Our Paper Tower

Sadly, our paper tower could not stand despite being the tallest tower in the class. The problem occurred when we realized that the center of mass isn't near the bottom, but more spread out across the tower. We took the form most towers would take; a triangle. Big on the bottom and getting smaller and smaller as it goes to the top of the tower. Well, there's nothing more to it, but we learned from our mistake and will hopefully be successful in the next project. :]

Hiiiighest Structures in the World?

After googling "The Highest Structure in the World", I found a tremendous tower called Burj Khalifa located in Dubai. As of now, it is the tallest man made structure at 828m in height. This building of this amazing structure began in 2004 and finished in 2009. Overall, the structure takes the shape of a triangle; large on the bottom and getting smaller and smaller towards the top. The reason for this is probably to effectively balance the giant tower. This design also allows the main center balance to be near the middle and bottom portion of the tower.

~*The Big 5 (Le Grand Cinq)

What are they? Equations ofcourse. The photos I took are way too blurry, and my scanner isn't working, so.. there won't be any pictures, but I did it. Honesty is guaranteed here in this blog, whether it's good or bad.

Anyways, with that aside, there are the big 5 equations, but more importantly, there are 4 different types of projectile motion learned so far. What are they? Good question, the path of the projectile motion are created as follows:

1. When an object is thrown from an elevated level to a lower elevated level. (When Juliet throws something to Romeo from Juliet's balcony)

2. When an object is thrown to an area of the same elevation. (Hitting a baseball)

3. When an object is thrown from an lower elevated level to a higher elevated level. (When Romeo throws something to Juliet's balcony)

4. When an object is thrown from an elevated level to a lower elevated level in an upward curved motion. (When Juliet throws something to Romeo from Juliet's balcony)

AeRoDyNaMiCs

How can I make something fly in the air? Figured I should do some reading and here's what I found out. "Aerodynamics" is what I need to study and thus learning how to make my object fly effectively.

Here's what I found out,

There are actually two main things in aerodynamics, air(aerios) and force(dynamis). So simply put, aerodynamics is the relationship between air and force. You'll see in a moment how it all works out.
Everything around us has weight, due to gravity. So, how can something that's heavier than air fly? This is when we need a "lift" which is the opposite of weight. In able to make something fly, that object needs more "lift" than "weight".
Let's take the airplane for example, it can fly due it's wings. How? The wings are curved on the top and flat on the bottom allowing less air pressure on the top and more on the bottom. This is what allows the airplanes to move UP instead of down.

But that's not it, there's also something called "drag". "Drag" slows down objects, and the more air that hits the surface of the object, the more drag it has. This is why most airplanes have a curved front which allows it to have less drag.
Now comes "drag"'s nemesis, "thrust", which is the push that moves an object forward. An airplane MUST have MORE thrust than drag, or else all it would be doing is either falling, or moving backwards. Most of the "thrust" of an airplane comes from it's propeller and jet engines.

Well, there's what I learned, hope it helped.

Motion detector

Ever tried to copy what someone else is doing? You may think you're doing a great job, but the difference could be Huge! Well, using a motion detector, you allow yourself to test out how well you can match a chart using your own movements. When I first heard of this lab, I thought to myself how easy it was going to be. Boy was I wrong!

This lab had two main parts to it. Distance and velocity. Then, there's this motion detector which we had to use. This motion detector would record your speed/distance onto a chart. We had to match distance and velocity to graphs in relation to time. Distance was relatively easier than velocity, or should I say A Lot easier. The hardest part was probably changing your velocity suddenly in a split second. Despite all these difficulties, our group came through just fine with teamwork.

Enough words. Here's one of the graphs we've accomplished.

What are Electromagnets? o_O (RHR)

Electricity and magnetism actually are related to each other!

As soon as electricity starts running through a wire (conductor), a magnetic field is created around that wire. If a compass was put beside the wire with current going through it, the compass would be affected which proves that there is a magnetic field around the wire.

