Rubik's Cube

The Rubik's Cube

 

The summer before my first year at 'Iolani, I attended Aiea Summer Fun. My mom had bought me the Rubik's cube for Christmas and after playing with it for several months I still was unable to solve the cube. Luckily, a girl at that summer program new the solution. Willing to teach me how, I thought that learning how to solve the Rubik's Cube would impress my 'Iolani students. I believed everyone would think I was smart. However, two other students knew how to do the Rubik's Cube as well, so I felt less special. Yet I am not here to teach you how to do the Rubik's Cube. Rather, I want to discuss the physics of the Rubik's Cube.

      

When I say physics, I mean the colors. The Rubik's Cube consists of six colors: white, yellow, red, orange, green, and blue. White and yellow opposite of one another. Likewise, red and orange are opposite of each other, while green and blue are as well. After learning about colors in physics class, I am disappointed in the person who choose the colors for the Rubik's cube. As a physics student, I would have chosen red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, and magenta. Red, green, and blue are the primary colors, while the secondary colors are magenta, yellow, and cyan. Different combinations of the primary colors create the secondary colors. Here are the equations:

 

R+G=Yellow

R+B=Magenta

G+B=Cyan

R+G+B=White

 

Not only do different combinations of the primary colors create the secondary colors, but different intensities of the primary colors create colors besides those secondary ones. For example, the orange color on the Rubik's cube would consist of bright intensity of red and dim intensity of green.

 

Another reason why I dislike the color arrangement of the Rubik's cube, is the opposing colors. I would have the colors paired like so:

 

Yellow & Blue

Magenta & Green

Red & Cyan

 

These pairs of colors are called complementary pairs. These pairs of colors will create white light. From the R+G+B=White equation, I can prove that. Yellow consists of R+G. By adding blue, it completes the equation creating the white light.

 

Although a minor detail, I dislike that the center white cube has a Rubik's Cube showing only the colors red, blue, and yellow. I would prefer having it show the primary colors instead.

 

Learning how to do the Rubik's cube was a lesson I will never forget (I can still do it after all these years!). Similarly, the physics about colors will always remain in my memory.

 



My Rubik's Cube in a cool patten to show all the colors

WAVE MOTION

WAVE MOTION

 

Currently I am learning about the waves. There are many types of waves: sound waves, heat waves, and light waves. While at the beach this weekend, I observed the waves there. Waves have two requirements: a medium to move through and an initial force. Ocean waves are mechanical waves, meaning there are vibrations in the medium. The medium of the ocean wave is the water, while the sources of initial forces are shakings in the Earth (which generate tsunamis), the friction of wind against water, or the passage of a boats, ships, etc. The overall medium, the water, stays in the same location. The ocean waves transfer energy. The larger the wave (bigger amplitude) the more energy that ocean wave carries. In the image below, the waves are barely noticeable. Those waves have little energy.

 

One way that physicists classify waves are by the relationship between their direction of travel, and direction of the motion's particles in the medium, in this case the water. The two categories are transverse and longitudinal waves. Transverse waves are when the particles of the medium move perpendicular to the wave's direction of travel. In contrast, the particles of longitudinal waves oscillate parallel to the direction the wave is traveling. Ocean waves consist of both longitudinal and transverse properties. The wave travels from deep waters to shore, or horizontally. The particles in the water move in circles, which proves that the particles has up and down, and side to side movement.

 

The image, which consists of sand displays longitudinal properties. Like in our homework problem, the "amber waves of grain" exhibit a longitudinal wave. The side to side oscillation of the grains is parallel to the motion of the wave.

 

Also in the image, you see that white wash or backwash. When two waves meet, they pass through each other. The passing through of the incoming and receding waves creates that backwash.

