Best Cannons

What is a cannon? Only the epitome of applied physics, of course! A cannon is a large, heavy gun, used with gunpowder to launch projectiles through the air. Although presently the cannon is no longer used in warfare, cannons still prove to be a cornerstone of classical physics.

The Tsar cannon, one of the largest cannons in the world, capable of shooting 1-ton cannonballs.

Not long ago, Mr. Chung showed our class a cannon made from last semester. This cannon was made from pop cans and tape, last I remember. Hopefully we'd be making a device of similar ablilty in the near future.

Newton's lab results

On Friday, I overcame my fears of car crashes, ticker tape, and pulleys, and tested out Newton's laws.
We had a cart, ticker tape, 100g weights, and were asked to test out various scenerios with regards to force and mass, hence acceleration.

This is a googled example of what we did in class (same concept really).

I have to double check the results, i'm not entirely sold on mine...

Building our tallest structure

Using Newton's law, we were asked to build our own tallest structure.
Our own tallest structure conveyed great height...yet it wasn't enough to overcome the concept of standing.
As you can see in the picture below, although the tower had enough height, it required Patrick to support it as we took our group picture.

The reason why we believe our tower didn't stand is simple; our base was too light. If we'd had a stronger base, possibly one that was filled instead of hollow, I believe that our structure would've had a good chance of standing against gravity.
Also, extra support along the sides acting as wire to bind the tower to the ground would've been useful, although illegal, under Mr. Chung's rules.

5 types of projectile motion

Is it just me or does blogger make simple tasks complicated?

I'll rotate and space these beautifully after I do my blogger tutorial. Regardless, here's proof I did my homework :)

Case 1



Case 3





Case 5









Case 4





Case 2



The Tallest Building in the world

As of 2011, many booming skyscrapers stand on God's green Earth, but I only need to discuss one, feel free to google the rest. :)


The Burj Khalifa (Khalifa tower) is a free standing superskyscraper in Dubai, finished as of 2008. The tower, boasting over 828m tall, consists of 160 stories used for permanent and temporary residence, observation decks, conference rooms, suites, and lobbies.

The Burj Khalifa

To build the tallest tower possible with paper and tape, the plan would to probably be to roll the paper into cylinder shapes as support, and then to make the cylinders narrower as we go up the structure. That's our plan, wish us luck.

Aerodynamics

The other day, I was having a conversation with my good friend Alex, when the topic of kinematic in-class projects came up. Apparently, last semester, the physics classes were assigned the task of building an egg dropper, whereas this semester, we're assigned the far more challenging task of an egg glider. Why Mr. Chung decides to add a whole new dimension to our project, I don't know.

When I first saw the word "aerodynamics", I singled out the "Aero" and thought chocolate bar. Thankfully, I was diligent enough to go home and google the actual definition. Aerodynamics is the study of forces and the resulting motion of objects through the air. Pretty straightforward, but how's this piece of knowledge going to help me build an egg glider?

....Well it won't, but I did fulfill one of the requirements for my blog. The second part includes brainstorming for the ominous task of actual handiwork. The question is: What's the best way to build a working egg glider with 25 straws, a "desk's width of tape", and one sheet of metro newspaper? Panic and grief, here I come.

The most effective way that my sleep-deprived brain can conjure up is the thought of a glider. A glider, although time consuming and tedious to make, proves also to be the most common method suggested amongst physics bloggers on bing. The glider consists of a body, two wings, and a tail. Images are shown below.




This is a pretty cool angle of a glider. Now how to make this out of straws & tape...?



Perhaps the egg can be our passenger? Who knows.

Kinematics Homework

Neat homework check idea.

Kinematics Graph Translations

These are the graphs walked, translated into distance-time, velocity-time, and acceleration-time graphs.

Graphs A, B

Graphs C, D

Graph E

Walking Zee Kinematics Graphs

Self-explanatory, yes?

Graph B: Distance Vs. Time



Graph D: Velocity Vs. Time

Graph E: Velocity Vs. Time



Graph F: Distance Vs. Time

Kinematics Graph

The other day, I was wondering what complex and challenging labs Mr. Chung could come up for us regarding the unit of kinematics. Luckily, he had fallen below my expectations, because each member in my group had the balance and patience of Geishas.

In our experiment, we were given a motion senser, a binder, a laptop, and were asked to walk several graphs on said laptop. The graphs were relating distance versus time, and velocity (speed) versus time. 5 graphs were walked, and we soon learned many new fascinating facts regarding motion. The most intriguing fact had to be that negative velocity is achievable, because negative velocity is merely going in the opposite direction of the way that was originally intended.

Now, with all seriousness, the task at hand, although interesting, still proved to be a pain in the behind. Following the wise observation by Mr. Chung in the beginning of the year, which had roughly been something along the lines of, "All A.Y. Kids want perfect, if something's wrong then it has to be redone...etc.". In the case of this lab, our A.Y. perfectionist hunger was unable to be fulfilled, although the results will show the reader that the graphs were a hair's length away from perfect, tears were shed, blood was spilled, hair was savagely ripped out of our heads..........not.

