motor!

VICTORY!!

try this at home:static electricity

I don’t whether it was because it was humid last night or what, but this took time! Anyways, basically, the charge on the balloon attracts the molecules of water in the stream. Since the molecules can easily move, the stream bends. First, I created a charge on the water balloon through friction (rubbing the balloon against my head caused electrons to transfer from my head to the balloon). Water is a polar molecule (meaning it’s neutral), as we learned, meaning that it has a dipole moment (oxygen end slightly negative and the hydrogen end slightly positive). As the balloon (which in this case is positive), nears the stream, the balloon’s electric field causes the water molecules to align. This is possible because opposite charges attract and the charges in the water orient themselves so that their negative ends move closer to the balloon and their positive ends turn away from the balloon. So, the net force of the water molecules is moving towards the balloon, deflecting the stream of water towards it. If the balloon accumulated a negative charge, the reasoning for the deflection would be similar, but opposite. Hope you can see the deflections...not super big, but there!

meter reader

I found it!! I asked my dad where it was and he told me that our meter is on the side of our house by the swimming pool pump stuff. It's not visible from the sidewalk and to get to it you either have to go through our backyard or garage. So, I asked my dad how they read it and he said that now they can just drive by and pick up the readings electronically. Pretty efficient. I didn't know but my friend, well his dad, is a meter reader for HECO--that's how my dad found out. Neat. I wonder how many kwh we've burned through...nice my hat, yah? but I don't know why it says Hines

MAGNificET indiana jones

So this Saturday, I went over to Remi’s to do some APUSH studying. But, like all of our “study sessions,” we quickly lost focus and somehow wandered over to the tv. That day we watched some Indiana Jones, Real Housewives of NYC, Hairspray, and did some Richard Simmons—hah! I love the Indiana Jones movies and always got caught up in the action. But this time, while watching the latest: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, I had the knowledge of physics with me. So, I knew better when I saw Indy and the Cate Blanchett lady, with her posse, trying to locate the “highly magnetized box.” At this point in the movie, Indy is kidnapped by the Russians and is being forced to find a box in a giant warehouse. The box has alien remains in it and Indy says that it is super magnetic. To locate it he takes some gunpowder out of a hand grenade and tosses it in the air. The "metal" in the gunpowder is then floats across the room to the box. While gunpowder does look a lot like iron filings, it contains no metal and is more like coffee grounds than powder. If you toss it up like Indy does, it would fall straight to the ground. And gunpowder in the presence of a strong magnetic field does NOTHING. As Indy approaches the box, he calls for a shotgun shell. He then breaks it open and pours out the lead buckshot pellets which instantly are attracted to the box and cling to its exterior. But I looked it up and wikipedia says lead is not even magnetic, it’s diamagnetic; which means that it is slightly repelled by magnetic fields. As the box is moved, even the warehouse lights bend toward it. Despite the metal lights are strongly attracted to the box’s contents, the Russians are able to load the box onto a metal truck and easily slide it forward. Later on, the “magnetic” skull attracts gold coins too. But gold is also diamagnetic and Shia even says that gold isn’t magnetic…I still love Indy, even with all of the movie blunders. But at least now I know that if I ever am forced to find a highly magnetic item, gunpowder probably isn’t my best bet.