Monday, December 27, 2010

Friday, Dec 17, 2010

Physics poems/songs

Thursday, Dec 16, 2010

Showed Hewitt video on electric current. Demos with lights for series and parallel circuits.

Wednesday, Dec 15, 2010

Went over electrostatics lab sheet, redoing many of the demos. Handed back reading assignment, went over it, and re-collected it.

Showed demo of rotating a 2x4 with a charged rod.

Tuesday, Dec 14, 2010

Students did electrostatics mini-labs and worked on reading assignment on Electrostatics.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Monday, Dec 13, 2010

Continued with Relativity:

Showed using long spaceship example that events at different locations that occur at the same time for one observer do not necessary occur at the same time for an observer moving at constant speed with respect to that observer.

Showed bouncing light clock and how to get time dilation from this set-up.
Students worked out time dilation graphically.

Derived time dilation using Pythagorean Theorem

Tried using light clock to get length contraction.
Did example of traveling to distant star at fast speed and how time dilation and length contraction are related.

Discussed relativistic mass increase using Andy and Bob example and pushing spacecraft examples.

Simply stated E = mc^2 but worked out how much energy in 1 kg of matter and that it was more energy than lifting 100x the population of the Earth to a height of 100 m.

Kindergarten approach to general relativity. Light has energy, energy and mass are related, mass is affected by a gravitational field, light is bent in a gravitational field, light moves at the same speed for each observer. Therefore, the closer to the source of gravity, the slower the clock will tick.

Showed Hewitt video on Relativity.

Really didn't go over very well. MANY students paid no attention and carried on side conversations the entire class. Told students I would go back to having them do experiments rather than have me talk.

Friday, Dec 10, 2010

Handed back test and went over it.

Some students told me they wanted to cover relativity so I gave it a try. Started going through my gedanken but that didn't work well.

Developed relative velocity equation for high speeds.

Asked students to look at end of chapter 15 questions.

Many students just didn't seem to care.

Thursday, Dec 9, 2010

Test on rotational motion, torque, gravitation.

Wednesday, Dec 8, 2010

Review for test. Did problems on board for torque and balancing as well as problems using Newton's Law of Gravitation. Students worked on Quia for last half of class.

Tuesday, Dec 7, 2010

Showed a bit of the Hewitt video on tides. Students worked problems using the scientific notation keys on their calculators, calculating forces and tidal forces of Sun and Moon on Earth.

Monday, Dec 6, 2010

unicycle

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Friday, Dec 3, 2010

Hand out Tiger Bathroom passes to cut down abuse of Bathroom pass

Go over Kepler's Worksheet
Hand out Concept Map

Show weird Orbit of Mercury
HW - Demonstrate weird orbit of Mercury to parents

Test on Tuesday

Didn't get to this: Show unicycle - gyroscopic stability
or show Hewitt tides video.

Thursday, Dec 2, 2010

Finished Hewitt video on Gravity

Went over Reading Assignments for Circular Motion (9.1, 9.3)

Asked students to make a concept map for material since last test.
I put a sketch on board.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Wed, Dec 1, 2010

Students finished Orbit of Mars Lab.

Handed our Kepler's Laws worksheet for homework - due tomorrow.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Tuesday, Nov 30, 2010

Students started Orbit of Mars lab.
Many got off to a slow start since I told them they had to read the instructions (instead of me telling them what to do) so I told them they could work on the lab tomorrow in class.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Monday, Nov 29, 2010

Asked if there were any demos for rotational inertia.

TW brought in different diameter jars. He was going to fill them with equal masses of water and see which rolled faster down a ramp. I asked if he had tried racing them without water and he said the speeds were pretty much the same.

To test this we tried racing pennies and quarters. Didn't work well since they kept falling over. Used u-tack to stick 4 of each together and raced them. Not completely clear, but they were pretty close.

Started Hewitt video on Gravity.
Stopped for:
a. discussion of "Universal" and how it changed the world view
b. Did several examples using Newton's Law for finding the force with varying masses and distances. Showed how to do the substitution math.
c. How different dimension worlds would affect the Intensity vs distance relationship
d. Students calculated G*Me/Re^2

Postponed HW (Kepler's Law worksheet) until tomorrow.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Wednesday, Nov 24, 2010

Competition of balancing pencil

Gave each person one pencil, 3 sheets of newspaper, and 6 inches of tape. They had to make a device that they could balance on their finger without touching the newspaper.

