Life of Physics

This is our ornament Kimo the Hawaiian elf. Kimo can represent so much that we have learned this past semester of physics. In Unit 1, we learned about relationships. As Kimo works harder to created toys for Christmas, he completes the construction of more toys. This is a direct relationship. As the amount of work increased, so did the completion of toys. Then in Unit 2 we learned about kinematics. I learned that velocity (speed) is equal to distance/time. If Kimo walked from his elf dorm to the main workshop (a 100 meter distance) in 80 seconds, his velocity is 1.25 meters/second. Then in Unit 3 we learned about vectors and that a vector has magnitude and direction. From the workshop to the hot cocoa cafe, Kimo traveled 1.25 meters/second in the east direction. In Unit 4 we learned about force. Force is a basic push or pull. Net force is equal to mass/acceleration. Kimo's force as he jumped from the cocoa cafe to the sleepy pillow room was 9.8 m/s2 (gravity of the earth) x 43 kg (Kimo's mass). Kimo's net force as he was falling was 421.4 N (newtons, the unit of force). In Unit 5 we learned about momentum. Momentum is mass(velocity). Kimo's momentum as he ran from the pillow room back to the workshop was 43 kg (3 meters/second) which equals 129 kg m/s. Then finally in Unit 6, we learned about energy. As Kimo had run from the pillow room to the workshop, his kinetic energy = 1/2mv2 (squared). Kimo's kinetic energy was 1/2(43 kg)(3m/s)squared. This equals 193.5 Joules (unit of energy). As you can see, Kimo's day was filled with physics. As I have come to find out, so is mine. We live in a world of physics and it is only to our benefit that we learn more about the physics in our lives.

Club Season YAY!

These are my 2011-2012 Jammers 17 girls! This past weekend, we had our first practice with our new coach, Coach Daryl Kapis. There are multiple examples of physics during a single volleyball practice. In class, we learned that work is any change in energy or force x displacement. Simply grabbing a ball from the cart is work. We also learned that the energy of a position is potential energy. Gravitational potential energy is mass x gravity x height. For example, holding a volleyball before serving for myself would have the potential energy of 0.27 kg (weight of volleyball) x 9.8 m/s2 (gravity of earth) x 1.22 meters (height of ball). The volleyball would have an approximate gravitational potential energy of 3.23 Joules.

Drop It Like Its Hot

This week in class we did our egg drop. My group (Amber and Megan) and I created our capsule by digging a hole in the middle sponge, placing our egg inside and sandwiching it between the other two sponges. Then, we used a rubber band to keep it together and rope so that it was extra safe. It was my job to launch our capsule. As I threw it onto the road, I had little butterflies in my tummy. Fortunately, they flew away when I saw the result that our egg had survived. Due to the increased duration of contact with the road and the air resistance, our egg was safe and sound in its spongey home.

Jump Around, Jump, Jump, Jump Around

This picture is of my friend Tori and me. My friend Skye needed jumping pictures, so Tori and I were nice enough to help him out, with our books, backpacks, laptops and all. In class this week, we were shown examples that displayed that an increased contact time decreases the amount of force on an object. This was shown with the boxers. If the boxers moved with the hit, the impact of the force of less because the contact time was longer. In this picture, when Tori and I landed, we bent our knees. This increases the contact time and like the car and the crumple zone, allowed for some give and distribution of momentum. If he had landed flat footed and legs straight, the momentum would've been stopped suddenly and would be bad for our knees.

HUGE DA WAVES

I am proud to say that I took this picture because I am usually horrid at taking pictures. Yes, PC: Allie. This Saturday, me and some of my friends went to Kailua beach. We had a great time and played sand volleyball and swam and ate, the usual beach activities. On one occasion, the ball was sandy, so I threw it into the waves and went to go retrieve it. On my way to the ball, the little Kailua waves suddenly became huge and totally knocked me over. Sand EVERYWHERE. Like the lab we did in class this week, the wave had more momentum than I did and transferred to me, which is why I flew backwards (in a negative direction).

