Riding the Physics Wave

This is a picture of my brother Haakon surfing (because I couldn't find any good pictures of myself surfing). My impression of this course so far has kind of been like surfing. When you get out into the lineup for the first time in a day you don't really know what to expect, but you hope its going to be good. I wasn't really sure how I would like physics, but everyone said that if I liked biology then I would probably like physics too, and they were right. I worked hard at the beginning of the year, kind of like paddling to get on a wave, and the first couple of days were a little crazy, like dropping into a wave that is bigger than you thought, but for now I feel like I've gotten on the wave and my main job is to keep my balance and work out the kinks. I guess my only worry would be coming to a topic that I totally don't get, but that would just be like going back to chemistry, and I've learned that you can always get help and figure it would well enough to get by. I have been working hard and focusing and I think that my performance generally reflects that. I actually really like physics right now and I am kind of just riding the wave, trying to enjoy it, and hoping ti doesn't end too abruptly.

Inertia in Kayaking, Newton's 1st Law

This is a picture of the start of a kayaking race, all of the kayakers go from a position at rest to that of movement, meaning that they are providing a net force to overcome their inertia. The foot-wells of our kayaks have holes in them so that if water gets in them it can drain out as we kayak, however when we are at rest eh foot-wells just fill up with water because of the holes. I have always found it irritating that when we start kayaking too quickly from a rest position all of the water in the foot-wells rushes back into the seat area, rather than going out the holes in the foot-wells as it is designed to do. However at kayaking on Wednesday we were doing a workout that included starts, meaning that we had to go from a complete standstill to accelerating as fast as we would, and so of course every time we did a start all of the water from the foot-wells sloshed into our seats. It was at this moment that I suddenly realized it was inertia causing this to happen. Inertia describes the fact that an object at rest will remain at rest and an object in motion will remain in motion, unless acted on by a net force (Newton's 1st Law of Motion). When I am stopped in the kayak, my body, the kayak, and the water in the foot-wells are all at rest. However, when I abruptly start kayaking, I am applying a new force of the outside water, which in turn propels the boat and my body forward. Unfortunately, this net force does not act on the water in my foot-wells and so it stays at rest while the boat and myself move forward. Thus, it is not that the water rushes back into my seat when I start kayaking, but rather that my seat rushes forward to scoop up the water that is still at rest. When this realization suddenly hit me during practice I was pretty excited and I turned to my friend yelling, "its inertia!", but of course she had no idea what I was talking about or referencing.