Week 12 physics

NEW UNIT! This week we went over velocity and such things from like our first unit. How velocity * time = initial position. and how inertia is a natural tendency to keep going at the same velocity and direction. Also that balanced forces = constance velocity. We also went over how to find how far something has traveled given the slope or the velocity, and the amount of time it traveled. This is all stuff we have learned already, so i'm trying to think of how or where this unit is going, because I don't think Mr. Abud would re teach the same unit, but i'm glad we did a littler reminder or re-teach because I always need that refresher.

Week 11

This week was short, and we had the spaghetti bridge lab, were you had to make a suitable bridge made out of spaghetti. Your goal was to make a light but sturdy bridge, able to hold up as much weight as much as possible. My bridge was sturdy, just not enough room. The physics behind it was a little confusing for me to understand, but the bridge has the earth and weights pulling it down and the "desks" pushing it up. It was a fun project, but i could have put more time, instead of stressing out and waiting till the last minute.

Week 10 Physics

This week in physics we centered around the idea of component forces, force pairs, and force diagrams. Before we talked about how a component force is north and east, and the force would be going in the northeast direction. A big idea, that we stressed were force pairs. which are two equal but opposite forces, shown in this picture, which is .. kinda cute 
We reviewed chapter 6, for our assessment on Friday. An example from our review is (6.2) A sky diver falls at a constant terminal velocity due to air resistance with no
parachute. Explain the sky diver's motion in terms of the forces acting on her.
-Because the air resistance is pushing up on the sky diver as
much as the Earth pulls down on her, the forces are balanced
and she falls with a constant velocity.

Week 8 - Physics

It's the end of the quarter! This week we focused on force diagrams, with different situations. We discussed that if the object is moving the velocity is not constant. The main difference from this week and last week is that the forces that are pushing or pulling, are now at an angle. This changes EVERYTHING. Not really, but for the most part, it changes how the force diagram looks, and we also discover forces that are acting on the object that we wouldn't normally have thought of, like..  If the object is pulled by a force at an angle to the surface with some friction, the force is coming from the north east, so the component forces are north and east! A component force is a force which, acting conjointly with one or more forces, produces the effect of a single force. The component forces for figure 5.1 is ay and ax.











Another subject we learned about was inertia. The best way to think about what inertia is that when you throw a ball in a parabolic trajectory, your hand isn't pushing the ball all the way until it's in the hoop, that's inertia. Something very important to remember about inertia is that it isn't a force.
Along with the other subjects, another tid bit of information that we received was that if an object is pushed by a force applied downward at an angle, the table has  to push up more, so the block feels heavier. Terminal velocity is when an object is speeding up until it hits a certain velocity and continues at that constant velocity.
This all comes together, with understanding forces. The different labs that we did helped to understand all about forces, and makes it easier  to comprehend what is going on. 

Week 7 Phyiscs

I have to say I enjoy what we are doing in class this week, because I have an understanding of what's going on! Not to say I haven't before, it's just I have a better understanding now. This week, we are continuing to talk about forces! We talked about the relationship between mass, and weight. We all know that weight is a force that the earth pulls on you, so that's how this is connected with forces.  Mass is just the amount of matter. So the relationship that we predicted was that the greater the mass the greater the wight. We had a lab where we had different weights, measured in grams, but we converted to kilograms, and this was the mass. We had to find the weight using a spring scale, and that was measured in newtons. After running the experiment we concluded that 1 kilogram equals 10 newtons! So the equation that came about was ( weight = 10(n/kg) * mass). The 10(n/kg) represents the gravitational field strength of the Earth. On the moon it is 1.6 (n/kg). We also learned how to find our weight in newtons. You would divide your own weight by 2.2lbs, and then multiply by 10. Or to find your weight on the Moon, you would divide your own weight by 2.2 lbs and then multiply by 1.6!  AFter you find your weight in newtons you can make a force diagram, that says the arrow pointing up is the floor is, let's say 727 Newtons, and then the arrow pointing down is the earth would be -727 newtons, to make it equal, or balanced.
The other experiment was the spring!  We used an electronic reader to determine the amount of force that was acting on the spring when you stretched it so many centimeters, We determined that the more force you have to put into the stretching the steeper the slope of the line, of the graph will be.

