Rainbows

I am officially a Physics dork. While I was driving home yesterday, I was trying to think of what to write about for my Physics journal and trying to decide whether or not I should just give up trying to find Physics and just use my sister's guitar performance as my journal topic. I really didn't want to, because I had just done a journal on music on my brother and his cello. So, while I'm going down the freeway towards Kalanianaole Highway, I spot a beautiful rainbow! Which correlates exactly with what we just finished studying. Quickly, I grab my camera out of my bag, and while still driving attempt to take several pictures from my car (I couldn't really look through my camera). The reason why I wanted to take the picture right then, was because I was afraid that at some point, between where I was and where my home was, I would either pass the rain that was in front of me, or the sun that was behind me would shift to some other position. This is because in order for you to see a rainbow, the rain must be in front of you and the sun must be behind you so that the light from the sun can reflect off the raindrops to your eye. And, sure enough, right around Aina Haina, the rain started - when I originally took the picture on the freeway, it wasn't raining at all. And, by the time I reached my house in Niu Valley, the rain had stopped and I could no longer see the rainbow. Good thing I took the picture earlier!! Another interesting fact about rainbows, is that each raindrop only gives off one color that you can see. Even though each raindrop holds all seven colors, you can only see one color from one raindrop. Another interesting fact that I found out from my parents that night at dinner after telling them my rainbow story, is that starting July 1, it will be illegal to use your camera - or any other electronic device - while driving; even though I really do think my picture came out pretty nice!! =)

microWAVES!

So this past weekend, one of my friends came to visit from Minnesota because she was still on spring break. It was so much! We went and hiked up Koko Head, went to the beach, and they even learned how to surf. But the best part of their vacation was getting them to try all kinds of food!! One of the things I made for them was mochi - which they LOVED and brought home with them. However, I made the mochi from scratch and needed butter - which was frozen. Thus, I had to use the microwave in order to defrost it. Since we are learning about waves now, I decided to do my Physics journal on the microWAVE! I never even noticed that there is the word "wave" in the word "microwave"! How cool is that? I thought it was so amazing how when I look at a microwave, there must be thousands of waves coming out of it. People are so scared about getting cancer from standing in front of a microwave. That's because waves are limitless, they travel on and on forever and ever. This is why they can easily reach our bodies if we stand too close. So that's my interesting story of the weekend!

Sound Waves

So, since we are studying different types of waves in Physics now, I decided to do a journal on sound waves. This past weekend my brother David had a cello recital at Punahou. While I was sitting there listening to the music, I realized that the way the cello makes noise is by the vibration that is created when you move the bow across the strings. Each note that comes out of the cello has a different frequency (number of waves per second). Also, when my brother puts more pressure on the bow, making the music louder, he is actually increasing the wave's amplitude. Similarly, if he decreases pressure on the bow, making the music softer, he is decreasing the wave's amplitude (height). I could just imagine all the waves that were flowing off of the tiny (well, not that tiny) instrument. I was amazed that I could understand at least some part of how music is created - since I am not a very good muscian at all - and it is all due to Physics class! Oh, and by the way, the picture I posted is not of my brother's performance at Punahou. He also recently performed at our church, so thats where the picture is from (in case you were confused since that stage doesn't look like Punahou).

Electric Meter

So, I finally was able to find my electric meter at my house...I was seriously looking all over for it! Then I asked my mom and she was able to point it out for me, and it was SO high up! Both me and my mom - who took the picture - had to stand on a step stool! But that's probably because we're both so short. Wow, now I know that random men walking around my backyard might not be robbers but electric guys! P.S. I also don't know how to rotate my picture so thats why it is side ways...sorry!

Motors

For the past couple of weeks, my 14-year old car has been making noises that have progressively been getting worse. Last night, my dad drove it home to see what was wrong, and actually had to pull on the side of the road to make sure nothing was falling out of my car. This is because, he suspects the motor (engine) holder - which holds the motor in place - is broken. As a result, he thinks my engine is not being held in place any longer, which could be very dangerous if it breaks other things while rolling around under my car. I thought this related to physics because we just learned how a simple motor can be made, with just a wire, a magnet and a battery. Since the magnet's magnetic force exerts a torque on the coil made with wire, the coil will spin due to the the torque and the current that comes from the battery. This is basically what should be happening underneath my car, inside the engine holder. However, if the engine holder is broken (as mine is) the motor that is spinning due to the torque and energy source is free to roll wherever it would like to. Therefore, my dad is forbidding me to drive my car until it gets fixed.

