Journal Jolts and Physics Phun

Journal 12: A few Christmas's ago, while stringing up the christmas lights around the house and on the tree, when turning them on, the lights all around the tree burnt out.  What I realized now, is that one of the filaments must have burnt out, due to the faulty wiring or that there was an overflow of voltage which the bulb could not handle.  As depicted in the equation: I=delta q/ delta t, the high voltage from the socket may be the reason for the high charge moving across the filament and wire in the short amount of time, thus burning the filament and blackening the bulb's interior, to us the glass part.  In addition the drift speed moving across it may have been too much for the bulb to handle.  Since light-bulbs act as resistors, and as shown in the equation, delta V=I x R(resistance), the amount of current running through, with not enough resistance on the bulb's part could relate to a high voltage difference, thus overcoming the resistivity of the filament that it burnt out.  Similarly viewing the equation R= (resistivity of material)(length of component)/(cross-sectional area), if either one of these components, such as a too thin or too short wire, the voltage flowing across it may have likewise burt out the filament.  That's all don't play with electricity, except in physics.

Troublesome Torque

Journal 10: Late as well.  Now to the physics application, about six years ago, when I still attended Maryknoll, the morning was off to the usual every school day routine.  Dressed, backpack double-checked, and packed into the car, my dad, myself, and my three brothers were off to a normal day.  Leaving our Waikele drive way, (we're the first right at the Champions near the Waikele mall, you can see our house from the intersection) my dad took the regular right turn and no more than one minute of driving and we all heard a huge POP.  My dad parked the car on the shoulder and assessed what damage had been done to the car.  He realized a nail had popped the back right tire, and used a jack to lift the car up.  The jack uses a fulcrum and a lever arm, in which turned, pushes up the side iron arms, which in turn begins to lift the car as to replace the tire.  My dad had imposed a torque by applying force on the handle of the jack, and with the long lever arm, placed a force forcing the car up.  In physics I learned that to increase torque you can increase force applied, the lever arm, and applying the force as perpendicularly as possible.  This example shows some the practical and helpful applications of physics.

An Electrifying Experience

Journal 11:Sorry for the lateness, the journals slipped out of my mind.  Anyways, this incident occurred four years ago.  During this point, I was still in swimming and my brothers and I were taking private lessons on that particular Saturday.  If you may recall this was during the forty days and forty nights of incessant, ceaseless rain.  Storm clouds amassed especially near Ala Moana stretching to Iolani.  At this point in time, my dad oddly recalled his hair standing on end and the forecasted high pressure system the news reported held true.  Then the rain began pouring extremely hard and we witnessed lighting and thunder.  From what I learned in physics during these lightning storms the underbelly of the clouds become highly negatively charged, and due to this highly negatively charged electric field the cloud contains, the ground itself becomes polarized.  In addition lightning has twenty-five Coulombs of charge and this build up with the polarized buildings and ground, the charged bottom of the clouds(lightning) is attracted to the positively charged surface of the ground and buildings and is drawn to them and strikes them as lightning.  In my experience lightning came extremely close hitting the building opposite the workout room and I thought I saw it strike the water ten minutes after we had gotten out because my instructor ended the class due to the weather.  Intense? I thought so, those days of rain were chaos and crazy.  Ok, enjoy life, shock yourself and friends with the Van De Graaff generator.