Quarter 2 Review

Wow I can't believe it's the end of the first semester already! We've learned so much in the last quarter and so much has happened.


We did projectile motion, where we learned about objects under the influence of gravity. We got to shoot rockets and learned how to calculate a projectiles landing zone using its mass, gravity, and velocity. Then we learned about 2 Dimensional Kinematics, where we found out that axes are independent, explaining how an object cam move on the x and y axes. We learned about equilibrium forces, meaning that all the forces cancel each other out. There are different types of forces that can act on an object such as, normal, weight, and tension force. We then learned how to represent all of these forces with Free Body Diagrams, which show where the forces are being applied on the object. Forces got pretty crazy and we got into problems that envolved acceleration which I thought were a bit challenging, because for this to happen the forces on an object were no longer equal.

This is a picture of me playing with a Newton's cradle game online, it's a great example of Newton's 1st law of motion because the balls don't move until acted upon by an unbalanced, outside force. Then they don't stop moving until again acted upon by on unbalanced, outside force.

Air Tracks

Today we did more with Free Body Diagrams and an interesting lab. We did a lot of practice problems for Free Body Diagrams both in the packet and on the board that really helped me understand the concept even more. We also did a lab to day involving huge air tracks, which create a frictionless surface. The lab was an example of Newton's first law, "An object in motion will tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced, outside force". It was pretty confusing and we had to keep changing everything and redoing our data. Eventually Jon figured it out and the whole class used the same data.

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/449803/449803,1286955438,2/stock-photo-hand-on-a-mallet-over-air-hockey-table-62901796.jpg

The air track reminded me of an air hockey table because it shot air out of little holes just like on an air hockey table. The concept for both is similar, so an air hockey table can be frictionless.

Longest Day...

Today was pretty tough for me because we learned a lot of new and confusing stuff. We did a lab with scales and weights in order to determine the relationship between mass and weight. We had to incorporate some relatively new vocabulary such as, weight force, normal force, friction, and tention. These are all aspects of Free Body Diagrams, which was probably the most important thing we learned all day! We learned how to draw the different diagrams according to what forces were acting on each object! I thought doing the practice problems in the packets really helped me to understand Free Body Diagrams better!

http://www.texample.net/media/tikz/examples/PNG/free-body-diagrams.png

This are examples of Free Body Diagrams, in these the forces are shown through the arrows. We learned to use subscripts when writing our Free Body Diagrams so that we knew what forces were acting upon what. They were confusing at first but I eventually got the hang of them.

Unit 5

Today we learned Newton's Laws of motion. With Mr. Blake gone on his trip Jon did a good job teaching the class! haha

Newton's first law states objects in motion will tend to stay in motion, unless acted upon by an outside, unbalanced force. Also objects at rest will stay at rest, unless acted upon by an outside, unbalanced force.

Newton's second law states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the net force upon the object and inversely proportional to the mass of the object. The new equation we learned was F=ma or force equals mass times acceleration. Also Newtons (N) = kg m/s^2

Newton's third law states that for every force there is an equal and opposite force or equal force in the opposite direction. "For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction."

http://www.fi.edu/pieces/knox/automaton/images/newtons-cradle5.jpg

When we learned about Newton's laws of motion I thought of this as an example. I didn't really know what it was called but I had just seen it on desks and stuff before. After some research I found out it's actually called Newton's Cradle, which makes perfect sense because it's an awesome example. The balls will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside, unbalanced force, and if you swing one of the balls they will stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside, unbalanced force.

More Projectile Motion

Class on Friday was pretty fun because we got to go outside and shoot rockets! We had to do calculations and record data of course, but it was still pretty fun to just play with the rockets! We used four different types of caps to launch our rockets in order to determine which cap had the most consistant air time. After all of our data collection we got to try to hit Mr. Blake with a rocket launched from a diagonal base. After taking measurements of the angle of launch, finding maximun velocity and height for each cap we launched our rocket at Mr. Blake. We weren't very close at all....but there was some confusion about if we were using the right cap with the data we found. But after everything got sorted out we came super close although wind and air resistance could have been factors in our miss.

http://www.e-scoutcraft.com/activities/bottle_rocket_f.jpg

This lab reminded of me of how we made and got to shoot bottle rockets in 5th grade. I thought it was just a fun thing at the time and we had a lot of fun playing with the rockets. I now realize that we were sort of learning physics without knowing it!

Unit 4 Projectile Motion

Today we were introduced to projectile motion. A projectile is any object that is only under the influence of gravity. An example is a bullet after it's been fired from a gun. We also learned about 2 dimensional kinematics. The most important concept was the Vegas Rule which states that "What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". Or in Physics terms "What happens on the (x or y axes) stays on the (x or y axes)". This is because the axes are independent, meaning objects can be moving horizontally and vertically at the same time. An example is when you throw a ball to someone else, the ball is moving both up then down and forwards at the same time.

This is a picture of me at air riflery. We shoot pellets which is kind of like a bullet. After it's fired form the gun the pellet becomes a projectile because it's only under the influence of gravity as it travels through the air.

First Quarter Ova!

The first quarter is over so fast! We've gone through 3 units so far, Unit 1 (Intro to Physics), Unit 2 (Kinematics), and Unit 3 (Uniform Acceleration).

In Unit 1 we learned about relationships, interpreting and creating graphs, and variables. It was essentially the basics of physics, understanding basic graphs and the metric system.

Unit 2 was all about kinematics or the study of motion. we learned about things such as distance, speed, position, acceleration, scalar and vector quantities, displacement, and velocity. We learned more rules that we still use to help us understand and find different variables when solving equations.