Had competition in groups of 4, then did winners.

Asked students to write this up in their journals.

Showed parts of Hewitt video on Rotation - especially the two examples in the introduction. Offered extra credit for best demonstration of rotational inertia for falling rods.

No homework over Thanksgiving holiday.

Tuesday, Nov 23, 2010

No school due to icy weather

Monday, Nov 22, 2010

Go over results from Circular Motion Lab
Collect Lab Reports

Derive circular motion equation from octagons

Show examples of centripetal force

Jumped ahead and introduced Newton's Law of Gravitation, showed it was a centripetal force, and did example of problems of docking spaceships in orbit about the Earth.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Thursday, Nov 18, 2010

Had students cut out shapes and find the center of mass of their shape.

Showed Hewitt video on Center of Gravity.

Showed broom example.

Showed top and spinning cross from Saturday Market.

Students tried to spin pennies on coat hangers.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Wednesday, Nov 17, 2010

Went over RA 11.1 on torque
Many students either did not do the book problems or did not understand them.

Had students go to the board and work them.

Center of Gravity demos:
1. Stand up from being seated in chair
2. Stand two footsteps back from wall, put forehead on wall, try to pick up chair.
3. Stand with toes against wall, try to stand on toes
4. Balancing hammer
5. Balancing eagle
6. Belt demo
7. Angled ramp, double cone falls up ramp
8. Block competition

Showed people who were absent how spool of science works.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Tuesday, Nov 16, 2010

Went over demos from yesterday.
Talked about effect of melting ice cap and sediment discharge from Mississippi River on length of day.

Meter stick balances at center of mass.
Torque lecture

Demo: giant spool

Did several simple torque problems on board.

Handed out RA 11.1 on torque, due tomorrow along with problems from end of chapter 11.

Monday, November 15, 2010

Monday, November 15, 2010

Handed back tests and went over any questions. Numbers on test are percent out of 100 and number correct out of 43. In my gradebook I scaled the test scores and entered them out of 70

Handed back journals. The maximum score was 60 but I put them out of 50 in my gradebook. I talked about the journals. The main purpose is to have a description of the demos and how they relate to the concepts. Several students are just using the journal as a notebook and ignoring the demos all together. I asked for more focus on the demos for this quarter.

Angular equivalents to linear terms:
velocity <=> angular velocity (omega)
inertia (mass) <=> rotational inertia (I)
momentum (p=m*v) <=> angular momentum = I * omega
kinetic energy = 1/2 m * v2 <=> rotational KE = 1/2 I omega2

Day at the Races
Demos: Baseball bat and ankle weights
Race 1: Hoop vs Disc
Race 2: Plastic disks with ball bearings inside
Race 3: Shiny ball vs Go Car
Race 4: Broth vs Beans

Students voted on outcomes

Conservation of momentum <=> conservation of angular momentum

If no net external torque acts on the system (if nothing messes with the system from outside) then there is no change in the angular momentum of the system.
Demo: weights on spinning plate

Handed out RA 11.2 due tomorrow
Students will also write up demos in their journals

Finished with bicycle wheel on spinning platform and then gyroscopic bicycle wheel.

Monday, October 25, 2010

Tuesday, Nov 9, 2010

Test on Impulse, Momentum, and Energy

Monday, Nov 8, 2010

Oaks Test

Friday, Nov 5, 2010

Energy Cards test
Show Oaks Test Questions
URL for practice for Oaks test

Car Crash Video

Didn't have time to do the rest
Momentum and Energy with Newton's Cradle

Hewitt Energy video

Thursday, Nov 4, 2010

Energy Cards - do Energy Chains and Power Stations

Wed, Nov 3, 2010

Hand back Cookie Labs

Energy Cards - made it through presentation 1 (source - transducer - dump)

Gave out Quia website, username, password
Check out quizzes and activities

Tuesday, Nov 2, 2010

Gave students time to check Cookie Lab answers with computer

Collected Roller Coaster Labs
Will collect Cookie Labs tomorrow.

