Blog 11

Last week Thursday on March 10 the earthquake hit Japan.  The earthquake created a tsunami that hit northeastern Japan and spread across the Pacific.  Like every other major earthquake that occurs on the ring of fire, this past one generated a tsunami.  Once my mom heard about the earthquake and tsunami warning, she made my family evacuate since we live across the street from the ocean.  We were pulling out of the driveway when my mom told me to go grab a flashlight in case power went out.  I hurried upstairs and found my shake flashlight which doesn't require batteries which I thought was good in case we run out of batteries.  The flashlight doesn't need batteries because it can generate its own electricity.  When shaken, a magnet passes through a coil. The changing magnetic field that is produced creates a changing flux.  The changing flux induces a voltage in the coil.  The voltage makes a current which consequentially makes power to work the flashlight.

Blog 10: Power Outage

About a week ago when the big storm passed over the state, I was working on my physics project which was due the next day.  After hurriedly getting my other homework out of the way, I began to work on my project.  It was about nine o'clock and that was when the storm was concentrated the most on the island.  I could see lightning and hear the thunder and the heavy rain.  I found my flashlight in my room just in case the power went out, so I could find my way around the house.  The power did go off and I reached for my flashlight.  Unfortunately, it did not turn on, but thankfully the power was restored in about a minute.  Once the power was back on I opened up the flashlight to see the problem.  The flashlight was a mag-lite flashlight so the top needs to be twisted for the flashlight to turn on.  In the flashlight, I saw my problem.  A piece of the lens had come loose and prevented the flashlight from completely screwing in.  Since a closed circuit and a voltage difference is needed for electrical appliances to work, the flashlight did not turn on.  I fixed the lens piece and then the circuit could be closed and current could flow through the circuit and the light bulb.  The batteries provided the voltage difference and once the circuit was completed, I would be prepared in case the power went out again.