Temperature and Heat Blog

Everywhere i go i see cracked roads and sidewalks.  It has been this way ever since i was a little kid.  I always used to ask my dad and mom, "Why is the sidewalk cracked over there?" and they would always reply, "I don't know, that's a very good question."  Over the past couple of weeks i have finally gotten my answer.  Mr. Heyler taught us in physics about thermodynamics which is about heat and stuff.  Somewhere in the chapter it talks about how gases, liquids and solids expand when heat is added to them.  The equation that illustrates the change is represented by: change in length= initial length*coefficient of linear expansion*change in temperature for solids and change in volume=initial volume*coefficient of volume expansion*change in temperature for liquids and gases.  This explains why the sidewalk has cracks because when it gets hot the concrete expands because of this law of thermal expansion.  When it cools off then the crack is still there.  This is why I see cracks in our roads and sidewalks everywhere.    

Football Game

This weekend we played Kamehameha in a football game.  While the game was going on i realized how much physics was involved in the game.  It reminded me of the time in class when Mr. Heyler was talking about the physics of football.  He was telling us that if you threw a ball at an angle and then threw the ball at its complementary angle then the ball would travel the same distance in both cases.  i remembered this when we had to kick a field goal and i reminded my friend of this concept, he then made two field goals.  The balls were not able to be blocked because he kicked them at a higher angle rather than kicking a line-drive and the ball going the same distance.  I also told our quarterback about this concept which allowed him to throw nice passes that were not able to be intercepted by our opponents.

driving

The other day while i was driving i came upon a yellow light.  i thought to myself should i stop or speed up and run through it before it turns red.  this made me think about the problem i had done for physics homework.  i was trying to calculte in my head what i should have done, except there was not nearly enough time for that,  in the end i ended up just stopping because by the time i finished thinking the light was already red.  this is one of the many things i have learned already in physics.  i know this will be a fun-fiilled year and i will learn a lot.