There once was a man named Newton (Unit 3)

And so we've arrived at midterms, and the end of another unit. This unit, packed full of formulas was kind of a headache, but hopefully I can sum it up in less than a few thousand words.

It all started with Newton's 3rd Law, which says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. If you want to check out the examples we used to explain this law check out the video below (it's pretty awesome if you ask me)




SO MANY ARROWS!!!!! What is this madness that requires precision in arrow drawing? It isn't archery, nope, this time it's vectors. 

Vectors are kinda hard to explain so we'll start with a visual example (because everyone loves visual examples.

Now that is one spiffy image. But what does it mean? Well a vector is a quantity having direction as well as magnitude, (that's the line with the arrow!) We used vectors to determine what direction a boat will travel in a lake and what the force of tension would be on two ropes when holding an object. In this picture the force on the y axis is one direction and x-axis represents another force and direction. the line (x,y) is the vector representing the direction those forces travel when combined!

Next we hopped all the way to the sun! Well, not really, but we learned about gravity and the UNIVERSAL GRAVITATIONAL FORCE!

Here it is, right here. Look down.

We used this equation to calculate the gravity between the earth and the sun and the earth and the moon. The latter led us into this nifty section about tides! The moon is relatively close to the earth (duh!) and it travels in an elliptical (or oval) path around the earth. The force between the two sides of the Earth and the moon will be different depending on time of day and the placement of the moon. This is essentially what causes tides, the difference in gravitational force exerted by the moon on the ocean.

Next we hopped into ever MORE formulas:
Momentum=(mass)(velocity). 
Momentum=p. 
change in p= pfinal-pinitial. 
Impulse=J. J=F(change in t).
J=change in P. 

UNIT QUESTION: How do airbags keep us safe? 
Well  momentum will be the same no matter what, so the impulse will be the same. Airbags increase the time impulse occurs, which means the force will be less (remember the big F and little t?). And a smaller force will lead to less of an injury!

AND THEN IT GOT EVEN MORE COMPLICATED!?!?!?!

Conservation of Momentum. 

We learned that Ptotal before = Ptotal after. (remember, of course, that p is momentum)               

(Ma)(Va)+(Mb)(Vb)=(Ma+Mb)Vab (when the two objects collide and stick together)

 (Ma)(Va)+(Mb)(Vb)= (Ma)(Va)+(Mb)(Vb) (when they do not stick together)

            before                          after

All in all, I enjoyed this lesson. I loved its real world applications and I really learned how to "speak the language". I had been having trouble putting the things I learned in Physics class into words, and especially proper test answers and this lesson helped me learn how to do that.  All the formulas could have been overwhelming, but instead I learned how to use them and it worked out just fine!

For the next unit I want to take better notes so that when I have to write test answers and reflections I know where to find the information. I also want to work on getting these blog posts in on time (sorry, again, Mrs. L). I'm kinda looking forward to this MidTerm as a chance to prove to myself that I CAN learn sciences!

California Tides (Unit 3 Photo)

In this photo I was attempting to capture the beautiful high tide of the California coast. High tides occur twice a day and are caused by the gravitational force of the moon on the earth. Because the path the moon takes around the earth is elliptical (like an oval), there is a tidal bulge created. This bulge represents the high and low tides which occur twice respectively during the day.

Unit 2 Reflection!

Wait... what! We've finished another unit! ALREADY! Where is the time going? Mrs. Lawrence that should be the next question we handle, where is the time?

As much as I hate to say it, I'm not sad to see this unit go, too much math for my tastes and it was really confusing. Nevertheless, I'll try to summarize it in a manner that makes more sense than the unit did to me. It's going to be intense, are you ready? Alright, let's go.

Fade In: Unit Two of the Asheville School Physics experience. First order of business, Newton's Second Law.

Newton’s second law states that force is directly proportional to acceleration and mass is inversely proportional to acceleration.

 a=f/m

From Newton's Second Law we found our way to Free Fall (excluding air resistance of course). 

An object in free fall has a constant acceleration of 9.8 m/s^2 (or 10 as we used it). 

LAB TIME: We used this nifty number to calculate the height of third Anderson by dropping a ball multiple times from the third floor and taking the average time it took to reach the ground. We then used that average time and using the equation d=1/2gt^2 solved for the distance of the building. My group was the most accurate, we found, because we did not throw out any data that seemed too high or too low, a good lesson for future lab projects!

And then it started to get funky and this little villain called math came in and crushed my physics hopes and dreams. Alright, maybe that's a bit dramatic, but Projectile Motion sure caused some grief.Projectile motion is the term used when something is pushed with a force and is thrown through the air. For example: When an airplane drops supplies over a troubled area. It is important to remember that projectile motion uses both horizontal and vertical motion and that objects in projectile motion travel in a parabolic path (like a Parabola!)

Horizontal motion: constant velocity 

V=D/T

Vertical motion: constant acceleration

 d=1/2gt^2

And finally, duh duh duh..... AIR RESISTANCE. Air Resistance is the force exerted by the air on a falling object to balance out the force of speed and acceleration. As an object falls, air resistance increases with speed and decreases with acceleration until the object reaches terminal velocity (or equilibrium where all the forces are equal and opposite).  

