On this lovely independence day physics was all around us, even in the fireworks. Remember the problem we did in class about a rock breaking into 3 different pieces going 3 different ways? That is kinda what a firework is, it starts as one piece and when it reaches its highest point it explodes into lots and lots of little pieces that go all over the place. If it was possible to collect all the little pieces from a firework and calculate their momentum it would add up to the momentum from before it burst into lots of pieces. These pieces are all going in different directions, have different masses and different velocities. Because momentum equals mass times velocity if a piece has a large mass it will have a small velocity, and vice versa. Basically the "Law of Conservation of Momentum" is true because the amount of momentum that goes in equals the amount that comes out. So I hope that when everyone was watching the gorgeous fireworks they were thinking of how much it relates to physics, cause I was.
OHMYGOD the fireworks tonight were great, and I was actually thinking about physics during the whole thing.... :P haha I like the way you talked about what was happening, and you made it clear and easy to understand !
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