Photographing Physics By David Navadeh and Karley Whelan

Firing a Gun Newton’s Third Law states that to every action there must be an equal and opposite reaction. That means something cannot be done to an object without affecting the first thing. As complicated as that sounds, it is exhibited perfectly in this photograph. As the man fires the gun, the bullet is launched forward, an action. The kickback, or strong backwards motion of the gun against the man, represents the opposite reaction (the effect of pushing the bullet forward is that energy is directed backwards as well).

Blowing Out a Candle Before this picture was captured, there was a bright, vibrant flame burning continually as it uses oxygen to sustain itself. As is shown in this image, the candle has been recently extinguished by a puff of air. This is a phenomenon that many have experienced but not fully understood. The familiar curl of smoke that arises from the extinguished candle can be explained with simple physics. Due to the incomplete combustion contained in the candle wick and flame results in smoke: excess Carbon atoms that have not bound to Oxygen. These particles are, of course, extremely light and can thus be moved very easily as they float upwards, often in the spiral motion shown in this image.

Through the Lens The process of human sight begins with light. To see an image, like the numbers on this license plate, light must bounce off the image and travel to the eye. The light then travels through the lens of the eye to the retina and on through the optic nerve to the brain for processing. So what turns these numbers upside down or makes them smaller or bigger? The bending of the light. As the light bounces off the object, here it passes through a lens held up in front of the viewer's eye. The lens bends the waves of light coming from the object causing the light to hit a different place on the eyeball which signifies a different image to the brain. Therefore, with a convex lens the image will appear larger (and thus closer) as the light is bent inward and the waves converge. A concave lens will cause the image to appear upside down and smaller (depending on the location of the lens) as it scatters the light waves.

Water on a Cent Forces are all around us. They act on everyone and everything everywhere on earth. Most people are aware of the more common forces like gravity and applied force by name, but have only experienced the main force exhibited here. As the water droplets curve around the edges of the penny, surface tension forces act to keep the water droplets together, seemingly defying gravity. The cohesive intramolecular forces between the molecules are stronger than gravity and other forces (up to a certain amount of water molecules) and results in the image here.

Water Droplets Creating Waves Water’s fluidity lends itself perfectly to the creation of regular waves. Waves can constructively and destructively interfere, either building each other up or cancelling each other out. When formed by a droplet of water, such as in this photograph, the waves radiate around from the original point of contact, where the droplet entered the water. The many waves created by this disruption interfere with each other to form the circular waves seen in this image.