Showed video The Way Things Go

Monday, Nov 1, 2010

Answered questions on Roller Coaster Lab - due tomorrow

Cookie Lab
Set up computers for students to check results.

Friday Oct 29, 2010

Review of KE, GPE, Work, heat
Conservation of Energy
Power

Roller Coaster Lab due Tuesday

Thursday, Oct 28, 2010

Go over any questions on end of chapter questions.

Intro to energy
Feynmann Energy - Conservation of Energy

Types of energy
Work
Kinetic Energy - Energy Balls Demo
Gravitational Potential Energy

Hopper Popper Demo

Wednesday, Oct 27, 2010

Review of entire unit

Slingshot effect
Supernova demo with tennis ball and basketball

Students wrote up end of chapter questions in their journals:
1,2,4,5,6,7,8,9,
11,13,14,15,16,17,19,
20,21,22,24,25,27,28,29,
31,33,37,38

(27 in all). These will be stamped and credit awarded.

Tues, Oct 26, 2010

Review from yesterday
Impulse, Momentum, Impulse = Change in Momentum

An apple with a weight of 1 N falls 5 m to the ground. With what force did it hit the ground?

Why do you follow through?
Cannon Example - short barrel vs long barrel
Marshmallow demo

Hewitt video on railway cars

Bouncing
Throwing and catching on ice example
Happy/Sad Ball Demo
Hewitt video on bouncing (Pelton water wheel)

Conservation of Momentum
Air track
Draw dashed lines around system

Collisions
Elastic
Inelastic

Newton's cradle

Golf ball and Bowling Ball

Monday, Oct 25, 2010

Impulse and Momentum introduction

Demos: Egg toss
force plate

Showed part of Hewitt video dealing with boxing

Wednesday, Oct 20, 2010

Hand back and go over tests.

Boomerang Lab

Tuesday, Oct 19, 2010

Test on Newton's Laws

Monday, October 18, 2010

Monday, Oct 18, 2010

Force vs time diagram for stepping on force plate, waiting, jumping up and landing back on force plate, waiting, stepping off.

Does a jar of flies weigh more if the flies are at the bottom than if they are flying around inside? Demo with helicopter and force plate.

Coin in balloon, nut in balloon demos of inertia, friction, force of inside surface on object.

Went over end of chapter questions from Chapters 4,5,6.

Test Tomorrow.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Friday, Oct 15, 2010

Monday is last chance to hand in CD 5-1, CD-6-1

Coffee filter lab - write up in journal
1. Which falls faster, 1 coffee filter or 2 stacked?
2. In the absence of air resistance, which will fall faster, 1 coffee filter or 2 stacked?
3. Sketch and label a free-body diagram for both air resistance and no air resistance.
4. Sketch a graph of speed vs time for a coffee filter dropped through the air.
5. If you drop a single coffee filter from a height of 1 m, how high do you have to drop 2 stacked filters so that they hit at the same time, if dropped at the same time?
6. How many coffee filters do you need to stack so that they fall twice as fast as a single coffee filter?
7. Drop two single filters, one open and one folded. Which falls faster?

Students did lab.
Went over results in class.

Started going over questions from book at end of Chapter 6.
Did elevator examples, and lifting barbell examples using Newton's 2nd and 3rd Laws.


Test on Tuesday.

Thursday, Oct 14, 2010

Brain stormed physics vocabulary
Asked students to see these vocabulary words in the demos in the video.

Watched video of Physics Extravaganza.

Wednesday, Oct 13, 2010

Reviewed Newton's 3rd Law relating it to yesterday's demos

Forces come in "pears"

Showed parts from Independence Day.
Showed that Hollywood does not understand Newton's 3rd Law.

Tuesday, Oct 12, 2010

3rd Law lecture with lots of demos.

Inanimate objects can exert forces.
. Pull back fingers same result as leaning against a wall.

These forces are elastic, the bonds actually stretch.
. Demo with rubber band
. How does floor know how much force to exert to balance weight? Check to see if floor "stretches"
. Demo with laser pointer and mirror showing that wall actually does move when pushed.

