to infinity and beyond...

Watch it in high quality! (HQ)

Like I said, physics is everywhere; infinity beyond included. During class the other day we were learning about standing waves. The demonstration with the fan and strobe light was the best so far, hands down, but it reminded me of something even cooler: this thing I saw at California Adventure. I instantly thought of the relation because of the sight of the flashing strobe lights. It was the same sight that made us leave the exhibit because it made our friend, who already wasn’t feeling good from Tower of Terror, queasier. I didn’t really know the exact name of this supercool thing, so I googled it using toy story and strobe light. I found out that the thing was actually a zoetrope, or a pre-cinematic rotating device that creates the illusion of movement. The Toy Story zoetrope is a modern zoetrope in 3D, and uses flickering strobe lights to simulate movement. It was created in 2006 during Pixar’s 20th anniversary animation celebration and was brought to California Adventure’s animation building to demonstrate animation. The zoetrope has a bunch of Toy Story character models, and the adjacent models of a single character represent what usually are sequential frames of film; meaning that each model varies slightly in shape or action—like a flipbook). This is what you will see during the first part of the clip. You won’t get the full animation effect until the lights get dim and the strobe lights turn on. Like in standing waves, and our demonstration with the fan, the frequencies of both the strobe lights and the spinning models match, therefore creating the effect of animation. The term standing wave is often applied to a resonant mode of an extended vibrating object. The resonance is created by constructive interference of two waves which travel in opposite directions in the medium, but the visual effect is that of an entire system moving in simple harmonic motion or ANIMATION! The models actually spin once per second, too fast for any eyes to comprehend, but when the strobe light flashes which occur 18 times per second, they produce standing waves, which we are able to perceive as movement. If the frequency of the flashing were to increase and still match the movement of the models, we would see more movement; like how in class when we reached increasingly higher harmonics, we saw for example, 6 blades instead of 3. Well, hope the clip works; I figured it’d be better than my super short one.

disneyland baby!

Over spring break I went on the California College Tour where T-Flem, our fearless leader, took us through the darkness that is college. But physics was never far from our minds-the stuff was everywhere! Even at Disneyland, where school should be far from our minds, physics kept popping up. While in line for Astro Blasters, I saw a GIANT etch a sketch and batteries, and basically all of the rides (like California Screamin and Splash Mountain) just oozed physics. So the etch a sketch stood out mainly because we just covered magnetism and those fun metal shavings. Even though in class I think we played with magna doodles, the etch a sketch does contain aluminum powder which clings to the screen. And the batteries were a pleasant reminder of the numerous labs in which we conducted electricity and learned to complete circuits. Moving onto California Screamin, I was able to truly see the power of potential energy. When the ride first started, we were shot up the first hill super fast. But once we hit the top of that first hill, the conversion of potential energy to kinetic energy was what drove us through the rest of the ride. And if I had too, I could draw the FBD as we flew through the loop in the middle of the ride. Hah. We experienced free fall as well during Tower of Terror. After ascending to the top of the "elevator shaft" for a moment we were suspended in the air then suddenly fell, under the force of gravity. And even though all of the riders were different masses, we all fell with the same acceleration. In Splash Mountain, physics truly prevails because no seat belts are used. Even though some of us slightly lifted off our seats, physics kept us safe. And come to think of it, all throughout the park, we could hear the doppler effect in action as riders screamed at ridiculous frequencies as the zoomed through the rides. Overall the trip was a fat plus and Disneyland definitely added to it. Even though it was a bit much when our thoughts kept getting interrupted by physics realizations (and at Disneyland too!), it was a good feeling knowing how things worked. I guess other people feel the same way cuz my uncle said that Disney has this education series where they teach kids the physics behind all the magic. But I gotta say; I think my physics encounters with Disneyland were pretty cool already.