Air Resistance: Fnet/m=a.

As I stated in the beginning, the most difficult challenge I faced in this Unit was the math part, math and science don't translate well together for me. So I hit a lot of problems in that.

I'm still working to overcome this disconnect and I hope throughout the year I will get better at this!

So THAT'S why I can never hit it right!

(or the Unit 2 Voicethread, but who wants that as the title?)

Why hello, it seems you've stumbled upon something suspicious, me, holding a gun. WAIT! WHAT!? But why?

 For the sake of Physics of course!

In this unit, we've been learning about what objects do when affected by different types of motion: Free Fall, Free Fall with Air Resistance, and even Newton's second law. But the thing I've found most difficult to understand (and hope to understand better by explaining it to you) is what an object does when thrown at an angle. 

We've had two examples in class of what happens when things are fired out of guns: The example we did in Ms. Cianciulli's class of shooting you, our dear Mrs. Lawrence in the face (it was pretty gruesome when you think about it). And the man attempting to tranquilize the monkey and what happens if the monkey lets go of the branch he is sitting on (provided the man is firing straight at the monkey).

But I wanted something I was familiar with, and so here I am shooting a weapon of in the distance on an Idaho farm. Though I was aiming my sight dead ahead to the center of the target, I missed the coveted bull's eye every time and now, because of this class, I understand why! Objects travel in a parabolic trajectory, like an arc, meaning they fall lower than they start. Therefore, when the bullet is fired out of the gun it lands below the sight, so in order to get an accurate shot, I would have to aim a bit higher so that when the bullet falls it hits dead enter.

And I'm Free Falling

Yep, that's right, I found a physics Free Fall Video to the tune of Tom Petty's Free Falling. GENIUS.
This video was helpful simply because it was catchy, I was familiar with the original song, as most of you are. (and if not, you should go listen to it anyways) and so memorizing the basics of free fall to it's tune made it stick in my mind instantly.

Vertical Motion is ESSENTIAL to free fall!
 is one of the biggest points the song makes and it's also one of the biggest things I have had trouble remembering, so now, when I sit in class and we talk about Free Fall, one of the first things to my mind is Vertical Motion. Although if you notice me humming in class, I promise you it's about physics!

I vote THIS for our next class (RESOURCE TIME)

Mrs. Lawrence, you're pretty cool as teachers go, truly. But this teacher, she just may have you beat, I vote this be added into your Newton lesson plans.

Though the video covers all three of Newton's laws, it helped me especially in the second one. I love the way she states the relationship between acceleration, force, and mass. It was catchy, and it helped me remember the basics of what we've covered, I can't get it out of my head!

So there once was this guy....

NAMED NEWTON!

Yep, and this guy, he's just a little bit important. But only a little right? NO! Newton's the man! And not just any man, the man of Unit 1.

Our intro Unit started out with this nifty dude and his first law, the Law of Inertia. This law states that an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted on by a force and an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted on by a force.

But hey Newton, what the heck is a force?

WELL:

A force is a push or a pull that acts on an object.

And while we're at it, why not add in some of the Unit's other important definitions

Net Force: all forces acting on an object added together (we measure force in Newtons!)

Equilibrium: when an object is at rest or moving at a constant velocity, when all forces acting upon an object are equal and opposite.

But wait! There's even MORE physics to learn in Unit 1, time to learn about MOTION!

Definition time!

Speed: the distance an object will cover in relation to time 

           SPEED=DISTANCE/TIME

Instantaneous vs. Average Speed: Instantaneous speed is the speed an object is going at a given moment (like the speed you see on the speedometer of your car). Average Speed is the total distance covered divided by the amount of time traveled.

Acceleration: Now this is where it gets fancy... Acceleration is the rate of change in Velocity. 

           Vfinal - Vinitial/TIME (or the change in Velocity over time)

How Fast/How Far

HOW FAST something is moving (constant acceleration) : V=AT

HOW FAR something has gone (again constant acceleration):  D=(1/2)AT^2.

And that, my friends, is Unit 1.

Velocity and Speed (In Asheville!)

This is a picture of my cousin and I running around the Vance monument in downtown Asheville, demonstrating the differences between Speed and Velocity. We were both travelling at the same speed, or moving at the same rate. Yet our Velocities were different. Why? You may ask? Well, just let me tell you, Velocity is acceleration in a direction. Therefore, we both may have had the same acceleration, but we were moving on opposite directions, making our velocities different. This is an accurate (albeit strange) portrayal of Speed and Velocity.

MATH *Cue scary music* a.k.a The Trip Blog

Way to fool us with your magical physics trickery Mrs. Lawrence! My initial answer to the trip problem was 60km/h because when I pulled out my fancy Algebra II skills that's what I came up with! It looked something like this:

(60+40+20+x)/4= 40

Do your addition, division and such and you come up with 60 km/h.
BUT WAIT!!!! 
I forgot one little detail that, I guess, isn't so little at all.

TIME

(notice how the original problem was in red, INCORRECT, and time was written in green CORRECT. Genius.)

