The Country of PaSay-ans: Science Entertainment (Part 1)

Half an hour later after our travel to the Filipino country, our EKstreme GPS tells us that we are now 14°33'12"N; 120°59'13"E of the globe and exactly four kilometers away from the center of the so-called National Capital Region. T'was time to get off the bus again and an overly large sign welcomed us with the words "Boom na Boom".

Once again after asking the natives our location, we found out that we were now in the country of Pasay where the enigmas of "SCIENCE" are said to haunt them. Rings a bell, right? Being on the run for scientific stuff, this was an opportunity for us to gather loads of Physics-related things. Thus to the citizens we said, "Fear not to those who HAUNT you for we shall HUNT them down!"

Mystery Case No. 1: The Anti-gravity Mirror
What? We've just discussed how two objects with mass pull each other toward themselves. Now, Arriane found this mirror that breaks the law of gravity. She looks like she's floating.


The Physics Behind:
A mirror is an object with at least one reflective surface. The most familiar type of mirror is the plane mirror, which has a flat surface.
A beam of light reflects off a mirror at an angle of reflection equal to its angle of incidence (if the size of a mirror is much larger than the wavelength of light). That is, if the beam of light is shining on a mirror's surface at a θ° angle vertically, then it reflects from the point of incidence at a θ° angle from vertically in the opposite direction.
In a plane mirror, a parallel beam of light changes its direction as a whole, while still remaining parallel; the images formed by a plane mirror are virtual images, of the same size as the original object.

That's it! The plane mirror reflects only Arriane's other half! Furthermore, we discovered that she's standing on an elevated scaffold just behind the mirror. Hence, her "elevated half" is reflected, making her body look like whole and giving us the illusion that she is "floating".

Good one Arriane!

Mystery Case No. 2: The Reverberating Tubes
What's creepier? Don's face or the mysterious echoes from the different-sized tubes? Maybe the latter. As Don strikes the tubes, sounds seem to reverberate from the inside, as if some howls were trying to spook us.

The Physics Behind:
 Sound is a regular mechanical vibration that travels through matter as a waveform. It consists of longitudinal or compression waves in matter.
Whenever an object in air vibrates, it causes longitudinal or compression waves in the air. These waves move away from the object as sound. Blowing across a bottle top can create sound. In this case, the air inside the bottle goes in a circular motion, resulting in sound waves being formed. Wind blowing through trees can also create sound this indirect way.

When the mouth of a tube is hit with the paddle, it vibrates; hence creating sound based on the explanation above. The resulting sound waves reverberates through the walls of the tubes.

Watch out for more cases and pictures in future posts.