Physics 2009-2010

 

This week in Physics (May 10-14)

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Special project wrap-up and post-mortem

 

Wednesday

Special project written reflection and video due

 

Thursday

 

 

This week in Physics (May 3-7)

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Special project - written reflection

 

Wednesday

Hydraulics - Pascal's Principle

F = P/A

 

Thursday

Special project work

 

 

This week in Physics (Apr. 26-30) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Test on Magnetic fields

 

Wednesday

Special project work

 

Thursday

Special project work

 

 

This week in Physics (Apr. 19-23) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Special project work

 

Wednesday

Review of magnetism and vector multiplication

 

Thursday

Problem set - due Friday

 

Friday

Go over problem set.

 

This week in Physics (Apr. 12-16) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Issues and trade-offs in current technology products.

Four fundamental forces of the universe.

Lorentz Equation.  F = qv x B

 

Wednesday

Vector multiplication and how we can apply that to Physics.

 

Thursday

Review dot product and cross product vector multiplication.

Sample problems

Right-hand rule

Torque = r x F

Back to the Lorentz equation.

 

Friday

Special project work

 

 

This week in Physics (Mar. 29-Apr. 2) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Go over problem set.

Test on light waves, reflection/refraction.

 

Wednesday

Flex

 

Thursday

Intro to magnetism

 

Friday

Spring Break begins!

 

This week in Physics (Mar. 22-26) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Special project design

Light waves - law of reflection, refraction, rainbows

 

Wednesday

Flex

 

Thursday

Laser pointer and triangular lucite block experiment.

Problem set on light waves due Tuesday.

 

Friday

Waves review - test next week on Tuesday.

 

 

This week in Physics (Mar. 15-19) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Field trip to App St. and Hawk's Nest

 

Wednesday

 

Thursday

Special Project Design

 

Friday

NHD Regional Competition at UNC-Charlotte

 

 

This week in Physics (Mar. 8-12) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

SAT Physics Subject test as a review

2 Point Source Interference model

Thomas Young's Double Slit experiment

 

Wednesday

Derivation of Young's Equation

 

Thursday

Field Trip

 

Friday

Light Waves

 

This week in Physics (Mar. 1-5) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Exam review

 

Wednesday

No class.

 

Thursday

2nd Trimester Exam - 10:45-12:45.

 

Friday

No class - enjoy your weekend.

 

 

This week in Physics (Feb. 22-26) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Resonance.  Read this page.

 

Wednesday

Review for test.

 

Thursday

Test on wave motion and sound waves

 

Friday

No class - reading day.

 

 

This week in Physics (Feb. 15-19) 

Monday

Presidents Day - No class.

 

Tuesday

Derivation of "e" - the base amount of growth in any continually growing process (like compound interest or radioactive decay).

Natural log (ln) - the time involved to get to a certain amount of growth.

Standing waves and harmonics

 

Wednesday

 

Thursday

Applying our knowledge of waves to Sound

Sound is a mechanical, longitudinal, pressure wave

Tuning forks, sound wave interference, harmonics (octaves, fifths, etc.)

 

Friday

 

 

This week in Physics (Feb. 8-12) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Introduction to Waves

amplitude, wavelength, frequency, period

wave equation - velocity = wavelength * frequency

interference - destructive and constructive

types of waves - electromagnetic vs. mechanical, transverse vs. longitudinal

 

Wednesday

 

Thursday

Waves - the Doppler Effect

 

Friday

No classes - teacher workday.

 

 

This week in Physics (Feb. 1-5) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Review for test on Thursday.

Wiring examples of those circuits on a circuit board.

 

Wednesday

Flex

 

Thursday

Test on Electric Currents.

 

Friday

More circuit wiring - a circuit that can detect moisture.

 

 

This week in Physics (Jan. 25-29) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

More on series and parallel circuits - using Ohm's Law.

Wiring examples of those circuits on a circuit board.

 

Wednesday

Problem Set due Friday.

 

Thursday

Work on problem set.

Capacitors and transistors.

 

Friday

Problem set due.

More sample circuits - setting a "trip wire" alarm.

Test on electrical current next Thursday.

 

 

This week in Physics (Jan. 18-22) 

Monday

No class - MLK Day.

 

Tuesday

Test on Static Electricity.

 

Thursday

Begin unit on Current Electricity

Power (watts), electric potential difference (volts), current (amps)

 

Friday

Resistance (ohms)

Series and parallel circuits

Homework:  Read the 4 sections of Electrical Resistance.

 

 

This week in Physics (Jan. 11-15) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Problems using Coulomb's and Newton's Laws.

Problem set due Thursday.

 

Wednesday

Electric fields

 

Thursday

Review for test on Tuesday, Jan. 19.