What's even more amazing is that the world's magnet isn't actually pointing directly north or south, but rather some degrees off. There is no current explanation of why.. perhaps 2012? :(

But wait, there's something else. Scientists don't have time to draw all these fancy diagrams therefore they use symbols like the 'o' and 'x'. The 'o' symbol represents a wire going towards you, as the 'x' represents it going away. Just think of an arrow as an example and you'll get it. :]

Now, to help us out with the circuits and what not, we use the right hand rules! There are 3 in total, but I'm only going to briefly talk about 2 of them.

Concept Map and 10 Must Knows!

Concept map, what is it really? To me, it looks like a bunch of points all linked together some how. I find that part of it really confusing, however, it does have a major advantage; the concept map shows the connections and relations between different points/concepts. When we're studying, we always want to relate things and group them together to make it all easier to remember, and comprehend, but is this technique really for you? Perhaps not, unless you're a visual learner like me. I've never actually tried this technique but I am about to, and hopefully it'll end off as a new friend.

10 Must knows!

1. Series Circuit: A single-path circuit with flow of electrons.

2. Parallel Circuit: A multi-path(divisions) circuit with flow of electrons. :]

3. Electric Current: The flow of electricity through a conductor(rate of flow). Measured using an ammeter.

4. Electric Charge: Symbolized by (Q)and is the charge of electrons measured in Coulombs (C). The charge of an electron is approximatively 1.602 x 10^(-19)C. However since it is usually measured in Coulombs, each coulomb = 6.25 x 10^(18) electrons.

5. Conventional Current: Assumes that the current flows out of the positive terminal and flows towards the negative terminal. Contradicts electron flow.

6. Electron Flow: Assumes that the current flows out of the negative terminal and flows towards the positive terminal. Contradicts conventional flow.

7. Power, Energy, Voltage: The three main units that make up most equations and is required to make most calculations.

8. Ohm's Law: R=V/I, V=IR, I =V/R

9. Kirchhoff's Law:

Series:

Current:
It=I1=I2 =I3...=In

Potential Difference:
Vt=V1+V2+V3...+Vn

Resistance:
Rt=R1+R2+R3...+Rn

Parallel Circuit:

Current:
It=I1+I2 +I3...+In

Potential Difference:
Vt=V1=V2=V3...=Vn

Resistance:
1/Rt=1/R1 + 1/R2 + 1/R 3...+1/Rn

10.

Mr. Chung: Awesome teacher .. if he gives good HIGH marks to his students.

Ohm and Kirchhoff's laws?

Ohm and Kirchhoff are both amazing people to have been able to find such discoveries long ago which helps us even today. What are these laws?

Let's start with the Ohm's law which states that a section of current which is going through a conductor is proportional to the voltage/potential difference as well as inversely proportional to the resistance which is between them.

Now, Kirchhoff has come up with not one but two laws. The first law being the current law which states that the total amount of current/charge traveling through a node is proportional to the charge leaving the node.

The second law of Kirchhoff is the voltage law which states that in a circuit, the total voltage around the loop is equivalent to the total of all voltage drops within that same loop.

Amazing Coasters

As I was checking out some of the top WonderCoasters I found a few that really caught my eye. Check it out.

Wonders of the battery

Energy is a really amazing thing, and there was always this empty part of my mind waiting to be filled in on how it all works.  How does a battery really transfer energy to a device?  Well, after watching an educational film in class, I came to a better understanding of how the transfer of energy works.

Simply enough, this is all done with the transfer of electrons.  These negative electrons are like trucks that are given load at a source (ex. batteries) and they must carry the source to it's destination (light bulb).  The electrons would start off from the negative terminal of a battery and move throughout the circuit by conductors, back to the positive terminal and so on. Now, this is called "electron flow".  Technically, "conventional current" is also valid thought it travels the opposite direction (positive to negative) as electronic flow as long as it is consistent.

Energy Ball

Recently, we've just finished an experiment with energy balls.  Despite the name, it was quite complex and hard to comprehend how it actually works.  The experiment went fairly well due to everyone's undivided attention and co-operation.  We were able to use parallel structure to create switches which we could use to control the power of the energy balls which was rather interesting.  Physics started off with a pretty cool experiment and we hope it can continue into even more awesome events :]