When I factored in time I found out that The correct answer was faster than the speed of light. The motorist, to reach his destination in the manner he wished, would have to go FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT!You have to reason that the driver has been going at a speed of 40 km/h for 30 minutes, and then at a speed of 20 km/h for the next 30 minutes. He was ALREADY driving for a full hour, therefore, the only way for him to average 40 km/h would be to drive faster than the speed of light.

AMAZING! (yay science!)

I learned to pay attention to every part of the problem, taking into account all important details such as time!

I've Got Speeeeeeeed and Velocity!

Hey internet (and Mrs. Lawrence!) it's time for a QUESTION!

What is the difference between speed and velocity?

This is madness, you might say, why are you trying to confuse we with these large scientific words, how am I, the simple physics student, supposed  to comprehend the complexities of speed?

Well, speed and velocity are madness no longer!  This nifty video below is catchy (like those annoying pop songs you never get out of your head) but helpful in explaining the differences between velocity and speed.

This video, while being extremely cheesy and catchy, helps remind me of the key differences through real world examples and easy to remember lyrics. The plane taking off, for example, has really stuck with me, especially as we study in class, helping the lessons make a bit more sense.



This one's a bit shorter than usual, but hey! You have a video to play on repeat. Go. LEARN MY FRIENDS!

Hovercraft (Because even the word sounds awesome)

If Physics didn't already have my vote as the coolest science class EVER, (Sorry Mrs. Lawrence.... I think that has a good bit to do with the lack of math), it would have earned it today. 

Why, you ask, has this glorious title been bestowed upon this class after only THREE days?

One word.... HOVERCRAFT... as in that cool thing below

Well, ours was a lot less.... pink, but nonetheless, this blog is dedicated to this cool thing and what it helped me learn about the scary word from my last post, Inertia.

a. Riding a hovercraft was, in one word, bizarre. It felt a lot like ice skating without ever having to worry about balance. Without the friction of wheels or any other surface it was a smooth ride at a steady speed, almost as if you wouldn't recognize you were moving if you didn't know.

b. The hovercraft reinforced what I already knew about inertia, and taught me what net force and equilibrium felt like, giving the whole learning experience a hands-on feel, and who doesn't love hands-on science?

c. Acceleration, another one of those words that you think you know and then BAM! Physics come's in to ruin your perception of the universe, in a good way of course. Acceleration depends on mass and the force with which an object is pushed into moving. 

d. Constant Velocity? Only in equilibrium.... nothing much to say there.

e. Tying this answer back into the one from letter "c", some people had a higher mass than others, meaning more force had to be used to get them to move and to stop them. 

I know this was supposed to be concise, and I guess, for me, it was. But for the rest of you I made up for it by answering the questions in color!

Inertia! Wait... What?

I'm back, and although I'm still searching for a word that rhymes with Physics, this post is here to explain more easily this little scientific property we know as Inertia.

It looks pretty scary doesn't it, especially written in those huge red letters. But guess what? It isn't! The video below is a basic, but amazing description of Newton's First Law.

Class was informative, and the experiments we did were fun, but I was wondering about all the real world implications of this nifty thing called Inertia. The boy on the train made that possible (although I've never actually ridden on a train).

Objects tend to "keep on doing what they're doing" unless disturbed.

And our bodies, like any other object, don't want to stop. Therefore, when the train moves, he jerks backward as his body resist the urge to move,  and when the train stops he moves forward because his body continues moving!

Physics Intro, YAY!

Are there any words that rhyme with Physics?

I'm pretty sure there aren't any, which ruined my idea of a rhyming title, but never fear, I’m still on the lookout for the perfect word.

What do I expect to learn in Physics this year? There are a lot of things in science I will confess to not understanding; string theory, the history of the atom, or anything involving chemistry.  But Physics, unlike the rest of those, explains why things work, which is what I want to learn.

1.       Inertia- it’s one of Newton’s laws but really, I’ve never understood its practical application, how does it help seat-belts save our lives in a car crash? Why does a ball roll for as long as it does on a flat surface? It’s all so confusing!

2.       Gravity- It’s one of those things we’ve all come to accept, some guy had an apple dropped on his head and boom, the law of gravity was born. But why does it work the way it does on earth? Why does it change and what factors can affect it?

3.       Conceptual Physics- Physics is scary, I was positive I wasn’t going to survive more than a day with all the math I’d heard about doing. So I’m curious as to what the difference is between the Physics we’re terrified of, and the Physics we’re going to learn in this class.

Why do I think studying Physics is important?

Science is the study of the world around is, it is new, it is groundbreaking, and it is essential to life as we know it today? Therefore Physics, like any other science, is important because it helps us live better in our world. Understanding of Physics is a necessity for Athletes, Musicians,  and even trash men. Physics is everywhere!

What questions do I have about Physics?

1. What is its history? Why was it discovered?
2. What makes a conceptual science different than any other?
3. What do you love about Physics? What made you decide to teach it?

What goals do I have?

1. I want to learn to love a science, I want to be more interested in what makes up the world around me.
2. I want to not only understand and do well grade wise, I want to be an active participant.
3. I want to gather a firm understanding of what Physics is and how it applies to my life.