Blog 2

In physics we're starting to learn about projectile motion.  Projectile motion is parabolic due to the force of gravity.  At first, I had the hardest time thinking of where to find an example of a parabola, when in reality, parabolas are everywhere!  I found the perfect example of a parabola at my own house.  This is a picture of the water fountain in front of my house, which forms a parabola when you turn it on.  If there wasn't such thing as gravity, the water  would've continued to rise higher and higher and never come back down.  Luckily, it did, and I got to drink some water.   If I were to place a hose at the exact same height as the water fountain, facing downward, both the fountain and the hose water would reach the ground at the same time.  This is because gravity only affects vertical velocity, not horizontal, so the water is accelerating towards the ground at the same rate.

Today I drove from home to church and back home.  From the moment I backed out of my garage, I was accelerating.  I had a low velocity because I didn't want to hit anything around me as I was in reverse.  When I drove in the residential areas I remained at a velocity of +25 mph, but when I reached Kamehameha Highway, I accelerated to reach 35 mph.  Of course, since I'm just beginning to drive, I did not accelerate at a constant rate because I kept jerking.  Each time I came to a stop sign or stop light, I gradually accelerated negatively until I came to a complete stop at the stop line.  Also, whenever I reached a turn I had to step on the brake and lower my velocity so I could remain in control of the car and turn safely.  After church was over, I drove back home and pulled into my garage.  At that point, my displacement was zero.