Christopher Vargas

Introduction
These applications below all deal with real life examples of how we experience physics in our
everyday lives. Physics is a branch of science that deals with the nature of the universe. It
explores a variety of topics such as matter, energy, gravity, light, waves/particles and so much
more. To me it’s the fundamental branch of science. Thanks to physics I’m able to understand
more clearly the elegance and chaos of the universe. So much is explained so smoothly and
then it just arises even more questions to explore. The more you know the more amazing the
world seems. I hope through these paragraphs you come away with some new found
appreciation for physics and its influence all around us.
Application Chapters 1-2
This week in class we learned about Isaac Newton’s first law of motion. Which is normally
taken as also being inertia. It says an object at rest will stay at rest and an object in motion will
stay in motion with the same speed and direction unless acted upon by an external force.
Essentially saying that object tend to keep doing whatever they’re doing unless another force
acts upon it. To be honest it’s not something I’ve thought much of but now that I am, I can see
how it’s literally everywhere during every moment of every day. In my personal experiences I
mostly think about how it relates to sports. I play basketball and when I’m closer to the rim I
shoot the ball towards the backboard to hopefully end up in the basket. The way this displays
inertia, or Newton’s first law of motion is that once I shoot the ball it would continue going
straight up until the wind and gravity slowed it down and brought it back down. However
before it does that the external force that acts on it is the backboard of the basket. Causing the
ball to rebound into the basket for a cool 2 points!

Application Chapters 3-4

This week we spent time in class learning about a variety of new things. More specifically we
learned about linear motion and Isaac Newton’s 2nd law of motion. What I found interesting in
particular is how much objects are affected by air resistance. I related this to my life in more
sports fashions. I love baseball and play any time I can. However I never thought about the air
resistance acting on a ball at any given time. Now I can see how whenever I put the end of a
bat on a ball the travel distance can be directly related to the air. Whether there are more air
molecules in the air than normal can affect the baseball’s travel distance. I notice this makes
sense now because stats in baseball’s Coors Field are often taken less seriously because of
altitude. Which now makes more sense due to the fact that’s its more elevated therefore has
less air resistance. They call it the “Coors” affect. I never stopped to consider what that meant
and now it makes total sense.

Application Chapter 5-6

The chapters covered this week were about Newton’s 3rd law of motion and momentum.
Newton’s 3rd law of motion can be said as “for every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction”. That’s what I wanted to apply to my everyday life. There are countless examples of
how Newton’s 3rd law of motion is everywhere around us. It is definitely one of most famous if
not the most famous of Newton’s laws. Now because I love sports I wanted to show an
example including sports. I think about this in terms of basketball. There’s a lot of movement
involved in basketball and without a doubt a very important aspect is your “hops”. How
athletic you are regarding your own jumping abilities. Now to jump you technically push
yourself of the ground to be elevated. One jumping is really just applying force to the ground
and what I learned actually happens is that the ground is pushing you back with that same force
just in the opposite direction.

