Newton's Laws: Crash Course Physics #5

High School Physics - Metric System

Motion in a Straight Line: Crash Course Physics #1

Phascinating physics.............

Did you know that if you have two straws, one in your mouth and one inside of a cup filled with a drink, no matter how hard you try, you will not be able to drink from either straw.  That is physics!

Physics is all about studying matter and energy in space and time and how they interact with each other.  Physics is also an experimental science.

The word physics comes from the Greek word that means nature.

Energy can be gravity, motion, light, electricity, and/or radiation.

Phun phactoids for physics:

Sir Isaac Newton discovered the laws of motion and gravity in 1687.

Albert Einstein is noted to be the most famous physicist ever.  He won the Noble Prize in Physics for theoretical physics.  On a side note, Einstein is also the co-inventor of the refrigerator.

The lowest energy of an atom is called ground state.

Did you know that sunlight exerts solar radiation pressure?  It does and on a clear day sunlight can be reflected off of a mirror that can be seen 25 miles away.  Crazy!

Light travels about 900,000 times faster than sound travels.

Sounds travels 767 miles per hour.

X-rays are another form of physics.  Wilhelm Conrad Rontgen produced and detected electromagnetic radiation in a wavelength in 1895.


Atoms are 99.999999999999% empty space and believe it or not, all the matter that makes up the human race can fit on a sugar cube.

The mass of our atmosphere is 5.500,000,000,000,000 (quadrillion).

Venus is the only planet that spins in the opposite direction to Earth.

Uranus is the only planet that rolls on its side like a barrel.

If you were somehow on Mars and trying to weight yourself for some unknown reason, because of gravity, your weight would be significantly lower.  For example, if you weigh 200 pounds on earth that translates to about 76 pounds on Mars.

Light from earth takes only 1.255 seconds to reach the moon.

Israel is the lowest location on earth (400 meters below sea level).  The ever famous Dead Sea is located there.    The Dead Sea is so dense with salt water (hypersaline), you can actually float on it.

Crazy!  Cosmonaut Sergie Avdeyev was in space for 747 days and when he returned, he was one fraction of a second younger.

Alchemy of diamonds.  Turns out you can convert graphite into diamonds by applying a temperature of 3000 Celsius and a pressure of 100,000 atm.  I need to try this!

If you throw a tennis ball in space, it would just keep moving in a straight line with the same speed forever!  This is because space has no resistance to motion.

Pretty interesting stuff physics.  Follow the links to learn more.

Links: Here, Live Science, ZME science
Interactive physics.
Experiments to try.

Newton and the prism. Apologia Physical Science Mod. 10.

Isaac Newton was a brilliant scientist that is without question.  He was also a brilliant inventor.  You can read my last post about Newton here.  One of Newton's many inventions is the glass prism.  Newton understood light in a different way than anyone else, and it is with thanks to him that scientist today now have a better understanding of light.

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Did you know in order to have white light, all the colors of the rainbow have to combine to do so? What?  Seems strange but it is true.  Newton understood this concept and created a glass prism to prove just that.  He could combine the colors of the rainbow and form white light.  You see, when light passes through a prism, the colors that make up the white light get separated out.  The reason for this is that each color has its own wavelength and each of those wavelengths bend to a different angle.

How is that possible?  Let's review what light actually is and is not first.

Light is not matter, and it has no mass.  Light is unique as it behaves both as a wave and a particle.

Scientist believe light is a form of energy made from photons (bundle of electromagnetic energy).

Light will behave in different ways depending on the type of matter it comes in to contact with, for example, light will pass right through some types of matter such as water or air.

This is known as transparent matter.

Some matter such as a desk or a horse reflect light, and this is called opaque matter.  When an object has both of the other two properties, it tends to scatter the light which is known as translucent matter.

More facts:

We all need light to survive especially sunlight which provides warmth, vitamin D, a source of energy, and photosynthesis.

In terms of physics, the term electromagnetic radiation is known to us as simply light.  Speaking in general terms, the human eye cannot see the entire electromagnetic spectrum.  For example, ultraviolet light and infrared light cannot be seen by the human eye.

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Did you know that some animals can see parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot? There are many larger insects that can actually see ultraviolet light.

Did you know that light moves at the fastest recorded speed in the universe?   That speed is 186,282 miles per second to be exact.

It takes light about 1.255 seconds to reach from earth to the moon.

Sunlight can reach depths of 262 feet in the ocean.

So that is a wrap on the prism.  All the colors of the rainbow align to form white light in a very specific matter.

Visit NASA for a great lesson plan grades 9-12.
Experiment to try.
Activities for the younger kids.
Here is a quiz on light.