Semester 1

This semester had it's ups and down.  There were some stuff I really understood and there were others that were frustrating and hard to comprehend.  Some stuff that we learned in the first semester was Newton's three laws of motion, accuracy and precision, forces in motion, acceleration, friction, and scalar quantities (speed) and vector quantities (velocity).  I liked everything about this physics class.  I like how the labs are very hands on and you can see first hand what's happening instead of just imagining it.  I also really like the way Mr. Blake teaches things.   He really has a positive attitude and when he explains stuff he breaks it down into little steps and makes sure we understand the material before moving on.  Something that is hard for me is the pace of the class.  Instead of doing just one part of a unit in one day (like the school year) we are doing a week worth of work all in just one day so if you get the material but still need some more practice it's kind of hard to keep up.  Other than that I really enjoy this class and I look forward to the rest of the summer. 

Unit 6

Today we expanded more on Newton's second law which states that the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to the netforce of an object while the acceleration of an object is inversely proportional to the objects mass.  I took a picture of our note packet that we did today and more specifically the picture of the man in the elevator.  This example matches perfectly with newtons second law and forces with motion.  In this specific example the elevator is moving up at a constant velocity.  The force diagram with include Normal Force for the man and the diagram for the elevator will have tension because it is hanging and being pulled up on a string.  The force diagram with the man contains normal force because he is standing on a flat solid surface.  There are many objects that have to do with Newton's second law so it is important to understand. 

Post #12

Today we expanded more on Newton's three laws of motion.  I decided to take a picture of me standing on the ground.  The third law states that for every force there is an equal and opposite force equal in magnitude and opposite in direction.  I think it's cool because not only am I exerting force on the ground it is exerting the same amount of force back up to me.  Something I also thought was super cool was the scale experiment.  Weight always stays the same but the thing that changes in your normal force which is perpendicular to the surface.  I found it super cool how weight was only accurate when the scale was on a flat hard surface. We don't usually think about it but physics occur all around in our daily lives.

Unit 5- Forces of Equilibrium

Today in class we learned about Forces of Equilibrium.  I took a picture of an expo pen on a paper which is one of the experiments we did today.  I always thought that the magic trick with the heavy fragile glass plates on top the table cloth was super cool but now that I understand the physics of it I feel dumb.  I learned that force is a vector quantity which means that it contains both magnitude and direction.  Today we did many problems using trigonometry to solve for direction (x and y axis) and magnitude (muchness, degree).  It is a lot of steps but makes sense.  We learned about the first Newtons Law which is also known as the Law of Inertia that states that an object in motion will tend to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside unbalanced force.  Which is definitely true is many different senarios.  For example if you throw a baseball in one direction and no unbalanced forces act upon it nothing will happen (wind, gravity, hitter).   I am looking forward to expanding  tomorrow and learning 2 more Newton Law's. 

Unit 4- Projectile Motion

In class we expanded more on Unit 4 Projectile Motion.  In this picture Cameron is launching an Air Rocket in the sky while Bunn, Kelly, and I are waiting to observe and record the data.  The rocket went straight up in the air and then came straight back down.  It went fast, slow, stop, slow, fast and hit the ground.  During this whole process the Acceleration stays the same (9.8 or 10 m/s).  In class we also did a Jose and Pierre experiment and I thought that was super cool how when the object was moving the canon shot the ball out and happened to land inside.  After these two activities I realized how important it is to know physics.  Without even doing something and if your physics is good you can accurately and precisely predict what will happened during an experiment without even conducting one. 

Projectile Motion

Today in class we learned about projectile motion.  This picture is of the lab we did today where we launched a ball out of muzzle and calculated how far it went horizontally and vertically.  I thought it was a super fun activity because it was hands on and it kept me very interested for a long time.  We also did an activity where me and Cameron dove/jumped into the swimming pool and from there we were able to calculate and see on logger pro the slope and other things that happened during the action.  Many things in today's world illustrate projectile motion like bombs being dropped during a war and I think it is important to understand because if something were to go wrong it could be a mess!

End of Quarter 1

In quarter one we learned about a variety of things from acceleration and precision to independent and dependent variables, to qualitative and quantitative data, metric conversions, kinematics (study of motion), speed (scalar quantities) , vector quantities (velocity), to uniform acceleration, the three important graphing rules and many more that almost killed my brain.  My picture above illustrates one of the many lessons we have learned in this past quarter.  The picture on the left illustrates precision which is consistency of measurements (how many times you can hit the same spot).  The picture on the bottom right is an example of accuracy which is the closeness of a measurement to the actual value.  The picture on the top right is an example of low precision and low accuracy because the darts are not even close to the bulls eye and are not even in the same general area.  I enjoyed quarter one and am looking forward to the next three quarters.

Extra Credit

This is a picture of me and my mom reviewing physics and what we have been learning.  I taught her about Kinematics and Uniform Acceleration which means that the Acceleration is the same Acceleration, the formula for acceleration which is the change in velocity over the time.  Then I taught her how to solve some conceptual physics problems cause she didn't understand what the formulas meant so I had to show her.  Last but not least I did the ball trick for her and like everyone else she thought that the larger ball/ heavier one drops faster and it was a pain in the butt to explain to her why it's not but in the end she got it.  Explaining it to my mom was a pain in the butt but was also very helpful because it helped me to understand the information better. 

