My Top Ten

The Top Ten Place I See Physics in The Bahamas

1. When I go home for any one of the breaks, one of the first things I do is go to the beach! Before this class, I never pondered the physics behind the rising and falling of the tides. Although, after a long year in Ms. Lawrence's class, I think I can explain why I have to move my towel a little farther up the beach as the day goes on. I found out the earth experiences 2 high tides and 2 low tides every day! This means that there are 6 hours in between a high and low tide, and a full 12 hours from a low tide to get back to a low tide or a high tide to get back to a high tide. The alignment of the moon with the earth are what cause our tides. There are two types of tides, Spring and Neap. Spring tides occur when the moon, sun, and earth are all in a line. Neap tides occur when the moon is perpendicular to the sun. A tidal bulge occurs because of the moon's gravitational pull on the earth.

2. At home, we eat a lot of fruits and vegetables. A lot of the time we will pick a nice arrangement of fruits including avocados, mangoes, bananas and starfruit and put them in a little bowl on the middle of our coffee table in the living room. This reminds me of Newton's Third Law which states that, "For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction." This means that every time you exert a force on an object, and equal and opposite force is put back on you (like punching someone). These two forces are called action and reaction pairs. In this case, the bowl of fruit and the earth are not actually an action/reaction pair! The force between the bowl of fruit and the earth may be equal and opposite, but because we must take into account the table, it cannot be called an action/reaction pair. Although, if the fruit was taken off of the table and placed on the floor, the earth would be pulling the fruit down with the same amount of force that the fruit is pulling the earth up with. 

3. After a long day at the beach, before driving the boat home, I always beg my dad to take us to Green Cay. Green Cay is a small uninhabited island with a huge cliff on the ocean side. If you climb up the rocks (very carefully) you can make it to the top of the the cliff and jump off into the water below. After physics class, I began to wonder how fast I was really moving as I dropped down towards the clear water below. I now know that from just knowing the height of the cliff and my own weight, I could easily calculate my velocity at each second of the fall and how much distance I covered at each second. (EVEN MORE INTERESTING) If I got a running start, I could find out my vertical velocity as well as my horizontal. All of this information can be found out with the formulas:

Vertical

V=gt

d=1/2gt^2

v=at

d=1/2at2

Horizontal

(at constant v)

v=d/t

d=vt

(Actual picture of Green Cay ft. My dad & I)

4. At home, especially during the summer, the power goes out ALL THE TIME. It can be one of the most annoying things ever, and I thought it was a very common thing before coming to the United States. Our power companies try to save money by decided when to just shut off the electricity for our homes.... (fun, right?) No! Luckily, I live in a small neighbourhood and a lot of our homes are connected to a generator. In simplest terms, a generator is a device that is made of coils of wires and magnets. Generators have mechanical energy and turn it into electrical energy. Much like the wind turbines we made in class, generators rely on electromagnetic induction to generate power. This is the magnets moving through the coils of wire. Below is a picture of what it looks like when the power goes out.......

5. In the 6th grade we had a huge project called "Exhibition". In this project, we were allowed to pick virtually anything and do an extensive project about it. One of my classmates chose electricity. He final debut was sadly unsuccessful because of the intense humidity at home! She attempted to rub a balloon to her hair and stick it to the wall. Sadly, it didn't work out as planned. BUT if we had been it a colder, and more dry climate, it would have! This is what would have happened....

--> The balloon would be charged by friction when rubbed against her head. When it is brought towards the wall, the wall would polarize. This means that all of the positive charges in the wall would be drawn towards the negative charges in the balloon.

--> The positive charges in the wall would move as close to the balloon as possible while all of the negative charges in the wall would move away from the balloon.

--> The distance between the opposite charges (attractive) would be smaller than the distance between the like charges (repulsive).

--> F=kq1q2/d^2 : (Coulomb's Law) Since there is a greater distance between the repulsive forces, the force between them will be less than the attractive forces.

--> Therefore, the balloon SHOULD HAVE stuck to the wall! 

6. Have you ever experienced a really really REALLY bad hurricane? Well I have! Actually, multiple a year! Due to the tropical atmosphere in The Bahamas, we get hurricanes all the time. As you know, in a hurricane there is a lot of thunder and lightening. For this reason, it is smart to keep our electronics inside of a metal box so that if our house were to get struck by lightning, our devices would be okay. Objects such as DVD players and computers are put inside of metal boxes to protect them from getting an electric shock and breaking. Charges buildup on the corners of objects making them more susceptible to shocks, so if this object were to (lets say get struck by lightening) the wires and everything inside of it would get fried and it would be useless. But, if this object were to be placed inside of a metal box, it would be saved. This is because when the charges attempt to build up on the corners, the metal displaces them and they all become neutral. This keeps the device from having a sort of charge and keeps it safe from breaking. 

7. It takes a lot of effort to load up the car for a beach day with bags and coolers and a paddle board. This is where a ramp could really come in handy! If I was trying to load a cooler (200N) into my car using a ramp, I can find out how much force I am actually putting into it, with the help of my simple machine. (We must remember that a simple machine does not decrease the amount of work done overall, it just breaks it up into smaller increments by using a longer distance so that it feels easier.) If the ramp was 10m high and 10m I would solve a problem like this...

Work-in = Work-out

F-in • d-in = F-out • d-out

F • (10) / 10 = 200 • 10 / 10

F = 200N

8. NO ONE pays attention to the traffic lights at home. Almost everyone is a terrible driver and I can't count how many silly car accidents I have seen over the years. If Bahamian drivers did listen to the traffic lights however, they might know how they actually work. I sure do! This is how.... 

A traffic light knows to change because of the process of Electromagnetic Induction. Beneath the concrete, at a traffic stop light, there is a HUGE loop of wires. When a car moves over the wires, a change in the magnetic field is caused. This, in turn, induces a voltage. The voltage then causes a current and this current sends a signal to the traffic light telling it to change. 

9. When i'm at home, I love to take pictures! I never knew what went on inside of the camera until this year in physics class! A camera has 2 oppositely charged plates inside of it. These two plates are NOT connected. You add charges to each plate, thus increasing the Force and energy of the electric field between the plates. When you briefly connect the plates (push the button on your camera to take a picture) energy rushes from one plate to the next and a light is produced (flash.) You cannot use flash continuously because you need to give the charges time to build up enough to create light. 

10. Fishing is a major industry in the Bahamas! My dad, my uncle, and almost every one of our family friends goes fishing on a regular basis. Sometimes, I go with them. One time (over christmas break) I realized that when I was reeling in a fish, I was using torque. Torque is what causes rotation. An object needs two things to have a torque, a force and a lever arm. In this situation, I was the force and the fishing rod was the lever arm. If I had a super long fishing rod, I wouldn't need to exert a lot of force. Oppositely, if I had big 'ol muscles, I wouldn't need to have a long fishing rod.

AND THATS 10 THE TOP 10 PLACES I SEE PHYSICS IN THE BAHAMAS!!!!!!!