 

Friday

Field trip

 

This week in Physics (Jan. 4-8) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Practical Living preparation.

 

Wednesday

Practical Living preparation

 

Thursday

4 models of the atom

Attraction between charged and neutral objects

3 ways of charging (conduction, induction, friction)

Homework:  review the first 3 lessons of Static Electricity website.

 

Friday

Practical Living

 

This week in Physics (Dec. 14-18) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Test on satellite motion.

 

Wednesday

No class

 

Thursday

Introduction to static electricity

 

Friday

Newton's laws and static electricity

 

 

This week in Physics (Dec. 7-11) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Geosynchronous and geostationary satellites.

Problem set due.

 

Wednesday

No class

 

Thursday

Review problem set.

 

Friday

Centripetal motion lab.

Test on satellite motion on Tuesday.

 

 

This week in Physics (Nov. 30-Dec. 3) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Review exam problems.

Re-examining Gravity (see these 5 webpages)

Newton's big breakthrough - the Universal Gravitation Law

Determination of the constant G.

Rethinking our constant g in terms of the universal law.

 

Wednesday

No class

 

Thursday

Kepler's observations

Satellite motion

Problem set due Tuesday

 

Friday

No class

 

 

This week in Physics (Nov. 23-27) 

Finish up your exams and enjoy your Thanksgiving break!

 

 

This week in Physics (Nov. 16-20) 

Monday

No class.

 

Tuesday

Quiz on centripetal motion and net force.

 

Wednesday

No class

 

Thursday

Review for Exam

 

Friday

Trimester Exam

 

 

This week in Physics (Nov. 9-13) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday

Centripetal motion problems.

Free-body diagrams - determining net force.

Normal, gravity, friction, and applied forces.

Remember:  forces cause accelerations.  If an object is in motion at constant velocity, there is no force needed to cause that.

Coefficient of friction ("mu").  F(frict) = mu * F(norm)

Problem set due on Thursday.

 

Wednesday

No class.

 

Thursday

Problem set due

 

Friday

More free-body diagram problems.

Quiz on Tuesday covering centripetal motion and net force.

 

 

This week in Physics (Nov. 2-6) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Review the water rocket simulation site and design our own web page that will document the physics of our own water rocket launch last week.

Try to determine how much force is present during the launch by attempting to lift another bottle (about 1 kg) off the ground.  See the video.

Homework due Thursday:  explain today's launch (analyze the above video frame-by-frame) using the math of kinematics that you already know and Newton's second law.  Assume the rocket followed the same flight characteristics as our "trial #2" rocket that we documented on the web page above.

 

Wednesday:

No class

 

Thursday

Go over the math that you put together to explain Tuesday's lab.

Centripetal motion (uniform circular motion)

Newton's 1st Law - inertia.

Determination of velocity and acceleration.

Why is there any acceleration if the speed is constant?

Using Newton's 2nd Law in centripetal motion

When to use the word "centrifugal" in a proper manner (basically never).

 

Friday

No class.

 

This week in Physics (Oct. 26-Oct. 30) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Test on 2-D Kinematics.

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thursday:

Water rocket day to celebrate the end of our 2-D Kinematics unit.  See the launch movie.

Our rocket hang time was about 5 seconds giving us a theoretical peak altitude of 30 meters (about 100 feet).

Read this page to understand a bit more about water rockets.

 

Friday:

Application of force, pressure to the water rocket experiment.

See this website for a great discussion of water rockets and the math involved in their flight.

We launched several more water rockets (with golf ball, with tennis ball, with and without Chad's fins) to see what we could learn.  We also launched several trials next to a long wooden stick with meter marks on it to help us determine velocities and accelerations in the first moments of flight.  Here is the best one - you can see 4 good data points after launch - each video frame is 1/30th of a second.

 

This week in Physics (Oct. 19-Oct. 23) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Projectile motion - the 7 basic assumptions.

Go over a couple problems from the problem set.

Challenge problem:  If Kathleen is serving a tennis ball at 80 mph and striking the ball 8 feet off the ground, what angle does she need to serve it at in order to hit the back line of the service box, which is 50 feet away).

In class, we did some fancy math and determined the time of flight of the ball to be .51 seconds, and the angle to be 11.6 degrees.  Now we want to know, did that ball clear the net (which is 3 feet high and 39 feet from the baseline)?

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thursday:

Visualizing projectile motion.

Challenge problem:  A bag of mail is catapulted from the top of a building 200m above the ground with a velocity of 20m/s at an angle of 15 degrees above the horizontal. If the mail is to land on the roof of another building 100m away, how tall is the second building?

 

Friday:

Review for test next Tuesday.  Practice problems for the test.