Application Chapters 7-8

We learned about energy and rotational motion during this week’s class. I learned that energy
is both a thing and a process. Energy is all around us and we observe it in our everyday life
mostly as “work”. We’re constantly transferring energy from one entity to another. It isn’t
something that can be created or destroyed, just transferred which just hurts my brain to think
about. I can apply it to my life any everyone else’s in and infinite amount of ways, but I’d like to
give one specific example which is eating. Every day I eat and need it to survive. What I’m
essentially doing when I eat is transferring the energy in the food to myself. In turn I’m able to
then transfer that energy into something else and the cycle just continues.
Application Chapters 9-11
The topics focused on during this week’s course were gravity, projectile and satellite motion
and the atomic nature of matter. The most interesting of these to me is of course gravity. It’s
fascinating because technically speaking it’s a very weak force. The weakest of the four natural
forces. While gravity is weak in nature it is still very fundamental. Without it our whole solar
system would fly apart. My favorite things about gravity in our everyday life is how the suns
gravity is keeping us the right distance from it so that we are neither to warm or too cold.
Application Chapters 12-14
Solids, liquids and gases are the chapters covered this week. We can relate this to everyday life
in a lot of ways. The example I like is cooking. Since I love to eat. We often see liquids turn
into solids and so on. I see this mainly when boiling water for soup and other types of food.
Application Chapters 15-18
Temperature, Heat, and Expansion, Heat Transfer, Change of Phase and Thermodynamics were
the topics this week. These are definitely not the most exciting topics and they don’t generate
the type of buzz that other topics in physics do. They’re a little more difficult to relate to
everyday life just because of how little one actually thinks about these. I can relate the “change
of phase” the easiest. One example is how I put water inside and ice tray then put the tray into
the freezer. It changes from a liquid to a solid state.
Application Chapters 19-21
During this week’s class we discussed a few different topics and went over new material.  The
chapter I thought was most interest was chapter 19, which covers vibrations and waves.  This
chapter helped me realize in a critical sense how much both vibrations and waves surround us
every day and are essential to life as we all go about it.  I encounter waves on a daily basis. 
Sound waves, micro waves, x-rays, light waves and radio waves.  What I most relate to my life
has to be sound waves.  I enjoy music very much and would count it amongst one of my
favorite things in the world.  I wouldn’t want to go a day without music. I can connect this
week’s lesson to my own life when I think about how the waves produce this sound that is
enjoyable to listen to.  That even this art form could be broken down to a science is such an
outstanding fact.
Application Chapters 22-23
This week’s chapters were on electrostatics and electric current. I want to talk about electric
current. Basically it is the flow of electrons through a conductor which may sound boring but
isn’t. It is heavily involved in our everyday lives. One example that often isn’t thought of
doesn’t deal with physical wires or things like that. Rather it deals with our brain and the
electrons sent through our nerves to move muscles in our bodies.
Application Chapters 24-25
Chapters 24 & 25 were on magnetism and electromagnetic induction. We experience
magnetism since we are little. In early elementary we play with magnets and learn basic rules
about opposites attracting. The most impactful way magnetism is involved in my life is
compasses. The magnetism is always moving the needle towards the North Pole. This is
involved in my life when I’m camping or fishing out in the mountains.
Application Chapters 26-28
This week’s chapters were about properties of light, color and reflection and refraction.
Obviously all three of these chapters play a huge role in our everyday lives. For many people
including myself we rarely think about the significance of these topics and how drastically
different our lives would be if these parts of physics were any different. From the way our eyes
interact with light, how we’re able to see our reflection in mirrors, etc. My entire life I’ve
always said my favorite sense is being able to see. That’s mainly cause of color. I never could
imagine living my life without color. So naturally that was my favorite part of this week’s lesson
plan. Knowing now why exactly we see the sky blue is really fascinating. How it’s caused by
“scattering” and not because it’s a reflection of the water in the ocean. On top of that also
learning that objects are just reflecting the color we see and absorbing the wavelengths of
colors we don’t see gives a completely new perspective to everything from the colors around us
to the ones in deep space.
Application Chapter 29-31
Light waves, light emission and light quanta are the chapters covered this week. There are all
closely intertwined. Light is everything. Without it heat, vision, and pretty much everything
you can think of would be affected. Light waves are received every day from the sun and that
light helps us live and preform everyday task.
Application Chapters 32-33
This week we covered The Atom and the Quantum as well as The Atomic Nucleus and
Radioactivity. These are a little harder to grasp when it comes down to the nitty gritty. The
biggest relation to my life that involve these topics is obviously the atom. From early ages the
atom is taught to be the fundamental building block of our entire universe. Everything that
matters, everything that is matter is made from atoms. It very easily is the single most
important thing in our universe.
Application Chapters 34-36
The chapters covered during our last week were Nuclear Fission and Fusion, Special Theory of
Relativity, and General Theory of relativity. I personally love general relativity. Learning about
the relationship between space-time and how it’s affected by gravity is just mind blowing. The
most applicable form of this is GPS. The math and positioning of these systems are all heavily
reliant of Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity.

Reflection
My time in this physics course was very rewarding. It has contributed so much to my
understanding to the fundamental truths of the universe and its applications to our lives. I
would recommend to anyone who is curious about the universe to take a physics course.
Physics opens up new perspectives for anyone who takes time to understand it. It certainly
makes most problems we face every day seem pretty insignificant. Not life itself but the petty
problems that come along with human society. This class has helped me become a more
critical thinker and a better appreciation for time.