21

this week, i played drums for sr. luau and afterwards i wondered how drums worked again. last time, i was wondering about toms and snares and so on but now i started to wonder about cymbals. the drum set i used have 2 cymbal and a hi-hat which is kind of like a cymbal. one of the cymbal is called crash cymbal which is used to make a loud noise at the end of a song or the end of a fill. another cymbal is called ride cymbal which makes a high pitched sound and often used when the song is quiet and slow. hi-hat is used most often and it consists of two cymbal stacked like a pancake with a space inside (because cymbals arent flat, it has curved surface). What i wondered was, what makes these cymbals so different because none of them sounds the same. ride cymbal has the biggest surface area so when i crash it, it makes the dimmest sound. on the other hand, hi-hat though i never tried it, will most likely make the brightest sound when i crash it. but this doesnt explain why ride cymbal has the high pitched noise when i hit a different spot of the cymbal. we need to learn more physics to figure this out doc.

20

lately, i have been trying to learn how to play drums. it is quite difficult to learn but i still have joy in learning how. One day, it just happened to me and wondered, "hey, drums are perfect example to show what we have been learning this entire time!" First of all, the way drum stick bounces off the drums is the proof of newtons law and the laws of conservation of energy. the energy i put in (both potential and kinetic) to hit the drum is conserved (well not really but kind of). Because of friction, some energy must have turned into heat energy but the more energy i put in, the louder the sound becomes and faster the stick bounces back from the drum which explains this concept of cons. of energy. Also, the tension of the drum deteremines the pitch and frequency of the sound i make. The tighter drums (higher tension) give more higher pitched sound while loosened drums give off lower pitched noise. Not only i learned drums, i was able to review my physics knowledge, Doc!

19

this weekend i got static electricity hurting my finger while i was pushing my cart. well, it was partly because of my bad habit of dragging my feet as i walk. but anyways, i was walking, and then after walking around for a little while i got back to my shopping cart. when i tried to reach for it and touched the metal part of the handle, i got zapped. it hurt a little but not so much so i kept trying it over and over again until i noticed that someone was watching me do that. anyways, after a while, i began to take this in a scientific way so i can analyze how and what is going on. as i drag my feet, i collect all these charges and i have a concentrated electrostatic energy inside of me. when i touch the metal handle, the electric charges attract one another and thus making the electric energy. its something we just learned so i thought it was interesting doc.