 

At Diamond Head: white wash and sand

From a higher viewpoint. Lots of white wash and waves

 

 

 



Physics on trip

PHYSICS DURING MY TRIP
Only on my trip for one and a half days, I noticed a lot of physics! Just at the airport I noticed the physics of the airplane and the metal detector. As I was going through TSA I saw the metal detector and immediately remembered the facts I learned about magnetism. One of the equations I learned from my magnetism chapter was that F=qvBsintheta. The factors that influence the amount of magnetic force of a positive charge in a magnetic field (right hand rule number one) is velocity. The speed of an electron is directly proportional to the force. The faster the electron moves, the stronger the force. In relation to the metal detector, when you are wearing something magnetic while walking under the machine, the faster you walk through it, the easier it is to detect your metal object. It is better to walk slowly through the magnetic detector, if you don't wish to be caught.

At the at airport I was sitting near the window and thought about the physics of an airplane. What is so cool about understanding how an airplane is able to fly is that you have to know all of Newton's three laws. To review, the first law is every object remains at rest unless acted upon by an external force. In order for the airplane to fly you need horizontal and vertical motion. So for the airplane to move horizontally, there must be more "thrust" than "drag". For the airplane to move vertically, the lift must be more than the mg (weight) of the plane. The second law is F=ma. This equation defines the amount of force produced by lift needed to overcome the effects of gravity. Newton's third law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This is why airplanes need wings. Depending on the angle of the wing, the airplane can have more lift from the air. So the wing pushes downward on the air, while the air pushes equally as hard upward. Even though there are other principles and science explanations of how an airplane flies, based on the physics that I have learned so far, this is how I perceive the physics of a plane.

MAGNETIC FIELDS

 

       One of the topics I learned in chapter 30, magnetic fields, is ferromagnetism. Ferromagnetism is a strong magnetic effect exhibited by the atoms of certain elements, notably iron. It is the cause of the magnetic field of commonly used magnets. It is the basis of the most familiar type of magnetic devices. For example seeing a magnet affixed to a refrigerator door. The three common elements that exhibit ferromagnetism are iron, nickel, and cobalt. Ferromagnetism is caused by the property of electrons known as spin, the angular momentum of an electron. Even though all matter has electrons, most materials fail to exhibit ferromagnetism because in most materials, the spin of each electron cancels out the spin of another electron in the same atom with which it is "paired." As a result, there is no magnetic field.

       The exterior of a refrigerator is typically not magnetic, yet if it is made of ferromagnetic metal, magnets will stick to it. Magnets will stick to the refrigerator because the magnet induces a temporary magnet in the refrigerator's surface. The actual magnet, and refrigerator's exterior then are attracted to each other. The picture of the lady on the calender sticks to the side of my brand new refrigerator. That is an example of ferromagnetism. However, the shiny silver part of my new refrigerator fails to attract magnets. That part of the refrigerator is not made up of either iron, nickel, or cobalt. My old white refrigerator was able to attract all the magnets in the other picture below.

 



  

Side of the refrigerator! Magnetic calnder

Magnets galore! I bought the Vegas one



My brand new shiny silver refrigerator

 

 

Static Electricity

Coming Home



Me (yeah I have to wear glasses) and keeper Jamie Rosenberg, finally coming home!!

 On December 31, 2011 the 'Iolani girls varsity soccer team and I would return home from our Arizona tournament. The successful win at the tournament felt satisfying. Unfortunately we had to leave on Christmas day. Luckily, we would return home for the first day of the new year. I had not taken physics yet, so I was not able to explain why my hair would stand up (I do not have much common sense either). I have a lot of baby hair so having all my hairs stand up was annoying. From physics I learned the three ways to create charged objects: friction, contact, and induction. Specifically pertaining to the physics of why my hair stood up, my hair became a charged object through friction. Sitting on the plane the back of my head would rub against the head seat. By friction my hair would gain electrons while the seat would lose electrons. Electrically charged, the strands of my hair would repel each other because each of them carries a negative charge. There are many instances like in a long car drive where your head rubs against the seat head. Being on the plane makes the static electricity even more obvious, however. When it is dry, like on the plane, there is less moisture in the air. Water is polar where one end is slightly positive and other end slightly negative. The polar quality of water prevents static electricity as charged objects become neutral. The dry air in the plane has less moisture so there is more static electricity. The cold air, from being so high up in the sky also adds to the severity of static electricity.