light

 never did no lord ordain

it came out as a physical process

it has meanings wide and deep

a whole spectrum of frequencies

a play of electromagnetic fields

travel as waves but as particles they hit

quantized and moving at the ultimate speed

its interactions are studied in quantum electrodynamics.

here we keep it simple

and stick to the part visible

a little question some kids may care

why don't we see the spectrum entire ?

it would be crazy, i'd be scared

for there would just be so much everywhere

but the water where eyes evolved to stare

absorbs the rest ,allows only so much in there.

light be the universal way to communicate

because throughout the space it permeates

created and annihilated as energy changes modes

it may travel for years billions without getting bored

just a tiny bit of universal energy it stores

reflects, refracts, disperses, diffracts, interferes and distorts 

knocks and stretches out as it soars

goes in and out of everything including black holes, did you know ?

sound

what we hear as sound

is but vibrations in the air all around

the vibrations once ticked

travel as waves acoustic

which be longitudinal in fashion

the medium vibrates in the wave's direction

a medium is of prime essence

for no acoustics in medium's absence

and it be an important difference

between this and waves of luminescence.

imagine a long constrained spring
pull one end and watch the wave speeding
the wave be made of two sections

regions of compression and rarefaction
that put together occupy a wavelength
and two characteristics to convey its strength -
pitch be the effect of frequency
multiplied with wavelength gives the wave's speed
expressed in the honor of Hertz Heinrich
just a count of the cycles that in a second creep.

loudness be decided by the intensity

which is just a simple property

determined by the wave's amplitude

which is how much a particle moves

its level is expressed in decibels

which honors the old Graham Bell

and 'tis for just this reason, you see

that it is dB ( not db )

'coz units named after people 

are abbreviated with capital.

just like with all the waves
there's also a thing called phase
which is but a measure of

relative shift in the stage

only of use when more than one

they result in interference patterns

then there's this interesting part

cars change pitch when they pass

because relative motion impacts the frequency

Doppler shift maps the motion with great decency.

Simple Harmonic Motion

there is something ironic

about motion simple harmonic

a tool to study movements periodic

in the good old Newtonian mechanics

an idealization used with Fourier analysis

to model such complexities

as a pendulum or a bobblehead

and everything that oscillates

all of them movements be

hostage to a force restoring, you see

the force restoring is presumed

proportional to the displacement assumed

and as the name suggests

the force acts to restore the mess

now comes the irony

mentioned in the beginning

if idealized conditions persist

no drag from the air and small displacements that is

the restoring force just never succeeds

inertia conspires to maintain the speed

as the pendulums to the equilibrium reach

a simple harmonic motion forever lives

now, if we talk mathematically

just get to the force restoring fully

and massage the equation so that it is

acceleration and something with displacement in it

equate acceleration to that something, but negative

and you get your motion simple harmonic

if used this trick on a simple pendulum

an insight pops out immediately

that the period of any such system

doesn't quite depend on its energy

it does depend on the string's length

and of course the gravity

swing high swing low a ball of lead or a ball of snow

same time them all will show.

potential and kinetic energy

 of all the energies that there be

them all be just two kind -

potential and kinetic

as the words say to an average mind

potential be the capability

while kinetic, in motion you find.

all movement is energy

be it the electrons on the grind

responding to an electric field

or a magnet, if you wind

the moving electron sea

to a core well inclined

them electrons get the wire heating

buzzing faster with time

the most inaudible sound but be

moving particles in the medium's bind

and the light and others of the creed

just be the photons cruising in line 

nothing to say of other things moving

solid, liquid, gas or an idea sublime

them all be kinetic energy

ain't too hard on the mind

to talk of the potential energy 

a simple way it be defined

it's just an object's capability

to cause motion when thus destined -

could be from the right company

a privileged spot where enshrined

or some stress internal may be

charge etc as predefined

them nuclear particles that we see

weigh more individually than combined

potential energy is that exactly

a boom a bang when freed from the bind

them chemicals in them batteries

when over-charged may burst the confines

all the same with gravitational field

fallen oranges stain their rind

same for springs and elasticity

shouldn't forget to remind

learning such, a question creeps

how is the difference assigned ?