Unit 3 was acceleration or the rate at which velocity changes. We found out about gravity and accelerating in positive and negative directions. We also learned tons of new equations to find distance, acceleration, time, original velocity, and final velocity. We also learned a new method to use when solving equations.

 (Unit 3)

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy1HTTcTLAXWFW8hjUERSxtRiJNXo5P8qqjXKaEyQxkdBSObhbLbNxUnl_QjUzCyjbLvh6E-vYyaFcRIJffcFPxIIFVQzIE1xBZU7odSpS1sTonDxFfJHl1OW_0RMUTPMDZ3oQXcg5Z0Bk/s1600/acceleration.jpg

 (Unit 2)

http://digital-photography-school.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/08/movement-blur-1.jpg

 (Unit 1)

http://www.physics.ucla.edu/demoweb/demomanual/harmonic_motion_and_waves/simple_harmonic_motion/smhrmt03s.gif

These are all examples of the different elements of physics we've learned so far in the first quarter!

More Acceleration!

Today we learned even more about acceleration, but more specifically about gravity and how it effects objects. We learned that gravity is always acting upon objects no matter which direction an object is moving. Gravity is always pulling objects towards the Earth. We did an experiment in which we recorded a volleyball rolling down an incline, and observed the changes of position, velocity, and acceleration. We were also shown Galileo's theory of universal gravity, which states that all objects no matter the mass, shape, size, ect.., will fall at the same speed. Mr. Blake demonstrated this by dropping a volleyball and a tennis ball at the same time and they both hit the ground at the same time. I didn't believe it until I actually saw it!

http://er.jsc.nasa.gov/seh/towergal.gif

This is a picture of Galileo's experiment that we saw in class today where two completely different objects were dropped from the same height and they hit the ground at the exact same time.

Unit 3 Acceleration

In Unit 3 we learned a lot about acceleration and the different variables that are in effect involving acceleration. Acceleration is the rate at which velocity changes so a change in velocity is essentially a change in acceleration. An object moving in opposite direction has negative acceleration and an object with constant velocity has no acceleration. Mr. Blake demonstrated acceleration by throwing a pen, the pen went fast, slow, stop, slow fast as it traveled into the air and back into his hand. Gravity is always acting upon the object which causes the object to slow down and eventually stop at its highest point, then the object's velocity and acceleration increase as gravity pulls it back to Earth. This example made me think of a roller coaster, the car moves up fast then slow until it stops then the car moves slow to fast again as gravity increases the car's velocity and acceleration. 

 http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/54/Millennium_Force1_CP.JPG/220px-Millennium_Force1_CP.JPG

More Kinematics!

On Friday we got to learn even more about kinematics and a lot about graphing. Mainly position vs. time graphs and velocity vs. time graphs through experiments with motion detectors, Logger Pro, and wooden boards. Some of the main key points we were looking at were time, displacement, velocity, and distance. We were trying to replicate graphs on Logger Pro by holding the flat wooden board up to the motion sensor. Overall it seemed like the position vs. time graphs were easier to replicate since, at least for me, it was easier to see the distance and speed needed for that graph. While the velocity vs. time graphs seemed more challenging since it required more sudden changes in direction and speed.

This is a picture I took at a train station near Fushimi Shrine in Kyoto, Japan. I thought it was a good example of an object with velocity because trains start, stop, speed up, and slow down all the time. Also when in motion, the train is always moving in a direction.

Unit 2 Kinematics

In Unit 2 we learned about kinematics or the study of motion. All motion is relative, and is dependent on an objects relativity to another object. Everything has a relative position, meaning if one object is moving they are actually both moving. When you drive past a house you are moving away from the house at the same speed as the house is moving away from you. This was a really mind blowing realization that I thought was really interesting. We also learned loads of new vocabulary such as scalar and vector qualities, speed, position, acceleration, and velocity. A lot of the concepts we learned about had something to do with distance (how far) and displacement (distance with direction). We also learned graphing rules for two different kinds of graphs, a position vs. time graph and a velocity vs. time graph.

This is a picture I took when in Kyoto Station in Japan. I thought it was crazy how employees walked around vacuuming the floors during the day. I thought this was a good example of kinematics because as I moved away from the woman she moved away from me at the exact same speed. One of the concepts we learned in Unit 2!

Unit 1 Pendulum

http://image.shutterstock.com/display_pic_with_logo/81243/81243,1212667608,1/stock-photo-metronome-with-swinging-pendulum-against-the-white-background-13402189.jpg
http://www.palladiumboots.com/images/images/pragueinspires.JPG

Unit 1 was our introduction to Physics. We learns a lot new and interesting concepts such as, relationships, scientific notation, measurement, graphs, and variables. We also got to see physical demonstrations such as pendulums.

These pictures are of two functioning metronomes. Metronomes are used in music to keep the tempo or beat of a song. A metronome is an example of a pendulum and although they are usually electrically operated these two pictures show how even if the mass of the pendulum changes the period stays the same. Before this lesson I would have had a hard time believing that both of these metronomes could have the same period.

Day 1 Letter & Picture of Introduction

My name is Kai Takeuchi. I am a Junior and have been attending Punahou School since kindergarden. So far in the academy I've taken Biology and Chemistry and have found that they were two of my stronger subjects. Next year I will be taking Algebra 2 Trigonometry for math. I hope to obtain a greater understanding of the world around me and how it works.

I think this picture of the world represents me because I am well traveled, enjoy going to new places, and experiencing new cultures. Also like the world I believe that I am ever changing and full of surprises.

Image: http://go.hrw.com/atlas/norm_map/world.gif