Sunday, September 14, 2008

solid precipitation


So this picture was taken at the University of Puget Sound, where my sister goes to school. My parents went to visit her and for some reason I could not go. They said I had to go to school or something like that. For the phun physics part, I came to a conclusion that the snow falls at an acceleration of -9.8 m/s^2. However there is some air resistance so the snow looks like it falls really slow. When the snow hits the ground, its velocity hits 0 m/s. Wind blowing causes the snow to change direction while its falling, causing it to accelerate more. This is because acceleration occurs when the object speeds up, slows down, or changes direction. Once the snow is falling, the only thing that can slow the snow down is that tree. The snow will hit the tree first and probably stick, but if it hits, then falls, the snow will have to start with velocity of 0 m/s. Unfortunately I have never been able to see snow so this makes me jealous.

Sunday, September 7, 2008

Physics


One day I was driving in my car on the H-1 when I thought to myself, hey, this is physics!!! All the cars around me were in motion, going at around the same velocity and acceleration as I was. A little ahead of me in the left lane is a car that is going at a faster velocity. I noticed this because just a few seconds before, that car was behind me. At this point in time, my speed was constant, which means that my acceleration was at zero. About two minutes and 48 seconds before, the freeway turned into an rather large incline, forcing me to accelerate to keep my constant speed. While going up the hill, my speed was decreasing due to the negative acceleration. Also about 7 minutes and 23 seconds later, a car forced its way between me and the car in front, forcing me to step on the breaks. This negative acceleration caused my velocity to fall and infuriate me.