Introduction!

Hi! My name is Codie Conching and this is my physics blog! I have been attending Kamehameha Schools since kindergarten and loved every second of it! When I'm not at school, you can find me on the volleyball court or spending time with family and friends. I always push myself to be the best person I can be and love to make others smile!

I have taken all of the science courses required for a junior at Kamehameha. In highschool so far, I took BSCS Biology and Chemistry and finished those classes with A's. I actually like science and think it is really interesting once I get into it. I found that since I am on the Honors math track, I grasp the equations and concepts a little easier. I am currently taking Honors Precalc, and it is challenging! In Physics, I hope to learn about how things work in my everyday life! I think Physics is on of the courses that actually reallt help you in life!! I also hope I learn how to problem solve more effectively!

This is a picture of two of my teammates and I this season. Volleyball is basically my life and I am so glad I got to be on the Kamehameha Varsity team this year!! This picture was taken by one of my friends after our game against Punahou thisn past weekend. I'm so proud of my team for sticking together and coming out with a good win! Love my team!! ♡

Acceleration and Kinematics

Acceleration can be defined as a vector quantity that explains the rate at which the velocity of a body changes with time. In class this week, we learned more about acceleration and velocity in relation to time and distance, and how to use the "Equations board...not bored" to find a variable.

This weekend, my team and I went to Las Vegas to play in a tournament. As we were taking off in our plane, I remembered about acceleration. The airplane can't just take off from its starting position or initial velocity (0 m/s). It needs to gain speed to be able to take off. The average speed needed to be met to take off is usually 150-170 mph. As the plane is being driven on the long runway, it is accelerating at a constant speed to reach the minimum speed to take off.

If we were trying to find the distance that the plane needs to go to be able to take off, and we were given the acceleration, time, and initial velocity, we could! All thanks to the Equation Board...not bored. With our information, we would pick either "dat", "vat", or "vad" equation to plug in our givens and find the variable we are looking for. In this case we would use dat equation!

d = 1/2 (a)(t^2) + (Vo)(t)

More Kinematics!

Physics deals with the things around us and we find it everywhere in our lives. Kinematics is a big part of physics! Recently we learned about velocity (how a velocity vs. time graph works) and acceleration. Velocity is the speed of an object in a given direction. Acceleration is the increase in the rate of something. We also learned the two other graphing rules:
1. The slope of a position v. time graph is velocity.
2. The slope of a velocity v. time graph is acceleration.
3. The area under the curve of a velocity v. time graph is displacement.

When driving to school, we need to get out of the valley to get onto the freeway. The speed limit on our roads in the valley is about 25 mph. When we approach the freeway, we start to accelorate our speed. While driving on the freeway, we stay at a constant speed of about 50 mph (speed limit 50). Getting off of the freeway, we decelerate to about 25 mph until we get to school.

Even though we are constantly moving while driving, it doesn't mean we are constantly accelerating. When we are driving it off the valley, we are going at a constant speed of 25 mph. On a graph, this would have a slope of zero because we are not accelorating, but staying constant. At the start of the onramp to the freeway until we get onto the freeway, there would be a positive slope on our velocity v. time graph because we are increasing our acceloration. On the freeway we would be at a constant speed of 50 mph (slope 0). Getting off of the freeway, we would slow down, causing our slope to go in a negative direction. On the final stretch to school, our slope would be zero because we would be traveling at a constant 25 mph.

Physics is all around us!

Kinematics!

We have learned so much about physics so far! We learned about relative motion last week and now we are talking about position, distance, displacement, speed, and velocity! We learned that position is where something is and distance is a scalar quantity referring to  how far away something is. Displacement is a vector quantity referring to how far out of place something is. For example, my dog, Hoku! She likes to play in the grass, running around in circles, and sometimes running after cats. When she goes outside, she leaves her shade under the tree and runs in circles (not doing many laps, shes kind of chubby), then stops and returns to her spot in the shade. Although her distance traveled may be high, her displacement is zero. This is because displacement refers to how far out of place she went. She started sitting under her shade and after finishing her workout, she returned to the exact spot she was in.

We also learned about velocity. Velocity is a vector quantity that refers to "the rate at which an object changes positions. Let's use Hoku for another example. When she runs for fun, let's say she runs at about 8 mph. But when she sees a cat and shes determined to chase it, she runs at a much faster speed, maybe 20 mph. If we were to graph this, we would find that the slope of the line for Hoku chasing the cat would be steeper than the slope of  her casual run. In class, we learned the first graphing rule:

"The slope of a position vs. time graph is velocity"

Because we know that velocity is the slope of a position vs. time graph, we can conclude that when Hoku is chasing a cat, she has a higher velocity than when she is going on a casual run.

Physics and Relative Motion

In Physics the other day, we learned about the basics of motion. There were four important words that we needed to remember:

"All motion is relative."

Today, I saw just that. During my car ride home on the freeway, I remembered about this blog post that we needed to write. I remembered that all motion is relative to something and that we can find it anywhere. I saw the cars in front, behind, and to the sides of me and thought about how they were moving in relation to me. Some cars were moving at the same speed as ours, and some were moving slower. I could tell that they were moving relative to me, but I knew that the ones going the same speed were moving different than the ones going slower.

The cars moving at the same speed as us were moving relative to the ground at about 60 mph (like we were). However, the two cars were not moving relative to each other.

Down the road, we saw cars going slower than us. As shown in the pictures to the right, it seems as though the cars are going backwards across the window of the car. In reality, they are moving forward but at a slower speed. This creates the illusion that the cars are driving backwards. The car is moving at a certain speed relative to the ground, but it is moving negatively in relation to our car.

There are many other examples of relative motion in the world - from watching the sun and clouds move across the sky, to jogging with your friend in the park. Physics is everywhere!