I Tried to Break My Battery

In another exciting day of Pablo's life, I am trying to do homework on a Sunday with little success. I am typing my 3 page English paper up when my laptop decides that it wants to run out of energy to provide for my computer and shuts off. Of course I didn't save because that's just how life is (and there was no back up save). So I took out the battery and tried to break it. After I cooled down and hoped that my battery wasn't broken because I still needed it obviously, I looked for my adapter. At this moment I wonder what this adapter is for. At first I think it is just to charge my computer battery, which is right, but then I think a little deeper, I think into the world of science...physics. I realize that a battery produces direct current meaning it travels in one direction, repelling from the negative terminal and travels toward the positive terminal. I also know that an outlet in the wall produces an alternating current forcing the electrons in the circuit to travel first one way then back the opposite direction. Since a laptop is portable it does not plug into the wall and a battery has a different type of current than a wall outlet. I came to the conclusion that the adapter allows me to plug into a wall outlet and transfer energy from the outlet into the battery so once more I can have a portable computer. I'm glad it is called an AC adapter. Made my conclusion more persuasive.

Christmas in October

On a fine Saturday in the beginning of October, as usual, I am setting up for Christmas even before I set up for Halloween. As I struggle to untangle the wires of my cheap and somewhat retro Christmas lights I started to think about my physics journal and wondered what exciting topic I could talk about this week. Simultaneously thinking about physics I was also plugging in the Christmas lights. I began to admire my untangled, beautiful Christmas lights when all of a sudden I hear one of the miniature bulbs blow up and the rest of the lights lose there glow as well. Of course I am devastated because I spent so much time untangling those wires but I am also pleased because I realized that it was "physics in action." The cause of all the lights going out was either a short circuit or the lights are something called a "series circuit." The theory of a short circuit I easily canceled out because nothing else was plugged in or was on that would enable a blowout that would break the circuit. My Christmas lights are a series circuit which means that a continuous connection between all my lights has to be in effect in order for the current to flow. When one of my light's filament broke this caused a break in connection that is required for a series circuit to work. Since in a series circuit there is only a single pathway any break in the path would stop the flow of electrons and all the Christmas lights would go out. I did not want to find the broken bulb so I just hid the Christmas lights in the trash can. Shhhhh!