Newton's 3rd Law Recipe
. Forces are interactions, they come in pairs
. Demo with finger in water

Newton's 3rd Law: If Object A exerts a force on Object B, then Object B exerts a force on Object A that is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. There is NO time lag between these forces.
. Demo with force sensors. You can't pull harder on me than I pull on you
. Demo with tug-of-war. The person who wins the tug-of-war is not the person who pulls harder, it is the person who pushes harder against the floor.
. Drop apple, why does apple fall down and Earth not fall up - Newton's 2nd Law

Magic Tube Demo
. Tube pushes up on ball, ball pushes down on tube

Went over how to identify action reaction pairs of forces as opposed to forces that balance through Newton's 1st Law.

Action/Reaction forces will NEVER appear in the same free-body diagram and can NEVER cancel since they don't act on the same object.

Hand out CD 6-1 - due last time on Monday.

Monday, Oct 11, 2010

Hand back Statics Lab and go over any questions.

Finish 2nd Law video - emphasize the effect of air resistance on objects.

Modeled air resistance as knocking aside air molecules. Used hand outside car as example. The air resistance depends on two factors, the speed and the cross-sectional area. Discussed why air resistance goes up as the square of the speed (If you double the speed, you knock aside twice as many air molecules, each hitting twice as hard.)

Parachute example - same cross sectional area.

Through the air, the heavier object falls faster because it takes a greater speed to build up enough air resistance to balance the weight.

Terminal velocity occurs when the object falls fast enough so that the air resistance balances the weight.

Thursday, Oct 7, 2010

Collect remaining statics labs

Start Newton's 2nd Law video

Explain why objects of different weights fall at the same rate if air resistance can be neglected. Had students explain why and used bowling ball and tennis ball if they said the forces acting on them were the same.

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Wednesday, Oct 6, 2010

Collect RA 4.2

Statics Lab done in groups of 3
If students don't finish writeup in class, the write-up is due tomorrow.

Tuesday, Oct 5, 2010

Asked students what they told their parents about the Inertia Mini-Labs.

Went over RA 4.1

Talked about inertia, mass, weight, volume, force
Newton's First Law
Showed how to draw a free-body diagram and how to find net force

Showed "breaking string" tension problem.

Handed out RA 4.2 due tomorrow.

Monday, Oct 4, 2010

Went over test.

Collected RA 4.1

Inertia mini-labs

Friday, Oct 1, 2010

Test

Handed out RA 4.1, due Monday

Thursday, September 30, 2010

Thursday, Sept 30, 2010

Finished Hewitt video on projectile

Discussions on relativity, expanding universe

"Test" tomorrow.

Magic Tube
Students take home, 5 at a time, to show to parents.

Time to work on Hit-the-Bar calculations

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Wed, Sept 29, 2010

Collect Rocket 2 Lab Write-ups

Hit the Bar Lab!!!

Tuesday, Sept 28, 2010

Computer was available for students to check Rocket 2 Lab results and get graphs.
Lab is due tomorrow (Wednesday)

Stamped and then reviewed homework questions from textbook.

Went over calculations for tomorrow's Hit the Bar Lab.
For homework, suggested students organize notes so they can just plug in their numbers tomorrow.

Monday, Sept 27, 2010

Rocket 2 Lab

It was hot outside and unfortunately, many rockets did not meet expectations.

Rather than have students do all the calculations, I set up an excel program. Students can enter their data and the program will do all the calculations and produce graphs of hang time vs launch angle, range vs launch angle, and height vs angle.

For the write-up: Students will have a cover sheet with
Name:
Partners:
Date of Lab:
Title:

They will then show the three graphs.

On a separate sheet they will have a Conclusions section, labeled Conclusions. In this section they will state 5 major conclusions about the lab from their graphs.

Friday, Sept 24, 2010

Ball and Track Projectile Motion Competition Lab

Showed students how to do calculations for Rocket Lab 2.

Thurs, Sept 23, 2010

Watched first part of video on projectile motion.

Went over how to do Ball and Track Projectile Motion Lab.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Wednesday, Sept 22, 2010

Finish watching Hewitt video on Linear Motion.

