Right Hand Rule

At least he wasn't drawing beaver pictures of us like last time.



We were learning about Right Hand Rules the other day, and that is an easy method of finding out which way is the negative charge or north in an electrical magnet, where a conductor has a wire coiled around it. First rule is to curl our fingers the direction of the electron flow, which we did while having to say "meow". Why not. Anyway, after we curl our fingers, we point our thumbs, and the direction our thumbs are pointing is the direction of the magnet's north. We can do vice-versa to find out the electron flow with the magnet's north.

Pretty simple stuff, and if you have a thing for cats it would double the fun for you.

Magnetic fields

10 POINTS AGAIN GUYS.
We started magnets today, and I gotta say I'm pretty excited for it. I used to play with magnets all the time when I was little. Also one of my favourite songs is named magnet.

This is what you'll get if you search magnet on deviantart. IT'S AN AWESOME SONG OK.

So yeah, here's the summary of our reading today.

Magnetic Field: Force distribution of work at a distance.
As you probably know, the north end of the magnetic forces attract the south, while repelling another north. Vice versa for south. If you didn't know this, you didn't play with magnets enough when you were little. Or I was just overly fascinated by magnets. I may have devoured some as a child.
Test compass: type of compass used to find magnetic fields.
Ferromagnetic metals: Iron, nickel, and cobalt, which is attracted by magnets. All magnets are also made up of these metals.
Domain Theory of Magnets: magnets are made of dipoles (smaller magnets that are rotable) and produces magnetic domains when they line up.
Oersted's Principle: A circular magnetic field is formed around the conductor when charge moves through it.
Right Hand Rules: hand signs created to predict the actions of magnetic fields.
Electromagnet: wire coil around iron core making magnetic fields using electric currents.
Magnetic field strength is measured in T (tesla) and is represented by B. The formula for T is 1T = 1N/Am, which means when 1 meter of conductor is carrying 1 A of current, while crossing a magnetic field of 90 degrees and having a magnetic force of 1 N.
Solenoid: Coiled conductor that does things a bar of magnet does as current is passed through it.

Resistance

WOO another 10 point assignment. ARE YOU GUYS READYYYYYY.

Resistance: measure of the electrical current's opposition.
R=V/I, where R is the resistance in volt or ampere, in units of ohm (Ω), V is volts, and I is amperes.
Resistivity: measure of the resistance of a substance.
Ohm's law: Certain type of resistor having constant V/I ratio.
Gauge number: cross sectional area of a wire.
Series circuit: Loads being connected by one path, so that if any part of the path is broken, the current stops flowing.
Parellel circuit: Loades being connected in several paths, side by side, so that if one part of the path is broken, it is still possible for the current to travel through another path.
Kirchhoff's current law: Total amount of current going in a point where the paths connect (junction point) is the same as the total amount of current going out.
Kirchhoff's voltage law: Electrical potential increase in a complete circuit loop is the same as the decrease in electrical potential decrease in a complete circuit loop.
Conservation of electric charge and the conservation of energy shows that energy is not lost or gained in any circuit.

Chart

Name                         Symbol         Unit     Definition
Voltage                          V                V       Electrical force moving electric currents between two points.
Current                           I                A        Rate of charge flow at a time.
Resistance                     R               Ω        Measure of the opposition to current flow.
Power                            P               W        Rate of work done.

Blog 3: Energy Balls. No seriously energy balls.

On Friday at Physics we played with energy balls. Imported from China.
Wow I don't have to make a stupid joke for once for me to think the blog is interesting enough for me to not stop reading after 5 seconds!

This is what I expected. Obviously, I was severely disappointed.

They were ping pong balls with circuit stuff inside, so whenever we created a complete circuit, such as by putting two fingers of the same hand on the metal strips on the ball, the ball would light up and make weird UFO sounds.
Then of course the fun goes bye bye and we have to answer questions. About PHYSICS. Why do we have to answer academic questions about physics in physics class? Isn't it completely ridiculous?

Q1: Can you make the energy ball work? What do you think makes the energy ball hum?
A: Yes, by putting our fingers on both strips of metal. As our fingers touch the ends of the circuit, our bodies/hands create a complete circuit.

Q2: Why do you have to touch both metal contacts to make the ball work?
A: The electrons travelling in the energy ball through us requires one path to travel in and one path to travel out, and will cease to work if there are less then two paths to travel.

Q3: Will the ball light up if you connect the contacts with any material?
A: No, as some materials do not conduct electricity. Only conductors will work.

Q4: Which materials will make the energy ball work? Test your hypothesis.
A: Conducting materials, such as metal, will work. We tried this out with a metal ball, and it succeeded.

Q5: This ball does not work on certain individuals. What could cause this to happen?
A: Since the ball works by having its electrons become attracted to the protons of outside material, I guess that someone who's been negatively charged, like if they were rubbing against wool surfaces, they wouldn't be able to attract the electrons and unable to make the circuit work.

Q6: Can you make the ball work with all 5-6 individuals in your group? Will it work with the entire class?
A: Yes, as long as it is a complete circuit, the ball will light up. However it would be more risky for the circuit to fail as more people are added to the circuit, making the path more likely to break.

Q7: What kind of circuit can you form with the energy ball?
A: We can make a Direct Current (DC).

Q8: Given two balls (combine two groups), can you create a circuit where both balls light up?
A: Yes, by having one person hold two balls with their metal strips touching each others' while the other strips are touched by the person's fingers of separate hands.
Wow that is probably the most ridiculous sounding sentence I will ever write in this blog, huh?

Q9: What do you think will happen if one person lets go of the other person's hand and why?
A: Well, Mr. Question Nine, in my solution to the question above, it only required one person, and therefore there is no other person's hand to let go of. However, if you bow down at my feet and swear eternal loyalty as my slave, I may think about answering your question hypothetically.

