Carnival Fun!

Last weekend, I went to the Punahou Carnival with my sister. I can't believe so many people can be at one place at one time. There were a swarm of people. I constantly had to squeeze between them just to get through. The main reason we went to the carnival was to check out the white elephant. You can find a lot of good stuff at cheap deals. Unlike last year, they didn't have bags to stuff whatever you want in it for a certain price like $5. Bummers....but we still got good stuff! Anyways, besides going to the white elephant, we walked around and went to the game booth. A lot of the games had signs with flashing lights. Those flashy lights reminded me of physics. Particularly circuits.

Light bulbs light up because they are connected to a circuit. All circuits have a voltage difference in which electrons flow from high voltage to low voltage and a closed pathway. In the case of the flashing light bulbs, electrons from a voltage source flow into the light bub causing it to light up then leave the bulb. The higher the voltage within a bulb, the brighter it is. Less resistance could also make the bulb light brighter. When the current within the circuit moves faster, more work is being done in the same amount of time, producing power.

Voltage

Batteries are essential to our lives because we use them to power our appliances. The batteries power can be explained through the concept of voltage, which is what we are currently looking at in electrostatics.

Chemical energy within the battery allows it to operate and separate the negative and positive charges. In order to separate the charges, the battery must do work on the charges. This work is called voltage.

Voltage is a ratio of potential energy per charge or work per unit charge. The SI units for voltage is volts. One volt is equal to one joule/coulomb.

I can't imagine what I would do without batteries. Now that I think about it, batteries really have a lot to do with physics, especially with electric potential energy and what goes on within the battery to produce power. Thank goodness for batteries!