Overall, this lab was indefinitely one of the best labs we'd done so far in physics. Mr. Chung can be resourceful (where'd we get funding for motion sensers?!) and time-consuming (15 minutes after school?!), but he's proven without a doubt to be a fun and creative teacher. Looking forward to more in the future.

RHR#1&2

Right hand rules are the basics of the grade 11 magnetism unit.

Right hand rule number 1 states that around a conductor, when one wraps his right hand around, the thumb points to the direction of conventional current flow and the fingers point in the direction of the magnetic field.


Right-hand rule numero uno

Right hand rule number 2 states that around a solenoid, or electromagnet, when one wraps his right hand around, the thumb points in the direction of north, (magnetic field) and the fingers point in the direction of conventional current flow.


Right-hand rule numero dos

meeeeow

This is our concept map from class.

10 things you NEED to know about electricity? Hmm..

In order of what comes to mind:

10. Ohm's law (V= IR)
9. Kirchhoff's laws (current, voltage)
8. How to find current in a simple & complex circuit
7. How to find voltage in a simple & complex circuit
6. The definition of current (amount of charge passed through a point at a given time)
5. The definition of voltage (the potential difference across point A and point B)
4. Power formula and how to derive other formulas of power (P=IV), (P=V squared /R) (P=I squared times R)...etc.
3. Difference between conventional current (positive -> negative flow) and electron flow (negative to positive flow)
2. How to find the slope of a graph (rise/run)
1. Ammeter and voltmeters

Ohm's law and Kirchhoff's law

In class today, we learned about Ohm's law, which states that current and voltage are directly proportional to each other. In other words, when current goes up, voltage goes up, and when current goes down, voltage goes down. Also, Ohm's law states that current and resistance are inversely proportional with each other, in other words, when current goes up, resistance goes down, and when current goes down, resistance goes up.

Gustav Robert Kirchhoff was a scientist in the 17th century whose research lead to his proposal of his laws of current and voltage.

Firstly, Kirchhoff's current law states that the total amount of current into a junction point (a point where two or more things join together) equals the total current that flows out of that same junction.

Secondly, Kirchhoff's voltage law states that the total amount of voltage that decreases in any complete circuit loop always equals the total amount of voltage gained in that circuit loop.

Notice how in the first law, the currents from all four sources going into the junction point (a-d) is equal to the current flowing out to the two sinks (e-f)

In the second law, the voltage source, a, is where the voltage comes from, where the current "recharges" its voltage. This increase is equal to all decreases in voltage throughout the complete circuit (b-f).

Ohm's Law can be demonstrated with the triangle shown below.

Batteries to Circuits

A battery has both a positive side and a negative side. When one observes the transition of energy starting from the negative side to the positive side, this is called electron flow. When one observes the transition of energy from the positive side to the negative side, this is called electrical current.

In a nutshell, the chemical energy from the battery was converted into electrical energy, which was used to light up the lightbulb.


I'm terrible at paint. :(

Roller Coaster?!

Out of the dozens of roller coasters I've had the privilage to ride in my 16-year old lifespan, none has been more enjoyable than my rides on the Behemoth. The largest rollercoaster, (in terms of height) in the largest theme park in Canada, The Behemoth takes riders on for a full 3 minutes and 10 seconds of excitement and adrenaline. With a maximum height of 70 metres, and a length of over 1,600 metres, the Behemoth boasts the most noticable track in the park. What's more, the speed of The Behemoth can go up to 124 km/h, making it one of the fastest rides as well in Canada's Wonderland.


Some of the grueling twists & turns on the Behemoth



Riders on the Behemoth

The Behemoth track from afar

Energy Ball Exercise :)

On Friday, February 5, 2011, our physics class had the pleasure of taking part in the energy ball exercise. Mr. Chung had provided us with customized futuristic ping-pong balls that glowed and made sound through the use of electricity, and split us up into small groups of four to further experiment.

As our groups had soon realized, the ping-pong balls had small circuit boards inside, acting as the series circuit we'd learned. We'd discovered the trick of how to light the ball up: by forming a complete series circuit with our fingers. What's more, we were able to experiment different situations, such as conductivity of electricity on different materials, and under what circumstances a full circuit will not be formed. In the end, we'd come up with the conclusion that full circuits cannot be formed by two people who are not touching, or have some link or contact in between them.

To further test our class's concept, Mr.Chung assigned us the challenge of forming a human parallel circuit for two energy balls, with a switch to control one energy ball. This was done by forming an extra path for the electricity to flow through in the middle of the circuit, splitting up the two ping-pong balls.

My hypothesis for the fact that the energy ball works for some people, such as myself, and not for others, such as Mr. Chung, is that I was wearing shoes with rubber soles when I was touching the ball, hence acting as an insulator between me and the Earth/ground. Mr Chung, on the other hand, was wearing no shoes, or shoes made of material with a high conductivity, hence his electrical current through his body actually transferred to the ground, and thus his electricity level i his body was non-existant.

Simple Circuit

Parallel Circuit