fandomhigh | Science is Awesome!!!, Class #13, Period 3, April 5th

The blonde badly-dressed Al Bhed was not quite so bouncy as her usual, but she was doing her best nonetheless.

"Hiya," she said. "I hope you're all sufficiently recovered from the weekend, 'cause we're getting right back into it today. Today, we're going to have fun with Physics!"

She held that a beat as if waiting for an excited response of some kind.

"Anyway," she said. "Physics is the study of matter and motion. There's matter, and then there's energy. There are all kinds of energy, like potential energy -- that's when something is sitting high up, and it could fall, but it's not going to yet? But if it did, it'd have a lot of energy going all over the place. Kinetic energy is energy of motion. That'd be if you nudged it over and it fell. The potential energy becomes kinetic energy."

"At the heart of it, physics wants to understand the world around us. Which I guess you could say about all science, but in different ways, you know? Biology was life, and astronomy was all those other planets and stars. Physics is objects and motion and gravity, while chemistry is the chemical compounds that make it all up. That's why science is awesome, by the way. Because every day, we're learning more about the world around us, and the world around us is fascinating."

Rikku was now holding up a leaf blower and a yardstick. "So today we're going to do some basic, fun physics experiments so we can look at some interesting results. And next week -- there's not going to be a final, don't worry. But I might ask you to talk a little about science, and what you think you've learned. Okay?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In motion!

Harper Finkle

Lindsay Weir

Juliet Darling

William Murdoch

Momoko Akatsutsumi

Jack McCallister

Hank Venture

Take notes, pass them, wonder what is going on with the leaf blower.

For this experiment, you're going to sit on a chair and get someone else (handwavily, played out, or you can mod Rikku doing it) to spin you three different times:

- once, with your arms out;
- once, with your arms folded over your chest;
- once, with your arms out, but you pull them in halfway through the spin.

You should notice some major differences in the spinning! Any thoughts on why?

Edited 2011-04-05 19:20 (UTC)

A very wobbly Hank raised his hand. "When I did it... Um. One of the ways was faster."

Then he threw up.

"Eeesh, sorry," Rikku said, bouncing over with a frown. "I should have expected that. It's my bad."

"Sorry," Hank replied. "I think I had too many tacos for breakfast." He frowned solemnly at the mess. "I have a newfound respect for figure skaters."

Test your reflexes! One person will hold a yardstick and stand on a chair. The other person will have their fingers around, but not touching, the yardstick, at the 18-inch mark. And then, the person holding the yardstick is gonna drop it -- but without any "ready ... now!" to warn the second person. The second person has to react and catch it before it hits the ground. From where the yardstick is caught, you can measure reaction time.

Here's a happy table to explain:

Distance Dropped	Reaction Time
2 inches	0.10 seconds
4 inches	0.14 seconds
6 inches	0.18 seconds
8 inches	0.20 seconds
10 inches	0.23 seconds
12 inches	0.25 seconds
14 inches	0.27 seconds
16 inches	0.29 seconds
18 inches	0.31 seconds

Did you notice it goes faster as it falls?

Edited 2011-04-05 19:21 (UTC)

While he waited for a partner, Hank was -- of course -- waving the yardstick around like a sword.

"En garde," Rikku said, picking up one of her own and brandishing it. "You think you have what it takes?"

Hank shrugged. "I don't know? I have a yardstick!"

One person is going to lay on their back and blow a steady stream of air into a straw. The other person is going to set a ping-pong ball in the middle of that stream. So long as the stream is steady, the ball should hover. The air current makes the ball bounce, but doesn't let it slip outside that stream, due to the differences in air pressure between the stream and the outside non-moving air.

Once you've managed to get the ping-pong ball hovering, you get to play with the leaf-blower and a beach ball.

Hank's ping-pong ball not only hovered, it bobbed up and down in the stream while he hummed a tune through the straw as if it were a kazoo.

Do not use the leafblower on him.

Yes, William would appreciate if his classmates would kindly refrain from doing so.

Do not use the leafblower on her.

Experiments #1 and #2 taken from the PDF Physics Experiments You Can Do At Home found on this website: The Wonders of Physics.

Experiment #3 taken from Bernouli Ball found on this website: The Amazing Physics of Everyday Objects.

Sorry class is late -- busy day plus LJ outage made things a little hiccupy.

Feel free to pair up for experiments, or to mod that Rikku helped out with the "get someone else to ..." stuff.

Science is Awesome!!!, Class #13, Period 3, April 5th

Sign In - SCI13

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During the Lecture - SCI13

Experiment Station #1 - Spinning Chairs - SCI13

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Experiment Station #2 - Catch the Yardstick - SCI13

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Experiment Station #3 - Levitation - SCI13

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Talk to the TA - SCI13

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Talk to Rikku - SCI13

OOC - SCI13