Radio

Physics continues to play a part in everyday life, even while listening to the radio. Transmitters send radio waves at a specific frequency so that our radios can transfer them into sound. This allows the broadcast of many different channels. Listening to the radio also made me think about the differences between the voices of Perry and Price. What makes their voices unique to themselves? The sound waves that are emitted by their voice box contain different frequencies and harmonies. The graph of this sound wave would not be a definite sine function, but a graph of many crests and troughs.
The Mighty Mo contains many radio transmitters so that it can communicate with all military command.

Speed bump

I was driving in my car when I approached a speed bump. I slowed down and as the car's front two wheels fell, I could feel the frequency of the springs. This meant that physics was at work yet again. As I landed, the car bounced, as if it were in harmonic motion. The weight of the car landing created the force that would make the car no longer exist in equilibrium. This motion, however is not in simple harmonic motion. As shown in this picture, the car's shocks will actually compress a little as it rides up the bump in order to keep the body of the car at a constant level.
Upon landing, the shocks will become stiffer (higher spring constant) so that the car will not bounce. The spring constant of shocks are able to change because of hydraulics and air pressure.

hercules hold

This weekend I had the chance to participate in the world's stongman competition, by watching it on tv. In the event called the hercules hold, contestants need to hold up two pillars with pure strength. They need to exert a tension that provides a torque to balance out the weight of the pillar due to gravity. The height of the center of gravity multiplied by cos(o) multiplied by the weight of the pillar should be equal to tension * sin(s) * height of the chain * sin(o). Therefore the stongest man does not always win this competition. The one whose body fits the event the best will win. A man with a shorter horizontal span will decrease the ammount of tension required and the man who is tall enough to hold the chains parallel to the ground will maximize the tension value.