Collect Rocket 1 labs
Rocket quiz
Showed graphs of motion so students would hopefully get a better intuitive feel for the rocket problem

Didn't get to Hewitt video on Linear Motion
Stamped and reviewed homework problems 1-25 Review questions

Students worked at their tables and wrote answers to questions 36-41

Tuesday, Sept 21, 2010

Make computer available for checking results from Rocket 1 Lab.
Rocket 1 Lab write-up due tomorrow (Wednesday) - no late work accepted.

Students took out potato guns and measured height and two way time for vertical shots. Compared theoretical heights (from times) with measured heights.

Potato gun competitions

Assigned HW from textbook. Check summary on page 660. Write out answers to Review Questions 1-25.

Quiz tomorrow on Rockets

Monday, September 20, 2010

Monday, Sept 20, 2010

Went over Sus-It-Out method for linear motion problems.

Showed format for write-up of Rocket 1 lab:
Title, Date, Name, Partners
Data Table
Calculations Section
Do calculations by cap, not by type of calculation
Show calculations for average total time in air
Average time up
Launch speed
Average speed on the way up
Height

Gave students time to work on Rocket 1 labs. Set up program so students could check their calculations.

Friday, Sept 17, 2010

Did Rocket 1 Lab

Thursday, Sept 16, 2010

Students made pen potato guns

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Wed, Sept 15, 2010

Collect RA 2.1

Hand out worksheet on constant speed.
Students did it in class and then I quickly went over it.

Start Hewitt video on Linear Motion

Do Picket Fence Lab and discuss

For homework, RA 2.2

Tuesday, Sept 14, 2010

Students read about chaos and the butterfly effect in their textbooks.

Showed dominoes.

Students did experiment with balls and soap. (Didn't work with water) Showed that, through liquid soap, the heavier objects did indeed fall faster as Aristotle had said.

Handed out RA 2.1 for homework due tomorrow.

Monday, September 13, 2010

Monday, Sept 13, 2010

Collect RA 1

Hand back Quiz on class policies

Ask for ideas on how to present magic jar
Ask for plastic squares

If students don't want to hold on to magic jars, I will collect them. If students want to practice and experiment more, they can keep them.

Have students fill out notebook with other demos from Friday:
Soap driven boat
Floating paper clip
Pennies in glass of water
Drops of water on penny

What is meant by surface tension?
Show molecular picture

Two balloon experiment
Spanking baby
Balloon kebabs

Exploding Sausage

Friday, September 10, 2010

Friday, Sep 10, 2010

Collect Parent Notification Forms
Collect Course Expectation Forms
Check Textbooks for Covers

Quiz on Course Expectations

Handed our RA Chapter 1 - due Monday
Handed out flowchart on Surface Tension and discussed several of the demos and experiments

Brain stormed on Inquiry for Magic Jar
Factors that might affect the experiment and how might you eliminate the amount of spill
Size of Mesh
Size of jar and jar opening
Amount of liquid
Type of liquid
What jar is made of
Temperature of water
Material and size of cover
Speed at which you do the experiment

Went over how to set up notebook
Pages 1-6 are Table of Contents in which you put the page number and brief description of the lab/demo/activity
Started on Page 7 with Magic Jar demo

Students made and tested Magic Jars

Demonstrated floating paperclip in water
Demonstrated detergent propelled boat

Demonstrated cracking wrist with plastic cup

Homework: Students are to think of a creative way to demo the Magic Jar
Do RA Ch 1

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Thurs Sep 9, 2010

Start of New School Year!!
Students chose seating
Explained BULA greeting
Students filled out seating chart
Student Profile

Got textbooks
Bring covered textbook tomorrow for 10 pts
Students wrote name in books

Didn't go over my background.
Parent Notification - bring one signed form tomorrow for 10 pts
Course Expectations - bring in signed form tomorrow for 5 pts

Went over Course Expectations

Magic Jar demo

Showed Spangler video of Magic Jar demo

Tomorrow:
Check textbooks for covers
Collect Parent Notification Forms
Collect Course Expectation Forms

Quiz on class expectations
Do classroom tour and show emergency meeting place.
Explain how to set up notebook

Students make magic jar
Follow-up experiments on air pressure and surface tension

Hand out RA chapter 1

Homework: Practice demos
RA Chapter 1