our little hideaway (secret cave) where we swam for a while. Swimming in the ocean relates to the concept of Newton's Third Law, which we recently learned in class. Newton's Third Law states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, if an object (A) pushes or pulls another object (B), then the other object (B) pushes or pull that object (A). In this case, I am pulling the water backward or swimming and the water is pushing me forward.

Word Count:  196

Here are some pictures of me displaying Newton's Third Law at our secret spot/cave:



2) Involving the Family with Physics

     First of all, I really wanted to use an example of one of my family members jumping off a diving board into a swimming pool at a birthday party on Sunday, but one of my cousins accidently threw up in the pool so the lifeguards had to SHUT it DOWN! Everyone was sad and mad that we couldn't swim anymore. Especially since me and my sister had just gotten there. :( Even one of the little boys at the birthday party said, "Now we have to go somewhere else to party!" That is what we did. Our family went to the beach instead of the pool. When we got home from the beach party, I realized that I still did not have an example for my blog. So I asked my younger sister if she wanted to help me and she agreed. Instead of posting a great example of Physics, I have a decent example of my sister jumping off the couch. Although this is not an amazing picture or video of a dive into a swimming pool, it is important to me because I had the opportunity to share the concept of projectile motion I learned in school with my sister. I explained to her that projectile motion is the movement of an object that is determined by an object's initial velocity and the constant acceleration of gravity. However, I had to simplify my answer to make her understand the concept better. What I really said was: "It is an object that begins to move at a certain speed then falls to the ground due to the force of gravity."

I hope whoever watches this enjoys! Please don't mind my cousin in the background; I didn't notice he was there until after I uploaded the video.

Word Count:  297



 

1) Free Falling Cheerleaders

Waipahu J.V. Cheerleaders

     As I was watching the Waipahu Football game against Campbell on Friday night my younger cousin said randomly about the cheerleaders:  "If a cheerleader falls down from being tossed in the air for a cheer, it must hurt more than being tackled by a football player because of how high they go up?" I then responded with, "Yeah, especially since the cheerleader would be free falling at an acceleration of -9.8 m/s^2. Plus, they could easily break a leg or any other body part." All of a sudden I realized that I related an everyday situation to the concept of free fall that I learned in Physics.  The concept or term “free fall” is simply an object under the influence of gravity.  The object remains in free fall unless it comes into contact with something else or the moment you catch it.  Also, the acceleration always remain constant (-9.8 m/s^2).  At this moment I felt really smart, but also dorky because my cousin said laughingly after, "How do you even know this?" I then replied, "Physics. Don't worry you'll know what I'm taking about when you take the course."
     I took some pictures of the Waipahu cheerleaders and the football game, but unfortunately I was not able to catch the cheerleaders in the air because my phone is soooo slow at taking pictures. :/


Waipahu vs. Campbell