You should anticipate the following on the test: (1) riverboat problem, (2) projectile fired at specified velocity and angle, (3) projectile fired horizontally from a cliff, (4) finding an optimum angle for firing a projectile.

Challenge problem:  If I am shooting a projectile at 50 m/s and I want to hit a target 163.8 m away, at what angle should I shoot?

(Think about the possibility of more than 1 correct answer.)

 

 

This week in Physics (Oct. 12-Oct. 16) 

Monday:

Columbus Day - No class.

 

Tuesday:

Projectile motion - go over tennis lob problem from last week.

Problem set #3 due on Friday.

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thursday

Work on problem set.

 

Friday

Problem set due.

 

 

This week in Physics (Oct. 5-Oct. 9) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Test on Kinematics unit.

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thurdsay:

Intro to 2-dimensional kinematics.  Projectile motion.

Excellent website to use as a resource.

Important truth: The perpendicular components of a vector are independent.

Application:  The boat's time to cross the river is independent of the speed of the cross-current.

Homework:  Re-read Lesson 1 sections f and g from website.

Problem:  If Kathleen hits a lob from the baseline at 11 m/s at an angle of 70 degrees, will it land inside the court (a tennis court is 78 feet long)?  (We agreed that it wouldn't cross the net)  Can you change the angle of the lob so that her ball hits the other baseline?  Can you change the velocity of the lob so that the ball hits the other baseline?

 

Friday

No classes.

 

 

This week in Physics (Sept. 28-Oct. 2) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Examine graphs of ping pong ball drop.  Determine terminal velocity.

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thurdsay:

Review for test on Tuesday.  Practice problems

 

Friday:

Review for test on Tuesday.

 

 

This week in Physics (Sept. 21-25) 

Monday:

No class.

 

Tuesday:

Go over the data that we collected and what you made of it.

Construct apparatus to attempt ping pong ball terminal velocity drop.

 

Wednesday:

No class.

 

Thursday:

More terminal velocity and air resistance.

Drop a ping pong ball from Woods Hall roof (I will drop, you will measure/time/observe)

 

Friday:

Field trip to Davidson.

 

 

This week in Physics (Sept. 14 - 18) 

Monday:

Review the Problem Set problems.  Sample problem with height, acceleration of a roller coaster.

How can we derive velocity equation using Calculus (limit as t1 approaches t2 of the slope of the displacement curve)?

 

Tuesday:

Review for quiz!  More sample problems: physics_set_2.pdf

 

Wednesday:

Quiz on one-dimensional kinematics.

 

Thursday:

Review the tough problem on the quiz (car race with head start).

Intro to one-dimensional force.

Newton's three laws.

What about the real world where things like air resistance and terminal velocity affect the free fall of objects?

 

Friday:

Setting up some terminal velocity experiments.

We will drop a ping pong ball as well as various coffee filters off the top of the Stinson staircase (more than 20 feet off the floor).  Your task is to take all of the data and make some sense out of it, given what you know about classical kinematics as well as terminal velocity and the force of air resistance.

 

 

This week in Physics (Sept. 7 - 11) 

Monday:

Enjoy your Labor Day holiday!

 

Tuesday:

Review all of our equations for velocity, acceleration, and displacement.  Sample problems.

Homework:  Elevator accident problem.

 

Wednesday:

More sample problems with falling objects.

Problem set assigned - due Friday.  Problems set: physics_set_1.pdf

 

Thursday:

Work on problem set.  A good applet that shows displacement, velocity, and acceleration is here.

 

Friday:

Problem set due.  Go over a couple select problems.

Homework:  Watch MIT lecture on Kinematics from iTunes U.

 

 

This week in Physics (Aug. 31 - Sept. 4) 

Monday:

Intro to the class - stuff you already know that you didn't even know you knew about Physics!

 

Tuesday:

Make sure you're comfortable with: SI units, measurement techniques, accuracy/precision, significant figures (sig figs) rules, conversions between kilo, centi, milli, micro, etc.

Aristotle and Galileo - how they looked at the classic falling object problem.

Using a ramp to slow everything down and get more accurate measurements.

Twice the time = Four times the distance.

Twice the time = twice the speed.  So the average speed of a certain segment is the same as the instantaneous speed at the halfway time of that segment.

 

Wednesday

Measuring a falling object using a ramp.  Uniform change in velocity on the ramp.  Finding instantaneous velocity at certain points on the ramp.

Displacement, velocity, and acceleration

g (gravity) = -9.8 meters per second squared.

 

Thursday

More acceleration

Deriving equations for displacement, velocity (without using calculus this time - later we will use it)

 

Friday

Enjoy Woodlawn Day!