Variable Resistors in Beauty Products

This past weekend we had a Valentine's Day Banquet at my church to fundraise for a trip we're going on this coming summer. We had to get all dressed up and act like "professional" waitors and waitresses. Thus, before the banquet I turned on my hair straightener to straighten my hair before the dinner so it wouldn't be all frizzy. My mistake came in turning it on the highest heat possible and leaving it on my unmade bed. It burned right through my mattress!! In all this, I realized that my hair straightener has physics to it because it is a variable resistor! When I turned up the heat, I was actually shortening the length of the conductor which is probably located inside of the straightener. By shortening the length of the conductor, I am decreasing the resistance, allowing the electrons to flow easier and have a greater current. A greater current means that there is more power and as a result, more heat coming from the straightener which is why it burned through my mattress!!

Microphones

This past Sunday, my youth group led the worship service at my church. It was a lot of fun because it really brought us together as we prepared for it. Some of us sang, some of us were ushers, some of us signed, and one of the guys in my youth group did the sermon. Anyway, I sang as part of the praise team and (much to my dismay and reluctance) used a microphone. Since I greatly dislike using a microphone, I would always hold it down by my belly button rather than up by my mouth. However, because I did this, the sound people always had to put my microphone on SUPER high and loud in order to pick up my voice. As a result, every time I even came a little bit close to the monitor a loud shrill shreak would sound. I thought that there must be some kind of physics to a microphone in order for it to 1) be able to make that shrill sound and 2) amplify your voice, so I looked up exactly how a microphone works. A microphone gives out an electric signal every time it senses sound pressure variations from your voice. It is made out of a small coil attached to a diaphragm and this coil is free to move inside of a cylindrical magnet. Whenever sound comes into the microphone, the diaphragm vibrates which causes the coil to move up and down between the poles of the magnet and your voice is amplified! I think that the reason why the shrill sound was made every time I came close to the monitor is due to the electric signal that the microphone is constantly giving out. The microphone amplifies every sound that it picks up, including the sound of the monitor. However, the monitor gives off the sound that the mic amplifies. Therefore, there is like a conservation of sound and when you put the mic close to the monitor, they amplify the sounds the other gives off which leads to the shrill shreak. This picture is of one of my best friends Sarah who sang a duet with my youth pastor. She held the microphone correctly (as shown) and sounded awesome!

Happy Birthday Great Grandma!

Last night I went to my great grandma's 99th birthday party. It was so much fun because family that I had never met came from the mainland to celebrate with us. We also played a couple of super fun creative games that my uncle prepared for us. One of them reminded me of what we are learning in Physics right now. In this game, we had to pick one person from our table to be dressed up like a reindeer in the most unusual way. At the end, my great grandma would judge who was the best reindeer, and the person she picked, would win. In order to make the antlers, you had to stuff panty hose with balloons. The person who dressed up from our table was my sister. However, we did not use up our balloons the first time because we didn't think they would all fit. But after comparing her to the other "reindeer" we decided to put them all in...except we had the hardest time taking the nylon off her head because the nylon and balloons kept sticking to her hair! This is a result of the attraction that was occuring due to an imbalance of charge caused by friction. After rubbing all the different balloons and the nylon together, the balloons and nylon both had a charge because they either gained or lost electrons. When there is an imbalance, the object attempts to gain neutrality again by attatching to something neutral so share/gain back electrons. Since her hair was still neutral, when we tried to pull off the nylon, it was attracted to her extremely long hair which made it hard to take off.

PADDLING :)

This past weekend we had our second paddling race of the season. The race was about three miles long and we paddled through some crazy wind! But, we were successful and we came in third after Punahou and Kamehameha. After the race, I was looking at my paddle when I realized it had physics in it!! When you take a stroke through the water, the lever arm is the length of your arm and the rotation point is your shoulder. As you twist to take a stroke, you are creating a torque when you push down with your top hand. Therefore, if you have a longer arm, then your lever arm is longer and you can pull more water. This is probably why my coach always tells us to twist our bodies out as far as possible and to reach out as far as we can in order to maximize the lever arm. This comes in handy especially upwind when you want your boat to move forward against the wind.