well, let me tell this simple trick

that us mortals have designed

we assign the potential negative

and everything gets well aligned.

friction

there's this one interesting thing

that truly helps us all get moving

we walk we run we jog and we jump

if not for friction we'd slip and slump

oh, how would ever the wheels roll

if not for this simple toll

for contacts between two surfaces

solid with solid, liquid or gases

caused by imperfections - the tiny projections

a surface's rejection of most deft attention

characterized by a co-efficient

i tell you it is proficient

exerting itself against the move

changing nature as behooves

static, sliding, rolling or fluid

adjusts itself as force ensues

though the max it can posit 

is a force opposite

the direction of motion 

with the simple expression

the coefficient's multiplication

with the surface's reaction

in the perpendicular direction

and never more than applied action

boy, what an interesting scheme

in motion the decay gleams

its me its me the friction screams

the boon the bane - co-existing extremes.

scalar and vector

thought in a certain way

almost everything at bay

can be classified with ease

in motion or at freeze

there cannot be a frozen wind

for that would be just bullshitting

but there could be temperature

of a still creature

the concept of motion

is a complex emotion

connects future to the past

and it is not just about how fast

the motion's direction

is an important consideration

for in the motion's premise

mere magnitude doesn't suffice

simple things as mass and length

don't exist in a dimensional sense 

coz simple things are just like that

happy and content without a track

we call them scalars

the directionless detailers

we like them as kids 

for the math is a breeze

but them complex ones

have directional terms

often in dimensions more than one

gotta resolve to the axes to subtract or sum

we call them vectors 

the crafty actors

quite an essential construct

to express all kinds of stuff

in a sense that is slightly advanced

a vector's but some scalars in dance.

interference

opposites' attraction

leads to annihilation

two of a kind

are the ones that bind

gotta always remember

you don't need to wonder

waves of any type

on water or a rope tight

the good old light

quite different otherwise 

but for us now, alright

continuous patterns of low and high

when two waves meet

this is the way they greet -

if high meets high 

(tagging along, low complies)

they bind and grow

while if the high meets low

they annihilate, they are gone

altogether they are changed

they become one and same

water gets chunked

beams become a band

fine line, got to be coherent,

but this is interference.

momentum

a big ball with a big velocity

has more oomph

than a small ball with big velocity

or a big ball with small velocity

easy, peasy, butter squeezy

velocity in a ball - big or small

times the essence of its core -

its rest mass, to be sure

tells the oomph of the motion

momentum it is for your information

now, wouldn't we all be spooked 

if appears a rare fruit

in our backyard or the hood

just out of the blue

so, no to spooky stuff, in real we are good

the momentum's source

is always a force

which can often be measured

by the change observed

before and after the serve

denying all the spooky crud

saves us from serious dud

and once we have done that thing

we don't need no more thinking

for us the momentum is logically conserved

derivatives wrt time

it's all about the change baby

and the rate of change with time

know the changing property

differentiate and show with a prime

call that its derivative

it ain't that sublime

a thing moves

from a to b

it may have done so

circuitously

but displacement be the shortest measure 

from where it was to where it is

not much room for creativity

the first derivative is velocity

which on further differentiation

(why don't we call it derived ?

but that's just an aside)

gives acceleration

moving to the order third

we get what's called jerk

also known as jolt

and 'tis the reason

when the bus stops

gotta grab hold

fourth is jounce

or snap as with sticks

then comes crackle

and pop at six

seventh is lock 

in the lingo of physics

there's one more that i know of

the eighth is called drop

and that is where they stop

it may seem a lot

but all and more is experienced

simply driving around the block.