Lets Hear It For New York

This isn't the best quality picture, but it is a great application for the unit we are going to be learning, momentum. This past week, I was in the East Coast for college tours. This particular picture was taken when we first arrived in New York and we were on the Air Train. Momentum is defined as the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity. The equation would look like this p = mv. Let's say the mass of the Air Train is about 50 tons which is equivalent to about 45,359 kg and its velocity is about 20 mph which is equivalent to about 9 m/s. To find the momentum at the given moment, we would simply multiply 45,359 kg with 9 m/s. The product is 408,231 N. 

NOT DA SNOW!

On Friday, I left for the East Coast to do college visits. While we were flying to New York, our plane unexpectedly had to land in Chicago due to an unusual October snow storm in New York. When we got to New York, the ground was covered in snow, as you can see in the background. In class, Mr. Blake taught is about the joys of ice blocking. Ice has very little friction which is why it is so fun to go so fast down the hill at Kaneohe Elementary (according to Mr. Blake). This very reason is why our flight got grounded in Chicago. The ground was covered in icy snow so there would be very little friction if a plane tried to land at the JFK airport which would be dangerous because it would be tough to come to a stop. Though the snow may have been a damper, my mother sure had fun jumping in it. Oh mother...

HAUNTED weekend!

This weekend was quite the scare for my friends and I. It was one of my friends birthdays (pictured in the bottom right picture, the girl on the left) and she had a scare fest birthday. First we went to see Paranormal Activity 3, then we headed over to the Haunted Plantation in Waipahu. At the plantation, there was one house where this spooky little girl would walk on the railing as you entered the house and stare right at you, then jump down next to you and freak you out even more. A free body diagram could be drawn for this action. Because the girl is falling with some air resistance, an arrow would be drawn upward and labeled Fair (force of the air). At the same time, here weight is going down (her mass and her gravity) so the arrow would be going downward labeled mg (mass x gravity). We may look happy in the pictures, but by the end of the night, we were exactly like the people shown in the video. 

om nom nom COTTON CANDY!

This picture is of my friends Megan, Skye and myself at our ring social this past Friday. After we received our rings, there were treats and sweets to consume. Me and my friends decided on the cotton candy. This week in Physics we learned about force. A force is a push or pull. Contact force is putting force upon another object and contact must be involved. As you can see, Skye has a piece of cotton candy that is just about to enter his mouth. He used contact force to rip the piece of cotton candy from the whole. It took a contact pull in order for the piece to rip, which was necessary for his enjoyment of the treat. All around us, there is constant force whether we know it or not.

Where Are We?

This picture was taken by my friend Ryan during my other friend, Cali's birthday party. Our task was to go on a scavenger hunt around her neighborhood, St. Louis Heights. In this picture, the instructions were to look lost. We're good actors huh? Cali's house was on the main street, but to find certain things, we had to go down streets perpendicular to hers. In order to reach the place where we are in the picture (Wa'ahila Ridge), we had to walk in the north direction from Cali's house, then to the left. The distance was about 150 meters. Then to reach the ridge, we walked about the same distance of 150 meters, but to the east. The total distance traveled was 300 meters. Hypothetically speaking, we can find the distance that it would take to go the diagonal route. Because both distances were equal and a right angle was formed with the path, an isosceles triangle was formed. This means that  the legs of the triangle are x which is 150, so the hypotenuse would be x times the square root of two which is approximately 212 in the south west direction. If a diagonal way were possible, our group would have traveled 88 less meters.

Raku Time

This week in Ceramics, we fired our raku pots. The girls were in charge of picking up the pre-heated pots from our teacher Mr. Harvey, then placing them in rubbish cans where they were to be fired for a little while more, supervised by our other teacher Reid. The magnitude and direction (defined as a vector) of the girls transferring the pots varied throughout the process. First, we traveled in the east direction at a speed of about 0.9 m/s as we traveled to the spot where were would get the pot from Harvey. Then, we traveled south, but at a quicker speed, about 2.5 m/s because we were carrying the hot pot and wanted to quickly transfer the pot to the rubbish can. Then, we traveled back west at about 1.5 m/s as we found a safe place to wait for the pots to be through firing.

Set Me!

