Monday, March 16, 2009


As you may know, light
bulbs are an essential part of modern living. A lightbulb transfers electric energy to light energy. Alternating current is being fed to my house's power system from HECO. The electricity goes through wires in the wall and ceiling and into the bulb itself. A wire carrying current runs through the bulb, part of this circuit is tungsten. The electrons can not travel as fast in tungsten and therefore generates heat, part of which is converted to light. Though lightbulbs get the job done, much of the current used to produce light is wasted and released as heat energy.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Napoleon's Zealotry


In this photo taken during a weekend escapade to the beach, my overzealous Irish Setter Napoleon is charging towards my out-of-screen obese labrador T.J. Napoleon has to work much harder than usual to charge in the water because there is a resistance force to his movement: the water. The reason Napoleon can charge forward is because his limbs are exerting a force greater than the resistant force, and the net force is in the direction he wants to go. One might argue that this is impossible because of Newton's Third Law, for every action there is a equal but opposite reaction. But because of the friction Napoleon's paws have with the sand, Napoleon is able to propel himself forward at a sometimes dangerous speed.