Sunday, March 28, 2010

Polarized Lens

I'm not sure if I have to write a blog this week, but I'll just write one anyways. We studied polarized light last chapter, or at least we read about it. Back in the day when there wasn't any video games consuming my brothers' and my life, we used to go fishing by his bridge place, and my friend had polarized glasses and with them he could see all the fish in the water. As everybody knows, polarized glasses pretty much eliminate glare by only letting in certain orientation of rays, mostly the light rays entering head-on, so no glare comes from the sides to get in your eyes. Looking at water without polarzized lens, there is all sorts of refracted light from all the water entering your eyes, so there is a glare, but wearing polarized lens eliminates glare and so you can see the fish...If I didn't have to do this blog this week Ima be so PO.
The first image is a regular lens, the second is with polarized, which you can clearly see into the water.

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Electromagnetic Rays on a Plane

I'm not sure if I need to write a blog for Spring Break, but just in case...


I'm going on a trip to the mainland, and have an expected 20 hours of air-time there and back. Flying is a real hassel, though, because now they prohibit all kinds of liquids, sharp objects, and certain use of electronics. Especially while preparing to land, people in the plane can't use things like cell phones, radios, wireless stuff, and whatever. Not only because they could go flying when you touch down, but also because their electromagnetic waves can muff up all the sensitive equiment the airplane uses to fly and communicate with ground control, or else your plane might land on top of another. We learned about the lectromagnetics spectrum, and the waves that make up AM and FM radio. Cell phones and other wireless devices also run on radio waves, and if they are on the wrong frequency, say the one the plane is on, their communications will get messed up...Unless of course your plane allows it because it's equipment is all good, which is what a lot of planes are like today. Just don't be the guy who causes the plane to crash just so you could check on your streak...



Sunday, March 14, 2010

Blog is bigger than it appears



I have lots to do so I'll make this one quick. Mirrors on car, they say "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear. Ever wonder why? Well now we know, they are convex mirrors, on both sides of the car. So next time you see a big ass turck in your mirror, just remember that it's not as big as you think. What about the rearveiw mirror? Why odesn't that have a warning? Because it is a planar, flat mirror, so the image is virtual, but you have to think that it is behind you, because if you look at it and think the image is behind the mirror, you're about to get in a crash. Know what I mean? And plus, in parking garages, since we're on the subject of cars, have those convex mirrors so you can see around the corners, and that being said, they should have a warning :"Objects in mirror are farther than they appear." Gotta go do my 3-d project.

Saturday, March 6, 2010

Remote Controls



Well, I was watch ing the basketball game yesterday, and then during halftime, those annoucer dudes asked how many sequels there was to "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark" and to vote with my Oceanic Digital Remote Control. Well, I voted three and was correct (obviously). But that's not the point of this story...the point is remote controls. How do they work? Well, if you look at the front end there is like a little light bulb, but it never lights up. Thats because it is transmiting infared lights and signals to the receiver on my Oceanic Digital Cable Box, and infared is impossible for human to see because it is not at the right place on the electromagnetic spectrum. But just because we don't see doesn't mean we don't know about it, you know what I'm saying. We know infared lights travel like any other thing on the electromagnetic specturm, in rays and stuff, so they are also under the some of the reflective and refractive rules. Sometimes, when I point my remote at the blank wall behind me and press power, the TV magically turns on. Or when I point it at the white ceiling or at the white carpet, or at pretty much anything of any color at a length. The reason the TV turns on is because the infared beams bounce of the wall and floor and furniture, and are picked up by the reciever, and it changes the channel. The only time this doesn't work is if, like, my hand is covering the remote, or my dog is sitting right in front of the cable box, then the beams don't get from the transmitter to the reciever, and I'll be stuck wtaching the same channel until my dog moves...Look at these awesome diagrams I painted.