Volleyball is a major part of my life. Not only do I enjoy playing it, I love watching and supporting at the collegiate level. This is a picture of the University of Hawaii mens volleyball team vs. University of the Pacific. The setter, Nejc Zemljak is setting the ball to the middle blocker, Shane Welch. Every time Zemjak sets the ball, it will always have the same pattern of velocity and acceleration when it goes um and comes down. We learned this in the ball toss lab that we did this week. However, when Zemljak sets his hitters and once the hitter contacts the ball, the velocity increases because the time it takes for the ball to reach somewhere (the ground or the arms of the opposing teams player) becomes lessened because the speed of the ball is so fast over time.

Killing Time JV Blue Style

This past week, we continued to learn about kinematics. On Thursday, our volleyball team had a game versus HBA at HBA. When the game was over, the bus wasn't there yet and after a while, we began to get antsy. Luckily, my friend and our manager Aryn had brought his camera. This is some of what we did to pass the time. In class, Mr. Blake did a demonstration to help us understand velocity and its path by throwing a mass into the air then catching it. The pattern of an objects velocity is slow --> fast --> stop --> slow --> fast. In the picture on the left, I was able to capture my teammates Tiyana, Kea and Mahea in this process. I am not sure what stage of velocity they are in, however, the pattern as they jumped was slow --> fast --> stop --> slow --> fast because of gravity. The same goes for the picture on the right. Though each girl is in a different stage of velocity of the jump, each will undergo the same slow --> fast --> stop --> slow --> fast pattern.

Oh Kanoe...

This past week in Physics class, we completed the Physics Olympics lab. From this lab, we learned about position, time and its relationship. The slope of a graph of position and time shows velocity. The connection that this picture has to the past week of class is that the field that my friends and I are on is also the field that we had the Physics Olympics on. More importantly, is the examination of my friend Kanoe here. She is the one lying in the center. As all of us friends walked up the stairs from lunch, our velocity decreased because the distance covered was done so in a longer time. When we walked on flat surfaces, it increased from the velocity while walking up the stairs but stayed constant until we reached another flight of stairs because the movement was constant. As you can see, all but Kanoe were able to make the trek with smiling faces.

HONK HONK!

These are my friends Melody and Malia. The reason we look so happy is because Mel and I have just completed our run after practice. Our JV blue coach, Keahi Kahana, is a firm believer in conditioning and training. He even rides his moped and honks at us as we run up the hill. For the past 5 running days, we have been running Keku loop fartleks. This running before practice is an example of kinematics. Kinematics is the study of motion. In class, we have learned about speed, velocity, distance and displacement. Every running day, we run 8 Keku loop fartleks. Distance is defined as the space between two points. The total distance of 8 fartleks is approximately 1.5 miles. Displacement is defined as change in position. The total displacement of our run is 0 miles. Although the total distance is 1.5 miles, the displacement is 0 miles because we return to the same place that we started after every lap.

clap Clap CLap CLAp CLAP

This is a picture that my friend, Megan Quinabo took at this years convocation. During Dr. Michael Chun's last annual speech at the start of school assembly, he did not only speak, he also had everyone partake in a demonstration/activity. The demonstration started with him, clapping, all by himself. Then, he had the administration join in with him clapping. Next, the faculty joined in. Finally, the students began to clap. The relationship between the amount of people and the volume of the claps in the gym was directly related. As more people began to clap, the louder the clapping sound was. By the end of the demonstration, the clapping was powerful and thunderous and gave me chicken skin feeling the unity in the place.

My Introduction

My name is Allie Yamashiro and I have been going to Kamehameha Schools since kindergarten. I have 2 younger brothers (8 and 13) and a maltese and live in Ewa. I enjoy watching NBA and UH volleyball games (men and women) and enjoy playing volleyball. I am not sure yet what college I want to go or what I want to be when I grow up but a possibility is becoming a PE teacher. In elementary I had Mrs. Kutsunai and Mr. Scarlet as my science teachers then in middle school I had Mr. Snow and Mrs. Harbottle. Freshman year i took Biology with Mr. Hutchison and sophomore year I had Chemistry with Mr. Kim. The math that I am currently in is Honors Pre-Calculus. What I hope to obtain as a result of completing this course is to learn what physics is and to have enjoyed learning about it. The reason I picked shave ice as the picture that represents me is because it is something that reminds me of Hawaii. Not only do I love eating shave ice from Hawaii but I also love living here in the islands with all of my family and friends.