Red Roses

This week I didn't really notice very much physics around me. After completing the worksheet for the weekened however, I realized that there was physics right on the dining room table. On monday it was my mom's birthday, so my dad bought her a bouquet of roses. The roses were a very vibrant red. This past week, I learned that they are red because it reflects red light. White light consists of red, blue and green light combined together. When the white light shines on the rose, the flower absorbs the green and blue light, reflecting the red light, which is why the roses look red.

Metal Detectors

Lately we have been learning a lot about magnets. On the past test, we were asked how metal detectors work. Although I am not completely sure, I know that it has something to do with magnets. Metal detectors use electromagnetic induction to detect metal that passes through them. Inside the metal detector is a coil. A current is passed through that coil to create an alternating electromagnetic field. When metal passes through the detector an alternating magnetic field is formed around that metal. Another coil detects the field of the metal that passes through the detector. After thinking about how metal detectors work, I thought about this past summer when I visited Vietnam. We caught many flights around the country but before returning to Hawaii, we stopped off in Japan. One of my friends decided to buy Cuban Cigars as a gift for his dad since you can't get them legally in the U.S. He bought them at the airport he had to carry them on. He left them in his pocket when we went passed security and the metal detector beeped. This was an indication that there was metal in the packaging that set of the alarm. Now I have a better idea how exactly that metal triggered the alarm.

Magnetized keys

A few weekends ago, we went to the Big Island and stayed at KMC for senior camp. We did a lot of fun activities, played games and got to hang out with friends. We also had to practice our class cheer for the cheerfest which we ended up taking first in. During our free time, my friends and I went to the general store to pick up some energy drinks so I grabbed my phone, credit card and room key and shoved them all in my pocket before running out the door. We visited our friends who were in a different room before going back to ours. When we got back to the room, I took out my key but it wouldn't unlock the door. I must have tried 20 times until I finally gave up. I assumed my room key got mixed up with one of my friends from a different room, but Sachi asked me if I had my room key by my cell phone. When I told her I did, she said that there are magnets in cell phones that can demagnatize the room key.

Concept physics so far...

This past week has been very exciting. Homecoming was lots of fun. Concept physics has been kind of interesting so far. I like that the class is very hands on and that the concepts are demonstrated in several ways including everyday analogies. This really helps me to better understand the concepts because sometimes only reading the book confuses me. I thought that the cicut projects were esspecially helpful. Although some of the projects really confused me, it was good that we could think of something personal that related to the way a circut works. That definitely made it a lot easier to understand. Other than that, this upcoming quarter, I would really like to improve on grasping the concepts. A lot of times, I just fill out the homework questions to get it done with. My goal is to be more thorough and hopefully that will reflect upon my tests and quizes.