christmas phun

So this winter break was really fun and thankfully pretty restful…I wish it didn’t have to end so soon :/ But now on to the physics part. During our very cold soccer trip to San Francisco, you couldn’t help but being surrounded by the stuff. Even in our transportation—from our airplane ride into SFO, our van rides to the field, and BART ride into the city, we experienced displacement and acceleration among other things. Our total displacement for our trip for example was zero because we flew a bunch of miles to San Francisco, but flew about the same mileage back to Honolulu (in the opposite direction). While in our vans, we exerted a weight on the road which exerted a normal force back, allowing us to drive on the road. On the BART, we went through both positive and negative acceleration as we travelled in opposite to and from the city (Union Square). And even though we didn’t ride the cable cars this time, we watched them run up and down Powell Street as we went in and out of the stores. These cable cars run on a system of underground steel cables and pulleys, maintaining a constant velocity and tension. The actual soccer portion of our trip also embodied physics. When we struck the ball to make a pass or take a shot, we most of the time hit the ball off center, exerting a torque on the ball and therefore causing the ball to spin. And even though most of us can’t bend it like Beckham (yea that’s us, haha)…we could curve the ball enough for the most part to avoid a defender or play a good cross into the box. So here's us in our van, on the BART, with David Beckham ;) and making a pitstop on the way back to the hotel next to a really pretty tree. Wow that's a lot...I guess I'm feeling picture happy tonight

Back at home physics was present as well. Last night some of my friends and I went to Hawaiian Brian’s and played pool..and I didn’t lose! Well as the cue ball struck another ball, I witnessed an elastic collision and saw energy (almost completely) being conserved…just like in our homework problems. The initially stationary cue ball would move thanks to an outside force (you and your pool stick) then would transfer its kinetic energy to the ball you are aiming for. This exchange along with the help of the friction between the ball and the pool table causes the cue ball to stop and hopefully (if you’re good) the other ball to roll into a pocket.
Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!