Basketball and Physics

Today, as I was helping my boyfriend clean out his garage, he found a basketball lying around and began tossing it up in the air and dribbling it.  Then I remembered that this could be applied to what we were learning right now in physics. He threw the ball up at a certain velocity, and then when it stopped and started heading toward the ground, the velocity changed.  At the point where the ball stopped and turned to head toward the ground, the velocity was zero.  Also, the ball was accelerating at a rate of -9.8 meters per second squared, due to gravity. When the ball made contact with his hand again, the velocity was once again zero, and the direction changed. 

Cooking with Convection

This weekend I helped barbecue for a family get together. As the vegetables were cooking on the hibachi grill, my friend pointed out to me that the process in which they were cooking was physics! He explained to me that they were cooking by convection. Convection is heat transfer, by mass motion of air or water. When the air is heated, it becomes less dense. This causes the hot air to rise, and push the colder air down. Later, as the colder air is heated by the fire, it becomes less dense, and rises. This causes the convection cycle, and eventually the food is cooked. The foil made it possible for the convection cycle to occur, as it was directly exposed to the fire, and it trapped the hot air inside.