Ask Your Resident Physicist Questions

Definitely. It'll help with your algebra skills (and if you get far enough or are advanced enough, it'll help your basic calculus skills as well). Physics is as much math as it is science.

 

I'm hesitant to share personal details like the college I'm attending, so I won't. I will say that it's a small, private institution in Ohio.
The most important concept in physics? I think that depends on who you ask. A quantum physicist would likely answer "particle-wave duality" or "the Schrodinger equation", for example.

 

Glad you find it interesting, bud!
-I think there will always be something I want to learn, but wontt be able to for some reason or another (time, money, etc). There's always new stuff to learn, so there may always be new stuff that I want to learn.
-At times, it can be that way, most notably around final exam time if I have a cumulative exam. Having to relearn stuff from earlier in the course in a short amount of time can be stressful. From a more general standpoint, though, I don't usually feel that way. My interests span a relatively small range of topics, which substantially lowers the amount of stuff I can, want, and/or need to learn.
-Depends how you define "be proficient at." If you mean "be more knowledgeable about," I'd probably say chemistry. If you mean "be better at," I'd probably say higher-level math simply because it's useful for higher-level physics.

 

To get my Bachelor's Degree, you mean? Usually takes 4 years, the last of which I'll start this Fall.

 

That would depend both on where you are and what level you'd be getting into (undergrad, graduate, doctorate, stuff like that). Besides the school I go to (which I won't disclose for privacy reasons), I can't honestly recommend any to you. I can suggest looking at smaller institutions; they may not have as much funding as larger ones, but you'll get a more personal experience with the professors, which I think is pretty important.
As a first step, investigate physics programs in your area, see if any institutions appeal to you. Schedule visits, talk with professors. If somewhere feels right to you, it's probably the best choice.

 

This problem is essentially asking about the torque on a lever arm. Torque can be expressed as T = F*r*sin(θ), where F is the force being applied, r is the distance away from the fulcrum (point of rotation) that force is applied, θ is the angle at which that force is applied with respect to the lever itself. For greatest efficiency (and simplicity), θ should always be perpendicular to the lever itself (that is, θ = 90 degrees), so sin(90) = 1.

This simplifies the equation to T = F*r. A quick Google search shows that the modulus of rupture (the quantity essentially describing how much force it takes to snap a piece of wood) of English Oak is 14100 pounds per square inch. This means, assuming I understand it correctly, that it takes 14100 pounds of force to snap a piece of oak whose cross-sectional area is 1 square inch. This value can help us find F in our equation. We know the thickest limb of our tree is 1 foot (12 inches) thick. If we assume the limb is cylindrical, then its radius is 6 inches, making its cross-sectional area of 6*6*π (or approximately 113) square inches. Multiplying this area by the modulus of rupture gives us the force required to break the limb: 1593300 lbs.

Unfortunately, we don't know how long the limb is, so we don't have a value for r in the above equation. However, the phrasing of the question suggests that the value we just found - 1593300 lbs of force - is what we're actually looking for instead of torque. Torque has units of foot-pounds in the Imperial system and Newton-meters in the metric system. Therefore, I believe 1593300 lbs of force is the correct answer.

 

MIT is quite a lofty goal, so I wish you the best of luck with it. Studying physics will definitely help you get there. I would also recommend taking some computer science and engineering courses as well to round out your experience.

 

Yellow. Yep, I'm an oldie.

 

My impressions of it in Heart Gold and Soul Silver were basically "huh, that's kinda neat". It added a nice bit of flavor, but I wasn't overly impressed. I think the following mechanic in the new Switch games could be amusing, since the Pokémon now seem to appear to-scale.

 

-I don't usually write in pen because you can't erase your mistakes (and I make plenty of mistakes in my work...). When I do, I don't really have a preference. I'll use whatever's available.
-I like to think I am. I'm decent at troubleshooting tech problems.
-I wasn't that fond of Team Flare. I liked their battle theme, but their outfits were goofy and most of the Grunts didn't seem to follow Lysander's ideology that closely.