Post #6

Today in class we learned more about acceleration and learned about Galileo and how he experimented with acceleration due to gravity.  In my picture there is a water bottle and a little stress basketball.  If both objects are dropped at the same height most people will think and say that the water bottle will drop faster and hit the ground first.  Yes, the water bottle may hit the ground first but both the water bottle and the ball are traveling at the same speed (acceleration).  On earth gravity is 9.8 meters per second and every object is traveling are being pulled down the same although it may seem otherwise. 

Here's a link to what people think about falling objects and is relevant to what we learned in class:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mCC-68LyZM

UNIT 3

Today is class we learned about Kinematics (Uniform Acceleration) which is the study of the same acceleration.   This is a picture of my sister wave boarding down a slope.  In class we did a very similar activity where two students started at the top of the hill and one skateboarded down and the other sat on a roller thingy.  My sister in this picture did the exact same thing.  She started at the top (without pushing off) and rolled down the hill.  My observations on the time were something very similar to what we all witnessed in class.  Towards the end of the hill she began to somewhat slow down because the ground was leveling out and became flat again.  When we timed it in class it was interesting to see the different relationships between the distance vs time graph (exponential) and the velocity vs time graph (linear).


Here's a link about a snowboarder coming down a steep hill getting faster and faster as he continues down the hill.  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFOJyBxkPlI

3rd Physics Post- Velocity v.s. Time

Sorry the picture is like posted side ways cause I have no idea how to take it the other way but today in class we learned about velocity and time.  Yesterday we learned about position vs time.  Position vs time graph tells you where you are at a certain time.  Velocity vs time graph tells you the acceleration which is the change in velocity per unit of time (meters per second).  The graphing rules for this method is the area under the "curve" of a velocity vs time graph is distance traveled.  A real life example of this position v.s. time graph and the velocity vs time graph is motor transportation.  Take a car or a motorcycle for example.  Both these vehicles and majority of the other motor vehicles have a speedometer that tells us how fast the vehicle is going (instantaneous speed).  Along with the speedometer there is an odometer which is the thing that tells us how far we are traveling.  Since a Position vs Time graph test distance in meters per second, we could graph that in a graph and determine the distance per second.  The most important thing that we need to look for in a graph is the slope.  The graphing rule states that in a position vs time graph the slope is the velocity which can then help us to find the velocity which can be used to create a velocity vs time graph to figure on the acceleration of the vehicle.  This is when the graphing rule about the "curve" comes into play. 

Unit 2

Today in class we learned about Kinematics which is the study of motion and how all motion is relative.  In this picture the motorcycle is stationary and is relative to the beach and the ground.  Even though it is stationary it is actually moving very fast if we look at it relative to space.  We also learned about scalar quantity and vector quantity.  Scalar quality is the measurement that has magnitude or in simpler language muchness.  Scalar quality is the distance or speed.  Vector quantity is a value that has both direction and magnitude (muchness).  Vector quantity is displacement and velocity and is how far you are from your starting point.  The difference between Scalar and Vector is that one is just about muchness (speed) (Scalar) and one is about both muchness (speed) and direction (Vector). 

Unit 1

In Unit One we did a lab on Pendulums and observed what kind of factors could vary our data.  First of all what is a pendulum.  A pendulum is a mass swinging from a string or some sort of pivot point that swings with no interference.  I took a picture of Newton's Cradle which is normally used to show and represent momentum and energy.  Instead of dropping one ball and allowing it to act on the others I dropped all the balls at the same time.  All the balls are swinging in the same direction, at the same time, and is completing one period each time (starting and ending in the same place).  There are many factors during this experiment that can vary the results.  For example, how heavy the balls weighs, how high up you drop the ball (how high you pull back),  and the length of the string it is hanging from.  In order to get the most accurate results you need to be consistent when conducting the experiment. 

Here is an example of a type of Pendulum:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVkdfJ9PkRQ

Introduction

• My name is Jasmine Mau and I am going to be a senior at Punahou School.  I love to eat, swim/play sports, and watch scary/sad movies.  I speak Hawaiian (not fluent) and English.  

• I have taken Biology, Chemistry, Anatomy Major, Anatomy Minor, and next year I will be taking AP Environmental.

• This past year I took Algebra 2 Trig BCP and this upcoming year I will be taking Pre Calc BCP. 

• Science has always been one of my weaker subjects and most science classes don't really interest me so I'm hoping after this summer I will have a different look on science.  I am a visual learner and the only science class I enjoyed was Chemistry because I could see first hand what happens during a chemical change or something by doing a lab.  
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• My picture is of me swimming.  I put a picture of me swimming because it is an important part of my life.  For anyone who plays sports or have an extracurricular activity that they are strongly involved with will know that it is very time consuming and requires you to put in all the energy you have to be the best you can be.  To me swimming is that thing.  I swim competitively for the Kamehameha Swim Club and during ILH season I represent Punahou.  I started swimming when I was 5 years old at the YMCA and started competitive swimming when I was 8.  For me, swimming is a love hate relationship.  Last year I missed qualifying for the 2012 Olympic Trials by 3 one hundredths of a second (.03).  It was super depressing and a frustrating time in my life but from that experience I have learned a lot about myself and persevered and kept going.  Throughout these 9 years of swimming  I have learned so much.  I have learned how to manage my time, be dedicated, persevere, be humble, work ethic, and much more values that are also important to survive in the game of life.  You're always going to get knocked down or faced with a barrier but it's the ones who stand up and continue on who win in the end.