Physics at the beach

During class day at Kailua, we all had lots of fun, some more or less than others. While I was pondering over whether that stinging on my arm was a jellyfish or a sunburn, my toe made contact with a rock, scratching it with immense pain. Later I discovered two good Samaritans pulled the rock out of the water and discovered a crab! An as they raised that crab menacingly up to me, i was struck by how that crab's former home changed my foots momentum. As I was walking through the water, I was at a somewhat, sorta, kinda, in a sense, moving at a constant speed. When I struck the rock the impulse of the impact causes a quick change in momentum, thus resulting in a large change in force leading to my toe being stricken with pain. If I took my time before kicking the crab's home i would've experienced less force on my toe and the crab probably would still be at rest at the bottom of the beach.

After about 12hours or so at school on Saturday, Advance Theater had its production of a collection of children stories to a bunch of over-sugared, over-excited little kids. In one of my costumes for Puss in Boots, I was dressed up as an ogre and Hanul graced my humble costume with his magnificent drawings. As I looked at the snake he drew on my arm, I realized it is like a spring. As a massive force was applied to the snake, there was a change in its position along the x-axis (or the y-axis in this case). The large net force continued to act on the snake until another incredible force balanced it out. When these two large forces cancel each other out the snake spring is in a position where it can't be compressed anymore. This equilibrium point is not the spring equilibrium, but the point where the two great forces cancel each other out. Oh the performance was great, with only one little girl scared to tears (sorry).

Dragon Corkscrew

As I looked at the some of the tricks we perform for dragon dance, I realized how friction plays a factor in reducing energy. The dragon to the left shows that as the dragon coil circles down the line, the energy decreases due to friction and the overall circle gets smaller. The decrease in the height of the dragon is due to the decrease in change of potential energy. The friction between the air and the dragon causes the players in the back to encounter more force against their motions. As the spiral moves along the dragon's length, the distance of friction acting on the dragon increases, while the work stays the same. But evident in the decreasing size of the spiral, there is a decrease in overall energy of the system due to friction, air resistance, and the guys in the back being tired out. They were probably tired out from doing the other work double ten weekend requires.

Moon festival lion dance

This weekend was August 15 on the lunar calendar and thus Chinese celebrate the annual moon festival. Zhongqiujie,中秋节, is one of the most celebrated holidays in the Chinese calendar because it was during this time the Chinese farmers gathered their harvest in the light of a new moon. During the reign of the Yuan dynasty by Mongols, Chinese rebels spread message of a revolt through the moon cake, and on the night of the moon festival, villagers slit the throats of all the barbarian soldiers and gained their independence.
In order to celebrate the moon festival, my lion dance group held our annual party complete with lion dance. One of the tricks can be seen to the right, when the head player is lifted by the tail player to make the lion taller. The top performer experiences a tremendous net force upwards in order to be lifted 6 feet off the ground. The potential energy of the head player increases, while the normal force exerted on the tail player increases.