Here we go: So this week's blog was a son of a monkey to make. My whole Sunday got turned into one big poop thanks to this econ paper that I have been trying to finish. I've been sitting around all day trying to entertain myself and do the paper at the same time. I had to work last night, so I was left to do my journal all alone. Boo. Anyway, the paper made me super bored so I decided to entertain myself by making a really fun journal. My initial idea was to turn myself into a projectile by jumping off of my roof in a superman cape. Unfortunately, my camera isn't fast enough to get a good picture. Shucks. While I was on my roof, I spied my neighbor across the street watering his lemon tree/bush (I'm not sure what to call it because it is a really awkward size). This stimulated a brief period of reminiscing about my childhood. The story goes like this... So one day, my friend and I were bored. We were probably in sixth grade at the time (I know, bored sixth graders equals trouble). We got tired of shooting hoops and started throwing lemons from my neighbor's yard at each other. Our street is a dead end and makes a T with 18th avenue by the way. Our houses are near the top. Eventually we quit throwing lemons at each other and we decided to see who could throw the lemon the farthest. I played baseball at the time and I was confident that I would win. I reared back and let the lemon fly. It flew in a perfect parabolic pattern for quite a distance. Gravity was causing the vertical velocity vector to accelerate (at a rate of 9.8 m/s duh) downward. It could also pull at a rate of -16 ft/s according to Cropsey. We were watching intently to see where it would land, and all of a sudden... THUNK! A black Escalade comes zooming past the exact spot that the lemon is about to land, and the lemon strikes the car almost exactly in the middle of its roof. The car comes screeching to a halt, and we just book it out of there. That was pretty scary. So anyway, I'm sitting on my roof reminiscing about this moment when an idea hits me. I should create some projectiles for my physics journal. In honor of the sixth grade me, I used fruit. Just so you know, a projectile is anything that is dropped, shot, or thrown and than travels under the influence of gravity only. A projectile's velocity can be broken up into two vectors. A vector, by the way, is simply a quantity specified by both magnitude and direction. The first picture that you see is me dropping an apple off of my roof. I am not throwing it, so the horizontal velocity vector is zero. Gravity, though, is acting upon the vertical vector. As we all know, it is causing the apple to accelerate at speed of 9.8 m/s in the negative direction. If Maxxx actually reads this far, I will state-for his benefit-that, yes, I did eat the apple when I was done. It was quite tasty. The other picture is of me with the infamous lemons and a golf club. I am at the top of my street generating projectiles. Fun, Fun, Fun. Yes, I was aiming for the cars, but when you use a golf club the lemons just explode. The pieces go flying in all directions, and the juice gets everywhere (like in my eyes, Bachi huh). If the lemons did not explode, then they would exhibit a parabolic flight pattern. The horizontal velocity vector would remain unchanging. For the entire flight it would maintain the ultra high speed that it was hit at. If I had a stop watch and a meter stick, I could actually calculate this velocity with the formula: Change in X = Velocity times Time. All you need is the total displacement and the time in the air. The horizontal vector on the other hand is immediately acted upon by gravity once the lemon is hit. Gravity pulls at an acceleration of (-9.8 m/s). As the lemon continues to rise, its velocity decreases until it reaches zero. At this point, the lemon is at its maximum altitude. From there the velocity continues to decrease at a constant rate until it splats into the pavement or pegs an incoming motor vehicle with tremendous force. BOOM! Either scenario would result in a really big mess. I'm glad I didn't hit any cars this time. That would be potentially dangerous. Anyway, time to finish that paper. I've written more on this than on the paper. Yikes.
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