Merry Go Round

A couple years back, I went on a trip to Seattle to visit my Uncle Jack. While there, we went to a park where there was a merry go round in the center of the park. My sister wanted me to join her on the ride. Now looking at the pictures I realize that when the horse goes up, you are increasing your potential energy relative to the ground and when the horse goes back down, you are decreasing your potential energy. Your kinetic energy on the ride however stays constant, as there is no increase or relative decrease in speed.

Shoot the Charlie's in the Trees!

Another blog from Vietnam. At the end of the Cu Chi Tunnel Vietnam Tunnel Trails, our entire group was given the option of going to a live firing range and shooting real weapons. I chose to shoot an AK-47. What we recently learned in physics is the relationship of momentum (mass x velocity) and how in each situation, an equilibrium between objects must be met. Therefore, the firing of the bullets from the AK-47 has a small mass but a large velocity; because the AK-47 has a large mass, the recoil will be much less than the bullet (large mass, small velocity). This is why when shooting a gun, the gun pushes back in the opposite direction of the bullet. We can say that this action "equals" out the momentum equation.

For safety reasons, at the firing range in Vietnam, they anchored the guns down into the platform so that 1) people won't pick up the gun and start randomly shooting others 2) so that people won't get hurt with the gun recoil.