End of the Year

 

http://geology.com/articles/what-is-earth-science.shtml

             

          Well, it’s been a fun year in physics. We got a lot done, especially in 4^th quarter. So, about this project… Honestly, I thought we did very well. We did our best to solve the problem that we had identified, and we did all that we could in the time given to us. Yes, there were some bumps along the way, but we definitely got things done. Overall, I think our teamwork was good and our ability to get things done. If something needed to be done for the project, someone would always step up to the plate. There were also some unforeseen complications, however, which hindered our efforts. On some days, the weather restricted us from hiking and therefore, working on our project. Another complication was that some group members were quite busy this semester, and could not make every group meeting. These complications weren’t too bad, but there was really no working around them. Personally, I learned a lot from this project. I learned about water flow, the watershed, and the history of our campus. Along with this, I learned team skill, cooperation, and time management. Hopefully, later on people will be able to continue this project, as I know I will during my senior year here at Kamehameha. There will need to be adjustments, like resource acquisition, garnering of support, etc., but there’s nothing major to change, well, maybe focusing on one part of the stream rather than the whole. In short, I believe that this was an excellent project and one of the best ways to do science: hands on!

Electricity

This week in Physics, we learned about electricity. Many things in our daily life are based on the use of electric energy. Our homes, cars, and our lives to a certain extent, are powered by electricity. The picture above shows a common household item (at least, for a teenager). This is an Xbox 360 controller, which  uses electricity to run. The controller is hooked up to the Xbox to charge, however, it runs on a series circuit of two AA batteries.

Electric Charges and Forces

This week in physics, we learned about electric charges and forces. This means that there are differing amounts of electrons and such in a given particle, which makes up its charge. Positively charged things will naturally attract to negatively charged things, bringing them together. These particles will stick and hold together, and be hard to force apart. One such example is the picture above, which shows some magnets on my fridge. These magnets are attracted to the fridge through a charge, which makes them stick.