Week 6 Physics

This week we learned about forces! We learned that a newton is a unit of pushing or pulling, which is also known as a force. You always have forces acting on you, you have the Earth's gravity pulling you down, so you don't go shooting out to space, and you have the floor pushing you up, or whatever you are standing on, pushing you up so you don't sink to the bottom.. which would not be good. So, if you have the Earth pulling you down, and the floor pushing you up, but you are standing just right, this has to men that the force from the Earth and the floor are equal! yayayaay! We learned how to draw a force diagram of an object too.

Week 5 Physics

This week we learned about constant velocity, and how velocity equals the slope. The beginning of the week was difficult to understand because the graphs had different slopes, and I  was having a hard time understanding that but, I figured it out. We had a lab, where the buggy cars had to t-bone each other at a certain point on the floor. We had to take in the fact that 1) the cars never go straight, and 2) they don't have the same speed. So, for our group, like most others, we determined the length in centimeters it was from the intersection( where they had to t-bone) and the starting points. Then, we determined how long it would take the buggy to travel one tile, or 30 centimeters, for us it was about 1.29 seconds.From there, we took educated guesses, and did some adjustments to the locations of the cars, and when to start them( one had to go first because it was slower than the other one) and did trial and error. Now I know Mr. Abud said physics is not about trial and error, but we just didn't understand how  you could have made an equation to figure it out, I didn't think it was possible, obviously I was mistaken, because one group did! Then on Friday we had an assessment, which went pretty well, besides the fact that I was running around the school trying to straighten out my ISS situation, which.. I don't even want to get into. Back to physics, the t-bone lab is connected to the constant velocity, because the cars have the same velocity all through out the path, until they hit each other. They may not be the same velocity compared to each other but, they are constant.

Week 4 Physics

This week, we are still trying to master the ideas of position, displacement, and velocity all versus time. In order to understand these, we have to be able to use graphs to figure out information, as well as motion maps, and just info that is given. Using a graph and motion maps we can figure out the fastness of whatever is moving. This week on our 3rd homework assignment we had a constant velocity, and the object went a different speeds, thus causing different slopes. Having this we needed to have a different type of equation.

Week 3 Physics

This week, the main ideas were centered around the idea of speed or velocity. We did an activity where groups would draw a graph, and then we had to walk the graph. Some important details was to understand, and be able to explain what we were doing, and how to read the graph, and how to get the slope of the line. My participation was slacking a bit, as it usually it is. Hopefully that will change. I would rate my understanding of this topic as 4 stars, I know it all pretty well, and could help explain it to someone else. I still need to work on explaining how I got my answers.

Week 2 Physics

The second week of physics was interesting. I like the experiments we are doing. I also enjoy how Mr. Abud doesn't just give us the procedure, we have to think of how to go about this.

 There were 2 experiments.
The first one was with the blocks, where you had to determine whether the length affected the mass. The second one, was with the race cars, which I enjoyed more than the blocks. We had to figure out how far the car goes in a certain amount of time.
We learned about Mr. Abud's grading system which I guess is okay, i'm not really sure how its gonna turn out, but i'll keep an open mind.
One thing that I need to work on is participating more. When the class is asked a question and we all just sit there, not answering it, the class gets boring, especially when I know I have the right answer.

Week One Physics

  Walking into Mr. Abud's physics class, you could tell it was going to be different than any other science related class. The first day we were given a sheet of paper with something written on it, and  separated into different categories, and we had to find the rest of our group. I thought, this is a pretty normal first day activity. The second day, I walked in, and he was playing music, not like out of date, boring music, but dub-step. That's where I was shocked, not many teachers listen to that type of music, most teachers haven't even heard of it. Throughout the week, we participated in many different activities, from the magical number cube to learning everyone's name within 5 minutes.

   Many teacher's do the same thing, year after year, students learn how the stereotypical teacher works. Mr. Abud is a different case, just after the first week, you can tell that he is really into not just teaching his students about physics or chemistry, but teaching them life lessons. Throughout the years of being at Grosse Pointe North, you hear rumors about how this teacher is terrible, this one you'll love, don't get on their bad side or you'll be there forever, which can be a little intimidating, yet all the things I've heard about Mr. Abud have been positive. I also learned that Mr. Abud is very much into technology. Not the teacher that pretends to know what they're doing with it. He genuinely knows about technology,  I am confident to say that He definitely knows more about technology than I do.
 
   Looking back on the first week, you start to think of the things you could have done differently. For me personally, I wish I was more outgoing. First impressions are always important.