The Lights be Trippin

During our Las Vegas trip for volleyball, we opted to stay in a house instead of a hotel. The house was huge and gawwwgess. We spent almost all of our free time at home. However, there was one problem. Almost everyday, the circuit breaker would trip because we had too many lights on. Sometimes we had to shower and use the bathroom in the dark. The reason that this happens is because houses are parallel wired. Parallel circuits limits the amount of current in each branch from the breaker. If homes were wired through a series, everything that requires electricity would have to flow from the same branch from the breaker. The breaker trips out because there is being more electricity from the breaker than it can handle. When the breaker trips, everything is shut off to prevent fire. Luckily, the breaker can easily be reset and electricity will work again.

Save Da Munz

As you can see, the house is dark. The reason being is because I am trying to save my family some money by saving electricity. I know my parents already pay for my existence, so instead of doing the challenge where I keep the money that is saved on the electricity bill, I'll just let the parentals keep it. They do already pay for my life after all. Some ways that I can reduce electricity usage is by turning the lights off (like in the picture), dropping the water heater temperature 3 degrees, and turning off the AC in my brothers room, they totally over use it. Hopefully my parents will be pleasantly surprised when they see the decrease in electricity usage and decrease in dishing of money to the electricity company.

Drop the Beat Spongebob

This is my battle scarred Spongebob radio. It's okay if you're jealous, I would be too. Anyway, this week in physics we learned about current which is defined as the flow of charge. Charge flows because there is a potential difference. Voltage is a pump for the flow the charge. In things with batteries, such as my Spongebob radio, the batteries act as a pump to move the electrons (flow of the charge). Batteries can be set up as a series, which is the + and - side touching each other, lined up. To find total voltage, you simply add the voltages of each. The formula is Vtota = V1+V2... A parallel series has multiple parts and is when batteries are lined up parallel alternating direction of the + and -. Vtotal = V across each individual path. A parallel series allows for a variety of paths for the flow of the charge. In this case, my cool radio has a parallel series and is my real life connection to physics this week.

I Love You Capacitance

My recently obtained iPhone has made it possible to take pictures for my physics blog on a whim. Anyway, my weekend was fun filled with bowling and food, and only now am I cracking down on my homework  on my laptop. Speaking of laptops, they connect to what we learned in physics this week, capacitance. Capacitance is a measure of a capacitors ability to store charge. The units of capacitance are farads and the equation to find capacitance is magnitude (coulombs) / voltage (volts). The way that capacitance connects to our laptops is that when the space between the two plates of a capacitor are changed (in the keyboard), it indicates which key was pressed so that shows up on the screen. The same goes for our touch cellular/music devices. When the space between the plates change, it signals what action is being done. This possibility has allowed me to take these wonderful pictures that document my life. Capacitance really went full circle on this one.

Chahhge Lahhge

In class this week, we learned about the difference between electric potential and electric potential energy. The thing Mr. Blake drilled in to our minds is that, "electric potential energy is not the same as electric potential!" First of all, electric potential energy depends on electric potential. Electric potential is Electric potential, like any other energy, is stored energy, in this case, for an electric charge and is measured in volts. On the other hand electric potential energy is the stored energy of a charged object in an electric field. This is measured in joules. This is the outlet that I charge the most important technologies of my life in, laptop and iphone. The outlet itself has about 120 volts (electric potential, work per charge).

Save the earth and play volleyball

This weekend was quite a busy one, but fun non the less. After doing some major microfiching on Friday and social time on saturday, it was time for my club team to do two things we've learned to do pretty well, fundraise and play volleyball. On Sunday morning our team cleaned up Blaisdell Park took a break then headed to McKinley gym to get our game on. We played in he two day Martin Luther King Jr. Tournament. The first day we did really well and our team was undefeated. The next day however, we faced many tough teams and ended the day with only one victory. However, this is nothing to be too disappointed about. We as a team learned that we need to have a more balanced offense, defense and mentality. In physics, we have learned that atoms lose or gain electrons in order to remain happy and balanced. This is similar o volleyball in the sense that one player needs to get set more for the offense to be balance or one player needs to take more court on defense. Things are lost or gained to achieve balance. PS: my Internet was not working this weekend so i did this is phone and will upload he picture when I get to school because I can't seem to figure it out on the phone.

Odd Children

This is my group of friends. We eat together, hang out together and have each other's backs. Such a tight knit group of people you may think, must be the same type of kid. However, this is untrue. In both physics and the real world, unlikes attract. A positive and negative or a positive or negative and a neutral charge are all examples of unlikes that are attracted to each other. In our group of friends, each person has a distinct and different personality, as well as likes and dislikes, as another person in the group. Some people are louder than others, more artsy than others, more sporty than others or more outgoing than others. These distinct personalities are what draws us to each other, like different charges, not like like charges that push each other apart. We are drawn to each other because of our differences and because of this, our large group friendship is possible.