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.