Hammocks are super comfortable and fun but i didnt know that there is physics in a swinging hammock. In this picture Amanda and i are swinging unusually high because some of our teammates were pushing us (later on we actually flipped the hammock because we were going super high then someone tried to jump on. good times). This is an example of resonance. The people pushing us are the driving force, and are pushing at the driving frequency. When the driving frequency matches the natural frequency of an object its called resonance. Natural frequency is the frequency at which an object wants to vibrate. Resonance requires good timing rather than a lot of force.
ohyeah & squeezing 6 people in a hammock & trying to swing as high as you can is NOT a good idea. The hammock gets stretched & people fall out. Just dont be the person on the edge/sides or top.

Today at softball practice i was standing on the side waiting & relaxing for a little while when i realized that picthing is all about torque. The correct release point to throw a strike is right by your hip. If the ball goes in the dirt, you released the ball too early. If the ball goes too high, you released too late. This makes total sense because when the ball is released it will fly tangent to the circle. Releasing the ball earlier or later will change the angle that the ball will fly. Physics also explains why taller pitchers can pitch faster, or at least have an easier time pitching fast. Torque causes or opposes rotation and depends on force and the lever arm. The lever arm is the distance from the axis to the force. For a pitcher the lever arm is the length of her arm. Taller girls have longer arms and therefore can create more torque and pitch faster.

As i was going through the pictures on my camera i found this random picture of two anonymous people in the training room and thought wow look theres outlets in this picture! These outlets provide electricity for us to charge our phones, turn on christmas lights, etc. Electric current would run through the wire connected to the outlet. Outlets have two holes in them, one for the current to enter, and one for them to leave. The entry & exit holes switch super fast though so you can't stick a fork or other metal object into one of the holes thinking you have a 50/50 chance of getting shocked. The electrons move from the negative side to the positive side (it tries to balance the charge) and the conventional current moves in the direction opposite to the direction the electrons move.

This year i helped out at the Iolani Classic and watched a decent amount of basketball. i realized that there's a lot of physics in basketball like projectile motion. When the ball is shot its velocity can be broken up into x (horizontal) and y (vertical) components. In the x direction its acceleration is 0 m/s^2 because it travels at a constant rate. In the y direction the balls acceleration is -9.8 m/s^2 due to gravity. The time that the ball is in the air depends on how high the ball goes. If a ball is thrown straight up to 25 feet and another ball is thrown forward (the peak is at 25 feet) they will land at the same time. This picture is me and my friend Jamie with DeMarcus Cousins and Kentari Nettles. and no we're not sitting down. we're just short.

Today i went to my grandma's house for dinner and tossed a tennis ball around with my cousin Caiden. When he threw me the ball i saw that it was spinning and realized that it has rotational motion. Rotational motion means that the axis is within the object. There is a distinct difference between rotational and circular motions. Rotational motion is like spinning around in place, and circular motion is like walking around a track. Rotational motion has torque. Torque is defined as a force that causes or opposes rotation. The equation for torque is τ = rF when the force is perpendicular to the lever arm. The lever arm is the distance between the force and the hinge/axis. τ is torque, r is the lever arm distance and F is the force. With the tennis ball, the lever arm distance is the radius of the ball, the axis is the the center of the ball, and the force is Caiden's fingers when he tosses the ball in the air.

This past Friday i had a soccer game for jv soccer against punahou. We tied 0-0 :[ but i realized theres a lot of physics in soccer. Whenever the ball is kicked momentum is transferred from the players foot, leg, or head to the ball. Kicking the ball exerts more force on the players foot than simply stopping the ball because the ball has a greater change in velocity (final velocity - initial velocity). If the ball is coming at me with a speed of -5 m/s and i kick it to make it go 20 m/s (strong yah?) the change in velocity was 25. I had to not only stop the ball, but also kick it forward (in the opposite direction). This picture shows my back because as i was looking for a picture i realized that i make funny faces when i play. That punahou girl is making a funny face pretty similar to how my face looks in all the pictures. Except mine is weirder. So this picture is my favorite. for sure.

This friday was homecoming (duh) and as I watched the game from the sidelines with 2 super cool waterbottles in my hands i saw Kellen get his first tackle! When he came off the field and I went to give him water (since im such a dedicated watergirl) he told me how it felt like he absorbed the force of the guy he was tackling. Being the cool kid that I am i thought omg thats physics! Both Kellen and the WOLA player had kinetic energy, or the energy of objects in motion. The force (Kellen) was going in the opposite direction of the object (the WOLA player) so Kellen did negative work. His negative work stops the guy and lowers his kinetic energy to zero. The negative work decreases the energy. The picture right therrre has nothing to do with the homecoming but its the best i could do since i couldnt find any (I dont think Mr. Linsky posted the pictures yet). But it has to do with football so close enough I guess.