LSA E Mech 2017-18

For years, people have been constructing paper airplanes. With almost endless possibilities on how to fold the plane, how should one decide on what folds are going to make his or her plane fly the farthest? Well, a paper airplane's flight is dependent on 4 major factors: thrust, drag, lift, and gravity. - The thrust a paper airplane has is dependent on the throw. Thrust is the initial force that the thrower applies to the paper airplane. Even the best of paper airplanes has no chance of going anywhere if the throw is horrible. - The drag is the air equivalent to friction. Drag is the air that pushes on the plane as it is flying, slowing it down. Drag is affected my the surface area of the plane. A plane that is larger will have more drag affecting it and pushing back on it harder. - The lift component of a paper airplanes flight deals entirely with the plane's wings. Air moving over and under the plane's wings provides un upward lift force, keeping the plane in the

Curling is hugely popular in Canada, and it's only been an Olympic sport since 1998, but its roots lie in medieval Scotland, where it once was known as "the roaring game" because that's the sound you hear as a curling stone rolls down the ice. The earliest known written reference, according to Wikipedia, dates back to 1541, but there is an inscribed curling stone with the date 1511. Those early stones looked nothing like the "rocks' used in curling today, and because they were so irregular in size, shape and texture, players had far less control over the stones' trajectories along the ice. Today's curling stones are made of a special kind of granite from Scotland, with a handle attached to the top, the better to grip and rotate (ever so slightly) as a player releases the stone. That's how you get the slow gentle curl of the stone's trajectory, hence the name.  Sweeping!! When  sweeping , pressure and speed of the brush head are key in

One may wonder how a small golf ball can travel at incredibly high speeds for such long distances.  While the swing of the club is a major component, the structure of the golf ball is quite important.  Unlike a baseball or tennis ball, a golf ball has dimples all over it (usually 336 dimples).  These dimples allow the golf ball to travel without facing much air resistance.  This diagram shows how air travels around the golf ball. The dimples on the golf ball also prevent drag that would occur in the wake region, resulting in further distance.  Also due to the contact with the club during the swing, the golf ball has backspin during its entire flight.  This diagram shows the motion of the golf ball mid flight with the lift force of F. There are hundreds of different types of golf balls that a player can choose.  Some show little affect to a player's game while others can alter their performance completely.  Personally, I prefer Callaway Supersoft golf balls, but it is entirely

A good pitch in baseball is entirely affected by the type of spin and the spin rate.  Each pitch spins in a different way depending on how the pitch is thrown.  For example, fastballs have a lower rate of backspin which causes them not to move too much.  Conversely, curveballs have a lot of top spin which makes them have a hard break once the pitch has reached its peak. Another thing that drastically affects the pitch may seem like very small differences, but in reality are very big impacts.  One of these is the height of the seams on the ball.  At the high school level, the seams are raised on every ball, which creates more friction.  This means that the ball moves slower, but also has a lot more movement.  This can impact each pitcher in a different way.  If someone is primarily a fastball dominant power pitcher, they would be negatively impacted by the ball because they could lose 1-2 miles per hour.  On the other hand, at the major league level, the seams are very low, which ben

Isabella Jacavone To comprehend how the universe works, we must dwell into the most basic building blocks of existence; matter, energy, space, and time. NASA's  Physics of the Cosmos program involves cosmology, astrophysics, and fundamental physics intended to answer questions about the elusiveness of complex concepts such as black holes, neutron stars, dark energy, and gravitational waves. In this blog post, I'd like to elaborate on a subject that is very intriguing  to me; Black holes. And more specifically, what would happen if we got near one. A black hole is anything but a hole, but rather an immense amount of matter compacted into an extremely small area. A black hole is caused when, hypothetically, a star four times more massive than our sun collapses into a sphere no bigger than 600 square km. To put that in perspective, that's about the size of New York City. B lack holes were predicted by Einstein's theory of general relativity, which showed that when a

Physics of Sound Dampeners and Active Noise Cancellation Sound dampening foam panels in a recording studio. ANC headphones worn by pilots and/or passengers in consumer aviation aircraft.  Acoustic treatment of soundscapes has grown alongside the sound production industry. Whether through absorption panels, diffusors and cloud panels to treat a space or headphones placed directly over the ears of listeners, acoustic treatment comes in many forms. Environments are treated acoustically to absorb excess sound to prevent sound levels from crossing a threshold above which the desired goal cannot be had. Before getting into sound dampening, we must discuss sound. Sound is produced when an object vibrates (a form of oscillation) and temporarily displaces nearby air molecules causing a wave effect as the displaced molecules collide with their neighboring molecules. Sound waves are fluctuations in pressure as the initial displacement of molecules experiences collisions that in turn

