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).