Call now and receive our free monocle and Persian cat!

Now that Question Number Nine is my eternal slave number 99, I shall answer this question as if I had two people hold each balls on either side with one finger on each metal strip. Oh wait that still requires no hand holding. I'm confused as how you wanted me to solve this problem now. Did you want me to say "The balls will stop lighting up as the circuit would not be complete any longer" or something? Or did you want me to have three people with one person using each hands' fingers to touch one part of the metal strip while the other two hold hands and touch the other metal strips with one hand? Why would I want to do that? I already solved it in the same idea with one person.

Q10: Does it matter who lets go? Try it.
A: Did you want a parallel circuit? Maybe you should have been clearer. Mr. Questions, I'm starting to think you're making fun of me.

Q11: Can you create a circuit where only one ball lights? (Both balls must be included in the circuit)
A: Ok now you're just purposely annoying me. Yes I can make a circuit where only one ball lights, thank you very much. I already told that to Mr. Question Nine up there. Also, you should stop giving me orders, you fool, I am your future overlord. You do not want to mess with Lord Jessica.

Q12: What is the minimum amount of people required to complete this?
A: Do you want me to punch you? Because I am SERIOUSLY wanting to punch you right now. Two, ok? For the holy mother of god it's two people. Each person with one finger on each metal strip of one ball and when you want to switch one off you just have one person let go of one of the metal strips. Now go away, I want to go on facebook to collect more slaves.

Q13: What is the difference between a parallel circuit and a series circuit?
A: WHAT DID I JUST SAY. GOD. You PEOPLE. A series circuit has one path for the current flow and therefore if any part of the path is blocked in some way, such as a broken wire, the circuit seizes to work. A parallel circuit has two or more paths for the current flow, so therefore the flow may continue even if one of the paths are blocked.

Now go away, I need to plot your doom-I mean sleep.
Yeah. Sleep.
Cough.

Challenge: Create a tall tower of newspapers

This is actually events from yesterday, as we walked into the Physics class. A challenge was given. Actually, a contest. We were to create a stable tower of newspapers, given limited supplies such as the amount of newspapers and a length of tape. This was a contest.

I hate not being 1st in contests.

We ended up 2nd last place.

Technically, one or two other towers fell and our towers beat them, but GODDAMMIT IT WAS STILL NOT FIRST PLACE. Burger King would have been disappointed.

"I hereby declair you failure in life."

Angry at my failure, I had to research on the laws and methods of building amazing newspaper structures that would equal the structural power of CN tower so such disappointments will never occur again. Ok I lied. The teacher told us to write a blog about physics of tall structures and all that good stuff. Looking at my planner, I see I have to answer three questions about our challenges of that day. So here they are:

Qs: Explain the physics of tall structures, What makes a tall structure stable?, What is the centre of gravity?
A: I'm having trouble finding the answer to this and I forgot my textbook at school, so hopefully I won't get this too bad. My guess is that the mass of the structure's parts must be smaller as it goes up, as gravity's force at the top cannot be stronger then the bottom or it will collapse. The top will bring itself to the ground more forcefully then the actual base. Therefore, as the mass of the matter depends partly on the area, it would be best to have a flat, wide base, and get thinner and lighter as it goes up. The centre of gravity would of course be at the centre, as if it wasn't, it'd topple over (like your dreams)

I wanna live in a sideways house.

Blog 1: Electric currents

Thanks to electrical currents, we can light our rooms, read this blog (Why are you reading this), watch TV (who does that anymore), or play with our iPod (go play with your friends).

Physics

Today in Physics class, we read about electrical currents. Our teacher, who makes me think of a non-vulgar Peter Chao (Mr. Chung please don't search him up if you don't know him) gave us blogging for homework. Blogging. For homework. 10 points from the pages we were assigned to read. I don't even read blogs, nor have I written one. The closest I think I got to a blog was that article on a blogging award I read on a comedy site. I think I'm doing it wrong. Aw well, at least I won't be bored when I re-read this later for review. Here are the 10 points:
-Electrical current is a flow of charge of electrons provided with energy in an electrical circuit.
-Current is a charge flow rate that can be calculated by the equation I=Q/t, where I (or C/s) represents the rate of charge flow in amperes, Q represents the charge in coulombs, and t represents time in seconds.
-Conventional current is the positive charge flow model where flow of current goes from the positive terminal to the negative in a power supply.

An analogue ammeter, which measures currents. May or may not explode when you do stupid things.

-Direct current (DC) is when the current goes from the power supply, then to the conductor, then to the load (energy using device such as a light bulb) then comes back to the power supply in one direction.
-Alternating current (AC) is when the electrons goes the other way of the flow at regular intervals. This occurs through magnetic and electric forces.
-Circuit is the path of the current, and is what allows electrical devices to work.

That's not lighting up my room anytime soon.

-Electric potential difference is the potential electrical energy of a circuit's coulomb of charge. This can be calculated by the equation V=E/Q, where V represents the electric potential difference in volt, E (sometimes represented as W for work) represents the energy, and Q represents the charge in coulombs.
-You can also calculate the energy or work by putting the two equations together:
V=E/Q, I=Q/t
E=VQ, Q=It
Therefore, E=VIt.
-Like an ammeter, there is also something called a voltmeter, which measures the two points' volts/potential difference.

IT'S OVER. Hopefully it wasn't so bad for my first blog, I didn't want to make it boring for myself so I put in some stupid jokes, so sorry about that. I guess this would be the best way to keep things in my memory as I always remember things from computer texts, so hopefully this will get me an A+. Hahaha right good luck with that Jess :(