For the first quarter, I am really enjoying the class and all the labs. (it is way better than chemistry!) Some of the concepts with all the math is difficult, but after understanding it everything is much clearer. I think it is a challenging course, but I am learning a lot and am able to notice physics being applied in more aspects of my everyday life. My anxieties include remembering all the formulas and concepts and finishing the exams for the semester-final and even year final, especially since most of us take way more than a single period to complete our chapter tests. I think I am starting to adjust to physics and all the math that comes along with it. I think my performance and effort from this quarter can be improved. I really can improve on completing my homeworks and labs thoroughly. For the most part physics is like friction, it's fun!

My picture is of rock candy. Its hard, but sweet and tasty at the same time. If you break it into smaller pieces, its easier to swallow.

Basketball Projectile

Here is a pic of me when we played Punahou last season. (and we beat them!:)) As you can see, I am attempting a hook shot over my defender. This is a perfect scenerio to demonstrate a projectile motion. For the ball to go into the basket, the velocity of the ball, which break into the vertical and horizontal components must be perfect as compared to the distance from me to the hoop and the height of where I released the ball to the height of the rim. In a projectile motion, the horizontal velocity stays constant throughout because gravity or no other forces acts upon it. However, the vertical velocity is constantly changing due to gravity, so the object is always accelerating at -9.8m/s2. Also, in this case the angle at which the basketball is launched is a key component to making the basket. So to find the velocity of the ball, I would have to know the horizontal and vertical velocities and use the pythagorean theorem. (Too bad I didn't know physics then, because if I did I might have been able to make that shot!)

Lenses

Last week I had to restock on my contact lenses for this coming year. To tell you the truth, I really like wearing my contacts more than my glasses. ( I really look funny with glasses on :)) But, I realized that these spectacles that we use have a lot to do with Physics. Basically, lenses use refraction to focus light. So glasses help focus images using refraction of light through the lenses. These lenses can be found in eye glasses and contact lenses, but also people without glasses or contacts have natural lenses found in our eyes. In our eyes, when light passes through it, the eye refracts it and focuses it on the retina, which is found in the back of our eyes and so we can process the image.

But for lenses in general, there are two types: converging lenses and diverging lenses.

Converging lenses are thinker in the center and refract light, while diverging lenses are thinner in the center and makes the light spread out.

basketball acceleration

Here is me playing some basketball against Punahou. When playing one-on-one, or even in a game, the use of acceleration is key to beating your defender. Acceleration is change in velocity, meaning change in speed of direction. To beat your defender, going from a steady pace and changing your speed to a sprint will catch your defender off guard. A velocity graph would show a short steady line and then have a constant upward slope as my speed increases, also it will have a positive slope because I am moving foward while speeding up. My position graph would have a curved line getting a steeper slope and my accleration graph would have a straight line above the x-axis because I would have positive acceleration. Also, staying lower than your defender is another key because you will have a lower center of gravity, resulting in quickness.