Test Update -- Moved to Friday

The test will be on FRIDAY!!! Please know the three laws of motion (Sir Isaac's), how to calculate speed when you know distance and time, how to calculate acceleration when you know change in velocity and time, how to read velocity-time and position-time graphs, and a few more things that I'll go over in class.

Bonus Points: Post a comment here stating what your favorite experiment from this chapter was, and what you remember most about that experiment. (I'll never forget the car pushing!!!)

Predictions, Chapter Two Test

Our test will be next Thursday (September 30th). On Wednesday, we'll have a very thorough review of the physics concepts learned in this chapter. I'll also have another blog post with the review, and possibly a hint for a potential bonus question.

Stay Tuned!

What Physics Have We Learned In This Chapter?

With the air puck demonstrations, we saw how motion can occur in the absence of friction. Also, we saw that a force wasn't required to KEEP the puck in motion! That is Newton's First Law of Motion, also called the Law of Inertia. (Objects at rest tend to stay at rest, and objects in motion tend to stay in motion; UNLESS acted upon by an outside force!)

Today's demonstration, when we get a chance to analyze the data, will back up what Sir Isaac had to say about the relationship between Force, mass, and acceleration. Newton's Second Law of Motion states that F=ma, or Force is the product of mass and acceleration.

We can also calculate average speed by dividing the total distance traveled in a given time interval; similarly, we can calculate acceleration by dividing the change in velocity by the given time interval.

But even more interesting: On a distance-time graph, the SLOPE of the line represents speed! And on a velocity-time graph, the SLOPE represents acceleration! We'll have some more examples of this in class over the next few meetings.

I'll Give This a Shot...

Wonder how it'll work out.

I'm going to have a blog for each class. (One site for the two ICP classes, one site for the two Active Physics classes, and one site for Physics 1.)

Maybe you'll check it out, maybe you won't. BUT...it'll be here, and it'll be a resource. I'll post regularly, and the posts will be about topics we discuss in class. You can post questions in the "comments" section, and hopefully there'll be some answers posted there too.

I'll also post occasionally about things that I find interesting which may or may not be class related, but it WILL be "critical thinking"-related, which as we all know is crucial to science. (And that's probably a run-on sentence. Good thing I'm not an English teacher...)