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Major Real-Life Areas Where You Can Apply Laws of Physics

by Feb 7, 2017Physics

Physics is one of the core subjects of the science stream offered by most schools, colleges and universities. Physics as a whole is allowed to study after students appear their 10th standard as they have the division of subject on that time. Physics can turn out to be extremely easy for those individuals who are interested in learning the subject and in turn understand the subject well. Unlike other subjects, physics more about understands than simply mugging up, this is what makes this subject so unique.

On the other hand, individuals who don’t like the subject or don’t have a proper understanding of the subject, things may very well turn out to be a nightmare. Hence, it is an important task for physics teachers all across the globe to try and make the classes as interesting as possible so as to ensure that the students understand the subject better. Another means by means of which teachers can increase the interest of students towards physics is by showing them real life applications of laws of physics.

In the event that you are in the teaching industry and are facing problems as far as the allotment of home tasks for students are concerned, then you might as well go through the article, “8 ways to set really helpful homework to your students.”

Major real life applications of physics

Well, physics finds its application in the day to day life of every individual. Irrespective of what an individual is doing be it getting up from bed, standing from a sitting posture, opening a door, opening a bottle, walking and so on, physics without a doubt will be playing a role. Listed below are some of major applications of laws of physics in our day to day lives:

  • Mirage:

Mirage is an illusion that is quite predominantly as far as dry areas of world such as deserts are concerned. This optical phenomenon is a major reason for heart break of numerous individuals in a desert, in search of water. This optical phenomenon is a major consequence of a characteristics property of light known as total internal reflection.

Well, we know that light can travel from one medium to another, but the question arises as to what are the changes that can be observed when light travels from a one medium to another. Before going into the description of total internal reflection, it is important to understand difference between a denser medium and a rarer medium.

If you consider two mediums (example: water and air), medium in which speed of light is greater is called the rarer medium while the other one is known as denser medium. When a ray of light travelling in a denser medium is incident on surface of the rarer medium at an angle of incidence greater than the critical angle for that pair of media, entire light ray is sent back into the first medium. This phenomenon is known as total internal reflection. Unlike reflection from a plane mirror, the entire light is reflected.

  • Cooking:

The laws of physics also find a wide range of applications as far as cooking is concerned. For instance, why are the cooking utensils made of metal and their handles made of non – metals? Well, the answer to this question is extremely simple; utensils are made of metals which are considered to be good conductors of heat so as to ensure that the heat is uniformly distributed throughout the matter which is being cooked.

On the other hand, the handles of these utensils are made of non-metals, in order to ensure that hand of an individual is not burned while he or she is cooking food. If the entire utensil was made of metal, then the heat being used to cook food would travel to the handle and end up causing serious burns.

  • Expansion of solids:

The expansion of solids finds a wide range of applications in our day to day lives in the construction of bridges, measuring body temperature, breaking of glass utensils on pouring hot liquid, fitting the iron rim on wooden wheels, riveting and so on. Another major application of expansion is the laying of the railway tracks using fish plates.

You should have noticed that gaps are left between rails so as to compensate for the expansion of the tracks due to heat when the train moves over it. In the construction of bridges, one end of the bridge is fixed whereas the other end is usually placed on rollers so as to compensate for the expansion and contraction during summer and winter.

  • Archimedes principle:

According to this principle, the pressure applied on any point in a liquid is distributed uniformly throughout the liquid and this distribution is independent of the surface area. This principle is perhaps the backbone as far as the numerous hydraulic devices are concerned.

  • Floatation:

The theory of floatation states that the up thrust of the liquid is equivalent to the weight of the displaced liquid. This principle has a major role to play as far as the construction of boats and submarines are concerned.

  • Land breeze and sea breeze:

These are major applications that are based on the non – uniform heating of various substances on the earth, the land and the water on this occasion. There are numerous other applications of physics in our real life. However, no single article would be enough if you considered listed them all.