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Inter-High School Physics Quiz Bowl 2008

Junior Philippine Physics Society (JPPS)
PHYSICS DEPARTMENT
Silliman University

Held in AVT1; 2pm February 22, 2008;

3rd - Negros Oriental High School
2nd - Camanjac National High School
1st - Dumaguete Science High School

Hard at Work

As we head towards our main event, the JPPS members are hard at work doing the final preparations. We hope to see you there!

WHAT: Inter-High School Physics Quiz Bowl 2008
WHO: Negros Oriental High School, Camanjac National High School, Dumaguete Science High School
WHERE: AVT-1
WHEN: 2PM; Friday, February 22, 2008

You are invited to watch. Trivia questions and prizes await you, the audience! Bring your friends.

HARD AT WORK (since 10AM, FEB 22, 08)

Honorables

This year, out of the 26 BS Physics students, 16 earned the right to be awarded during Honors Day at the Luce Auditorium last Feb 15. The SU Physics family congratulates the following:

College Honors:

Evelyn Alderite, 2nd Yr
Jason Ray Crispo, 3rd Yr
Marvin Flores, 3rd Yr
Maria Lourdes Anne Lee, 3rd Yr
Kay Marie Martinez, 3rd Yr
Eliel Paglinawan, 3rd Yr
Ronmel Ross, 3rd Yr

Class Honors:

Louie Jay Amante, 2nd Yr
Joyce Ann Angot, 3rd Yr
Wenneth Jean Fuentebella, 3rd Yr
Francis Frederick Quiogue, 3rd Yr
Jan Ina Ho, 2nd Yr
Algrace Bellingan, 1st Yr
Izzy Martin Maxino, 1st Yr
Jonathan Andro Tan, 1st Yr
Katherine Celia Teves, 1st Yr

Upcoming SU Physics Events

Now that we're back, we have a bunch of activities for February and here they are!

1.) The Silliman University Junior Philippine Physics Society (JPPS) will hold its annual Physics Quiz Bowl in the month of February of 2008. Various high schools in Dumaguete City, Philippines will be competing in the event. There will be three rounds of difficulty from the easiest to the hardest. More updates soon!

2.) This month, we will FINALLY be updating the video of "Ask The Physicists" found on YouTube. Ask the Physicists is a web show where you can ask us questions related to our field. Don't be shy. Send us something trivial!
[link]

3.) We finally have a podcast where we talk about physics, technology, and a little Silliman U news in between. A podcast is like listening to the radio but its playable on demand. You can download it onto your MP3 player and play it anytime you want or use the RSS feeds and get them via iTunes! Stay tuned for updates.
[wikipedia definition of podcast]

4.) Oh, and since National Astronomy Week is just around the corner, we might have some sky viewing activites for the college students at the university. Just look at your college bulletin boards to see if we'll host the occassion.

Enjoy!

National Astronomy Week

February 18 - 24 is the celebration of National Astronomy Week, which is held every 3rd week of February. The theme of the celebration is: Enhancing the awareness of the public on the International Year of Astronomy 2009 (IYA2009). PAGASA will be conducting the following activities: astronomy lecture, stargazing and telescoping sessions, film showing and planetarium show. Astronomy related organizations are invited to do activities in their areas and promote an advocacy on astronomy.

Have FUN with physics

1. Most roller coasters are designed with elliptical loops in order to limit the centripetal accelerations experienced by the passengers. The elliptical loops are positioned with the major axis is perpendicular to the Earth. This ellipse has a major axis AM, a minor axis am, an eccentricity of å and the ride is designed to give riders a feeling of weightlessness at the top of the loop. Find the following, expressing all answers in terms of the eccentricity and the major axis.

a) Minimum velocity needed at the top of the loop. so far: Fnormal +mg = (mass x velocity top squared)/radius

b) The radial normal force at the minor axis under the condition of a)

c) Net normal force experienced by the passengers at the minor axis asthey move towards the top of the loop. Discuss the results aseccentricity approaches zero and one.


2. A pirate ship is moving along the coastline, trying to overtake a merchantship making for a harbor. At the rear of the merchant ship flies a flag. You are sure that the ship can be convinced to surrender if you can blow the flagoff with a single shot! You’ll have to set the fuse to the proper length so the cannonball explodes just as it reaches the flagpole. The cannon mounted on the front of your ship has a maximum horizontal range of 950 meters (at 45degrees), so you’ll use it to make the shot.Consider the following in making your calculations: The straight -line distancefrom your cannon to the flag is 650 meters due East. Your ship has a speed of3 knots with respect to the water surface at a heading of 45 degrees south of east. The merchant ship has a speed of 4 knots with respect to the watersurface and is heading northeast. The fuse in the cannonball burns at a rate of2 cm/second. The flag is mounted at the same height as the cannon. Hint:transform to a coordinate frame attached to the cannon

a) You’ll want to keep the trajectory low, so the other ship can’t take evasive action after your shot. If your angle of elevation is to be a maximum of 30 degrees with respect to the water surface, what length of fuse is needed?

b) How long after sighting the ship will you take your shot?

c) With respect to the direction of travel of your pirate ship, at what angle should you aim the cannon when you fire the shot?

You may need physical constant not provided in these problems. Look them up. Show all calculations.Express answers in scientific notation with 3 significant digits of accuracy.


3. In a region of space near a group of charged particles, the potential energy function can be written as a function of distance from the center of the group. In particular, the potential energy may be written asU(x)= x4/5 – 15x3 + 125x2 +100which has units of electron-volts when x is in centimeters.Knowing that the forces exerted by charged particles are conservative, answerthe following questions about an electron in the region within 20 cm of the center of the group

a) At which locations within this range will the forces acting on theelectron be in equilibrium?

b) Which of these are stable equilibrium locations?

c) What is the maximum velocity (m/s)that an electron can have if it is toremain ‘trapped’ within the region?

d) What fraction of the speed of light is this?

Ubuntu on my AMD64

I managed to install Ubuntu into my HP Pavilion DV6604nr (AMD 64-Bit AthlonX2) last night. But I'm still trying to figure out how to dual boot between Ubuntu and my new Windows XP OS. Pics below.