This is at the easter sunday new hope church service last week on easter sunday.  When we were outside i noticed smoke was billowing out of the entranced doors.  When i realized no one was running or screaming i walked in and realized there was a smoke machine.  I was looking at the professional lights set up in the arena and realized why or maybe why there was a smoke machine.  You could see the spotlights ray of light because of the particles from the smoke.  Usually when you shine a flashlight on something or someone, you can see the end of the light, but you cannot see the beam of light unless it is a really bright light.  Also when you look at the light projecting a movie at a theater, you can see the beam of light because of the dust particles in the theater.  As the light hit the smoke particles the light reflected off of them allowing our eyes to see the path of the lights in the arena.  I guess they created this effect so they could put on some kind of a light show to make the service more of a concert so it would be exciting and interesting instead of a boring chapel service. I don't know if this is physics, but i thought it was cool.

in new york again

Coincidentally, i went to new york again. Just a coincidence because i just used a new york picture for my last journal.  Anyways at battery park at the very bottom edge of manhattan, my cousin showed me this square thing that she had just discovered recently.  When you step on a square it plays a note like a bell or a xylophone.  As i jumped from square to square long the outside edge, the tone of the notes got higher and higher meaning the frequencies were increasing.  I must have been the driving frequency, i think, every time i stepped on a square creating a forced vibration.  the note never lasted very long because i was stepping on the metal square which was the sound board.  Every time i pounced on a square i created a vibration but was absorbed by my leg so the sound quickly died out.  What also could have made the note audible was a resonator underneath the metal plates like in a xylophone so the note played is louder. It was fun to jump on!

The City

I have no camera because it broke, but i found this old picture from when i went to New York a while ago.  I am sure there is a lot of physics in this picture like center of mass or acceleration or light like the stuff we'll be doing next quarter,  but i am going to focus on the topics we have just learned about in physics.  I noticed there are many many beauuutiiiiiful lights in time square and i thought about electromagnets.  We learned that if there is an electric current flowing through something, the object is electromagnetic.  I am going to assume these lights are typical light bulbs and they are not led or neon or whatever else or if they are, then they have a current running through them.  Anyway, because there is an electric current through the light bulbs, there is an electromagnetic field surrounding the light bulbs.  Because there is an electro magnetic field surrounding all these lights and because there are so many lights, if a technologically illiterate tourist were to use a compass in time square, it may not work.  The magnetic pull of the electromagnetic field from the light will misdirect the compass needle from the "north" pole, therefore, leaving the tourist distressed and lost in the humungous, and unfamiliar city.

Pottery Wheel

I am not sure if any of this journal will be accurate information, but i am going to attempt to find the current physics topics in this pottery wheel.  So "i'm just saying" to all the information ahead.  This pottery wheel varies speed with the foot pedal at the base of the machine.  The harder you push down on the pedal the faster it goes and the lighter you push on the pedal, the slower it spins.  When  i noticed this varying of speed i thought it could be using a variable resistor.  If it were using a variable resistor, pushing down on the pedal would decrease the distance of the circuit.  By decreasing the resistance by decreasing the distance, more electricity is able to be carried through the circuit to turn the wheel faster.  When the foot releases pressure, the circuit's distance increases and the resistance increases.  When the resistance increases, the current of electricity decreases and slows the wheel down.  This is why i think the variable speed of a ceramics wheel could be made possible by a variable resistor.

I noticed there is plenty of physics in people.  There is physics in the way our bodies were designed and in the way we physically move through life.  When gavin was sitting down by the chapel, i noticed he had his hand down on the ground because his center of mass was not supported by his support base.  HIs support base is his extended leg to his butt.  Because he is leaning back, his center of mass is past the edge of his butt and his upper body would fall to the ground like it did in the picture on the right.  He was sitting a little differently-leaning to the right and right hand supporting his center of mass-but had the same concept.  Someone came over and kicked his hand out from beneath him and his upper body plunged toward the cold cement floor.  So my theory was correct.  His center of mass exceeded his support base therefore leading to his instability.  I also noticed we humans were created with nice big support bases, our feet.  If our legs ended at a point it would be very hard for us to get around.  I think that is also why it is hard for toddlers and babies to walk because compared to the foot-body ratio of an adult, a babies ratio is much smaller.  Their feet have not grown in yet giving them small support bases so every time they lean slightly too much to one side, they fall over because their center of mass easily crosses the invisible support base line.  

Paddling is Physics

I was sitting on the iako taking pictures of the pretty scenery as my lovely teammates paddled me towards diamond head.  After a while the pictures all kind of seemed similar so i began noticing the physics in paddling.  First i saw everyone's strokes.  Everyone had their bottom hands close to the blade.  Then i remembered that whenever my hand is not near the blade it becomes harder to paddle.  I realized the bigger distance between the bottom hand and the top hand or center of rotation creates better leverage.  Increasing the lever arm also increases the torque.  Another thing i noticed was how the `ama is placed at the end of the iako.  The `ama is used to keep the boat balanced.  Placing the ama at the end of the iako increases the moment of inertia making it harder to rotate.  The boat resists rotation because of the large moment of inertia, but once the `ama is in the air after bouncing off a wave, it is hard to stop and the boat flips over.  If these conclusions are correct then paddling IS physics!  Therefore, if paddling is fun and physics is paddling, then physics if FUN!

Torque

I did not have a working camera this weekend, so i compiled a bunch of pictures i found in my iphoto album that i could identify torque in.  I found this picture of when i went to the seattle space needle this summer.  When i looked through the telescope thing, it was at rest and no torque because there was no rotation.  When i turned it toward the camera, i realized there was torque because i was pushing with my right hand perpendicular to the lever which was from my hand to the center of rotation where the telescope was rotating.  

The picture with Kenji shooting away on the anti-aircraft artillery is similar to the telescope picture.  Although her is applying force to the lever, there is no torque because his force is perpendicular to the lever.  When he turns the gun to shoot the imaginary planes, there is torque because his force is now perpendicular as he applies force from either the left or the right using his left and right hands.  The lever is from his hands to the axle on which the gun is rotating.

Behind the counter of this lovely cabin in the mountains of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, my Aunty is cutting zucchini.  There is torque in her cutting motion as she keeps the tip of the knife on the board and lifts only the back up continuously slicing down on the vegetable.  She applies force with her hand down on the handle.  The handle is the lever from the hand to the tip of the knife which is the center of rotation.  The torque increases as she holds the knife farther from the center of rotation making the zucchini easier to cut.