Ronnie Coleman

Ronnie Coleman is an 8-time Mr. Olympia, so he knows a thing or two about work and power. I was fortunate enough to meet Mr. Coleman and got to record this short interview.

Comets, Asteroids, Meteors, Oh My!

We use these terms somewhat interchangeably but, like most words, they each have a particular and somewhat different meaning. This may be worth learning about since we often have encounters with these objects as they travel through and around our solar system.Some of these encounters would not be so fun... just ask the dinosaurs.

On the other hand, some are very welcome and have an important place in culture. For instance, the famous Halley comet travels past us every 76 years and its passing has been a celebrated event by the people of Earth since the year 240 BCE.

Asteroids may not be as pretty, but are certainly worth looking out for. In fact, asteroid DA14 is due to pass by Earth on February 15th 2013 so close to the planet that it will actually be closer than our orbiting satellites.

Meteors may be the most important term for us to be familiar with. Here is an example of the effect a meteor can have on us. This is the Barringer Meteor Crater in Arizona which is about a mile in diameter and was formed by a meteor only about 150 ft wide.

See what you can find out about asteroids, comets, meteors, etc. Post a comment that describes their differences, warns of a future NEO (Near Earth Object) that we should worry about, details interesting information, or asks a question for which you can't find an answer.

Tyson, The Universe, and Black Holes

Neil deGrasse Tyson is the director of the Hayden Planetarium and an astrophysicist. He is also funny, eloquent, and entertaining. Here is a list of 10 things we should all know about the universe that Tyson likes to talk about. Below are two videos. In the first Tyson answers a question from a 2nd grader: "What would happen if two black holes collided?" Below that is another video describing falling into a black hole. Tyson is brilliant and funny, watch the clips on youtube so that you can check out some of his related talks. Lastly, there is another Symphony of Science video called "Onward to the Edge" which is my favorite. If you can't take Tyson talking then listen to him sing with autotune!

We Are Stardust

We are all star dust, literally. You are a star! So am I, so is everyone else and everything you see. We all came from stars. They were the furnaces that produced the ingredients of life and everything else on Earth. Here is how:

Now to put a perspective on how big these furnaces are:
 
And lastly, for some light entertainment!

What have you found out about stars that is interesting? Where do they come from? How long to they last? What happens when they die? What is going to happen to our sun?

By the way, if you want to see some incredible pictures of our universe/space/etc check out NASA's Astronomy Picture of the Day.

Eratosthenes

So about 2,300 years ago Eratosthenes figured out the circumference of the Earth. He thought it was 25,000 miles but was WAAAAAAAAY off. The actual circumference of the Earth is really 24,901.55 miles. Incredibly, even then he was only off by about 0.3%.

Friction and Inclined Planes Help

Gentlemen, below are two videos that should help on the first two problems of the worksheet I gave you. Be sure to watch the entire first video because there is information you NEED to do the first problem contained towards the end. I recommend watching the video all the way through then working on it with your partner and referring back to the video when you need to.

I may have internet access so I may be able to respond to comments on this post in real time so if you have questions post them and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Problem One Help

Problem Two Help

Friction is Crazy

Here are two neat videos regarding friction!

In the first, the Mythbusters try to pull apart two phone books that are being held together by nothing but friction caused by the pages laying on top of each other. How hard will this be to fix? Will you need two people? Ten people? .... Tanks!?


Next we have a video demonstrating the by-product of friction: heat. How much heat could you generate from friction? Enough to weld steel together?

Vomit Rocket?

In Thursday's class we looked at an example problem regarding a bottle rocket. Lucky for us, the guys at Minute Physics have already put a video together explaining how rockets work. They also help you to figure out whether or not you could turn yourself into a vomit fueled rocket propelled person.... Probably lot as beautiful as watching a shuttle launch, but theoretically it would work!
A vomit rocket sounds pretty messy, but a 2L bottle fueled with backing soda and vinegar could probably get off the ground. For an extra credit opportunity see if you can design and execute a baking soda rocket. Document your experiment with video or pictures so we can share it on the blog and feel free to work with others. Just be sure to wear safety goggles and work under safe conditions!

"Net" Force

Nemo is a pretty smart fish. In fact, he understands Newtonian Mechanics and the idea of a Net Force. Watch the video clip below that demonstrates this concept.


Every fish in the net can push with a certain amount of force, lets call it 1 N. If there are 100 fish in the net, with 25 swimming up, 25 down, 25 left, and 25 right they all work against each other like in tug o' war. In this situation the net force is 0 N. However, if all 100 of the fish swim down then they are working together. In this situation the net has a force of 100 N down. When we use the term "net force" we mean the total effect of all the forces acting on an object. There may be ten forces acting on an object, but there is one overall effect, described by the net force.

Use the comment section to give other good examples of net force. Feel free to include links to videos/pictures but you must give some kind of description of the forces acting in your example. There may be awards for the best examples/explanations.

Some good advice for you before you start writing your report.

ATB Calculations Help

In this video I walk through some of the calculations that you need to do for Angry Tennis Balls.

EXTRA OPPORTUNITY

In class on Wednesday, September 26th we determined that motion is relative and that motion in one dimension does not affect motion in another dimension. You may receive extra credit for creating some kind of video/movie that explains/demonstrates this concept. I am willing to leave this open for all kinds of interpretations but you must talk to me if you are interested in working on this either alone or with other people. Due by Friday October, 12th.

Fired and Dropped Bullet

If horizontal motion and vertical motion behave independent of each other a fired bullet and a dropped bullet should land at the same time if they are released from the same height simultaneously. Unfortunately, we don't have enough room in the lab to do this experiment. If only someone else could do it for us....

Feather drop on the Moon

If we had a bigger Science department budget (say $100 billion or so) we could have done this ourselves. I suppose we will just have to settle for the video.

Bugatti vs. Fighter Jet

Here is a 2 mile race between a Bugatti Veyron and a fighter jet. The car needs to travel a mile, turn around, and drive back to the start. The plane needs to take off, travel a mile straight up, then come back down to the start. Post your guess for the winner before you watch the video! The actual race starts around 6 minutes into the video.


Obviously, if the Quinngatti was in this race it would be a no-brainer, but I decided to stay out of it to make it competitive.

Usain Bolt's World Record Run

Usain Bolt holds the world record for the fastest time to complete a 100 m dash. He set this record in August of 2009. It appears that his fastest instantaneous velocity is 12.35 m/s (at 7.08 s). If applied to the formula v = ∆x / t this gives a time of 8.097 s, yet his record time was 9.58 s. For a bonus point added onto your homework this week post a comment explaining why these times do not match up.

Please note that this point will only be added to your assignment to make up for a missed point. You cannot earn a 16/15 on your homework. This comment thread may be used as a discussion, but only appropriate and constructive comments will earn points.

First Blog Post

This is the first post to our Physics Blog. You should be able to comment on this post by clicking on the comment message below. You have to login in order to comment, we will go over how to do this in class.