Simple Machines

A simple machine is a device that makes things easier by changing the magnitude of the force needed or th direction of which it is applied. Such machines in everyday life are levers, inclined planes, pulleys, wedges, wheel and axel, or screws. With these simple machines you can out them together to make a compoundmachin such as a bike. Work equals force times displacement. In order for these machines to work, there has to be something happening. They are transferring energy with the amount of work done. However, one cannot get more work out than the amount of work out in due to friction. If friction is neglected then energy much be conserved. Unfortunately, I was not able to travel to any exotic places out of Connecticut because my parents still had to work, but I still had nice time relaxing and catching up on my sleep. Even though I didn't leave the state, I was able to to see several simple machines because they are used in our everyday life. One day I went to Middlebury to see my grandparents. Unlike all of the other cold and bitter days in March, this day was very sunny and fairly warm. When I arrive to their house and was trying to talk to my grandmother on the other side of the table, I could barely see her because the sun was too bright. Because of this, I decided to close the blinds. These blinds are old fashioned so you have to do it manually pull a string. From what I notice is that the strong is actually a pulley! The pulley works by having one string to pull while the one on the other side is attached to the blinds. As you pull the string down the blinds open because the other side of the machine occurs oppositely. There was two strings in the machines. Because of this, it was a little hard for me to pull. However, on another window that they have in their house, there are more stings (4). This window was far easier to open because the excess strings make the force smaller. Therefore, I can conclude that with more strings the force is less, but with less strings it has greater force as is more difficult to pull. But with more strings the displacement must increase in order to have less force. With limited strings you need less displacement but more force.

Newton's First Law

Saturday, December 13, 2014

My experience with Newton's First Law was when I my family and I were cooking for Thanksgiving dinner.  My mom had prepared her traditional squash soup as a starter course.  My brother loves the soup and eats about half of it every year.  Once dinner was finally prepared, my brother was ready to get his hands on the soup.  He ran over to get the soup and could not wait to eat it.  He filled it to the brim of the bowl and ran back to the table.  On his way back he would sip (or gulp) bits of it.  But what he didn't know, was that the soup would splash back in his face.  This was due to newton's first law or the law of inertia.  The soup in the bowl was initially at rest when my brother was standing still with it.  The forces acting on it were equal, essentially meaning that it would remain where it is.  The force pulling it down was the gravitational pull on earth (9.8m/s2), and the force keeping it still was the table exerting a force up.  When he started to move forward, the soup was pulled backward by a force, that covered my brother with squash soup.  Because my brother was changing his state of motion, the force pulling back upon him was greater than the force pulling the soup forward.  The unbalanced forced caused the soup to spill.  My brother then stopped walking with the soup because it had gotten all over him.  When he suddenly stopped walking, the soup when flying forward and spilled in front of his path.  Because my brother was walking forward with the soup, the soup was then moving in the same direction and motion as he was.  When he suddenly stopped, the soup wanted to stay in that motion forward due to the unbalanced forced.  In this case, the force forward was greater than the force pulling back, so the change in motion caused the soup to spill once more.  The soup spilled due to newton's first law, which states that an object (soup) at rest will stay at rest and an object (soup) in motion will continue moving in a straight line at constant speed, if and only if, there are no unbalanced forces acting on the object (the net force would be zero).  The soup at rest, moving forward, and suddenly stopping all experienced newton's first law because of the law of interia making the object wanting to keep doing what it was doing without any changes.

Position/Time Graph of a Roller Coaster

Wednesday, October 1, 2014

My position/time graph depicts the course of a roller coaster.  The origin of my graph is where the roller coaster is stationed from its beginning to end (it is positioned above the ground).  In the positive direction is the roller coaster's slow inclination to the top of the ride directed toward the sky, and the negative direction is the roller coaster on its quick decline.  The roller coaster starts at its origin and begins to incline all the way to the top (15m) in a duration of eight seconds.  This means that it starts directly in the middle of its incline and decline.  Then, to arouse the people's anticipation, the roller coaster rides constant for seven seconds.  Once the roller coaster reaches the thirteen seconds, the fun begins.  The roller coaster drops past the origin to the direction of negative eight meters.  Since the coaster is close to the ground, it now has to go back up.  But first, it rides stationary for seven seconds.  The coaster inclines in the positive direction past the origin for six seconds up to ten meters.  Without a break, it suddenly drops for one second negatively down to the origin.  The roller coaster then is constant, for the rider's relief, for two seconds.

This is my first Physics Blog post