Rainbow Formation A rainbow is an excellent demonstration of the  dispersion of light  and one more piece of evidence that  visible light is composed of a spectrum of wavelengths , each associated with a distinct color. To view a rainbow, your back must be to the sun as you look at an approximately 40 degree angle above the ground into a region of the atmosphere with suspended droplets of water or even a light mist. Each individual droplet of water acts as a tiny prism that both disperses the light and reflects it back to your eye. As you sight into the sky, wavelengths of light associated with a specific color arrive at your eye from the collection of droplets. The net effect of the vast array of droplets is that a circular arc of  ROYGBIV  is seen across the sky. But just exactly how do the droplets of water disperse and reflect the light? And why does the pattern always appear as ROYGBIV from top to bottom?  This has to do with  refraction ,  internal reflection  and  dispersion

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world’s largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The LHC is the largest machine in the world. It took thousands of scientists, engineers and technicians decades to plan and build, and it continues to operate at the very boundaries of scientific knowledge. It first started up on 10 September 2008, and remains the latest addition to CERN’s accelerator complex. The LHC consists of a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets with a number of accelerating structures to boost the energy of the particles along the way. Map of LHC (located in Geneva, Switzerland) Thousands of magnets of different varieties and sizes are used to direct the beams around the accelerator.  Just prior to collision, another type of magnet is used to "squeeze" the particles closer together to increase the chances of collisions. The particles are so tiny that the task of making them collide is akin to firing two needles 10 kilometres apart with such pr

From a young age, we are told the Universe started after the Big Bang, roughly 14 billion years ago. This theory of the start of the Universe describes a state of high density and high heat. As science progresses and physicists explore the universe, there are more questions about the universe always existing. In addition, there are questions of whether the universe goes on forever and is ultimately infinite. These questions pose questions that scientists cannot prove and also have interesting implications.  On the topic of the Universes origin, there are mixed ideas. Many believe that the Universe was created due to the Big Bang and started to expand rapidly. Even Stephen Hawking stated in his lecture "The Beginning of Time" that " the universe, and time itself, had a beginning in the Big Bang, about 15 billion years ago". This seems like a satisfying answer to a question that confuses many. Others question wether the universe goes it cycles. It is possible that

In late 2016, NASA developed a rocket engine that could potentially bring humans into deep space. This engine was known as the EmDrive (pictured below). So why is this engine so important and revolutionary? Well, it lies in the fact that scientists managed to find a way to create thrust out of just about nothing. This denies the universal law of conservation of momentum because without any velocity thrust is not possible. Thrust is the physical manifestation of momentum being transferred from a rocket engine to the rocket itself and can be modeled by the equation...  As seen above, without any initial velocity momentum cannot be transferred and final velocity cannot be obtained. According to various studies done independently, the EmDrive did generate some thrust, however, there is no definite proof whether the engine truly creates thrust. It is believed that the science behind the EmDrive is based on the Pilot Wave Theory, or the idea that particles can push off of the vac

The Northern Lights  Auroras The Northern Lights are a type of aurora borealis. Auroras near the South Pole are called aurora australis. This is caused by energetic - charged particles that emit red or green light. These auroras are typically only seen at higher latitudes or at the poles of the Earth. Every planet is surrounded by a magnetic field - some weaker than others. Auroras are caused by high energy particles typically blowing outward by the sun in solar wind that are caught in the Earth's magnetic field.  The picture above depicts the Earth's magnetic field lines - where it can be seen that all of the field lines end in the North or South Pole. This explains why the auroras are only seen in these two regions because all of the energized particles are attracted to the North or South Pole. Most of the particles that make up auroras are electrons, but protons can make auroras as well.  The Law of Conservation of Energy states that energy can never be cr

  Dancing is one of the most beautiful but equally difficult art forms. Ballet, in particular, is the foundation of all genres of dance. It teaches correct placement of the body, self-discipline, and dedication. Not many people know that in order for the dancers to perform, they need to demonstrate many fundamental parts of physics. Every graceful leap and turn is an application of projectile and rotational motion. Dancing is a unique art form, as it allows the dancer to express their emotions and to be able to use their capabilities to the fullest. In order to use their body, the fundamentals of mechanical physics are needed to ensure that the art form is definitely an amazing one. The concepts of the following are the most prominent examples of physics applications in ballet: the center of gravity and balance projectile motion and the grande jete  rotational mechanics and the pirouette Center of Gravity and Balance          Ballet consists of movements of the body