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!