UNIT 3: Blog Reflection

Getting closer to the fall exams, I realized that this blog reflection has to be more than what I've done in the past. Hopefully, it does not get too boring :)

In this unit I learned about Newton's Third Law, Vectors, Tension, Force of Gravity, Tides, The relationship between Impulse and Momentum, the Conservation of Momentum...wow! That's a lot of topics I will be covering on this post, stick around! I'll take each one by one.

Newton's Third Law

Newton's Third Law explains that with every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Newton is trying to say that all objects have a relationship/interaction. These are called action/reaction pairs. 

For example, take an apple sitting on a table: 

The apple is pulling the Earth up, while the Earth pulls the apple down. But if you want to get into logistics with the table included, there is a whole other relationship between either the apple and table or the earth and table. 

In order to create action/reaction pairs, there are three rules that must always be followed

1. The verb must always remain the same (pulls/pulls, push/push, hit/hit)
2. The direction that was stated first, must be opposite at the end (up/down, left/right)
3. The object must stay the same and then switch 

Next, if someone were to ask the question "Which vehicle has the bigger force? A truck or a car?" I am assuming your immediate answer would be the truck just because it is bigger. Well this mentality is incorrect. As learned previously in Newton's Second Law, Force equals mass times acceleration.

 

This means that if there is a bigger mass, there will be a smaller acceleration and vice versa, if there is a larger acceleration, there will be a smaller mass. This is why the answer to the question stated above, is that they will have an equal force. WOW! 

This is showing how if there is a bigger mass (like the truck) there will be a smaller acceleration
This is also showing that if there is a smaller mass there will be a bigger acceleration (like the car)
Created on Paint 

Next, I learned about an essential question: Why does a horse pull a buggy?

Action/Reaction Pairs. Created on Paint -JL

So you might see a bunch of paired arrows in different colors. Well by the end, you should be able to know what descriptions go with each pair. 

Green Arrows: The force is pulling the buggy forward an the buggy is pulling the horse backward

Blue Arrows: The horse pushes the ground backwards and the ground pushes the horse forward

Red Arrows: The buggy pushes the Earth forward and the Earth pushes the buggy backward

Realize how I used the rules that I talked about earlier to make these action/reaction pairs.

A horse pulls a buggy with the same force the buggy pulls the horse because of Newton's 3rd Law that states with every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The reason the horse is able to pull the buggy is because it is able to push the ground harder.

Something you must remember in all of these instances that have a relationship like this is that whoever can push the ground harder will move in the direction they wish to go. This is because Earth pulls everything downward. Another example of a relationship like this would be a tug of war. 

Vectors

Vectors are a little hard to explain but they occur when two forces are perpendicular and when we are trying to find out in what direction an object or a person will go. 

Showing two perpendicular forces

Vectors show magnitude and direction. 

In order to create the middle arrow that will show you in which direction the object will go, you must draw a parallelogram like so:

Created on Paint

 The purple arrow represents the direction that the object will end up going in. 

This led into the next essential question: Why does a block slide down a ramp? 

Taken from my notes -JL

First we must know the different forces the box has on a ramp.

1. Support force: a force that is always perpendicular to the surface
2. Fweight/gravity which is pulling box down onto ramp
3. It has a fnet which is sliding the box down the ramp

Looking at the image above, everything is labeled, except for the fnet which is the small blue arrow. When you draw a parallelogram, using the support force and the gravity vectors, that is what it provides you with. 

Tension

Disregard Numbers

Tension is the pulling force exerted by a string, cable, chain, or similar solid object on another object (Wikipedia). Tension shows how much force is being exerted on each side of a string and by calculating it, we know which side is most likely to break. 

To calculate tension:

1. Draw an fweight
2. Draw an fnet (which is equal and opposite to fweight)
3. Draw a parallel line to each tension line
4. Draw tension vectors 

Force of Gravity

In this section of the unit, I learned that everything with mass attracts all other thing with mass.

I learned that force depends on 2 things:

1. Mass of objects
2. Distance between two objects

Also, I learned that force is inversely proportional to force because of the inverse square law which is:

F~1/d^2

If you were to use this equation for any number, for example 1, this is what it would look like:

Problem for Inverse Square Law. Created on Paint

Subsequently, we learned about solving for gravitational force with the formula being:

I learned that G=6.67*10^-11 Nm^2/Kg^2. This is a super small number. This formula is universally accepted as the gravitational formula for force. 

Some other key points that may be important are:

• you weigh less on Mt. Everest than at sea level because you are closer to the Earth's core. 
• in case you don't know how to multiply numbers with powers of 10, here are some suggestions:
• separate the whole numbers from the "10 to the whatever powers" 
• if powers are multiplied, add them
• if powers are divided, subtract them
• if powers are squared, multiply them

Tides

Tides are caused the two sides of the Earth not experiencing the same force. This is why we have high tides and low tides. If you've ever been to the beach, you've probably realized that on some day the water is so high up to where you place your chair and at other times it is so low that you have to walk a far distance in order to get some water on your toes. 

There is a difference felt by the moon which is greater and this is what causes the tides. 

Also there are spring and neap tides which are displayed in the image below.

A spring tide is a tide just after a new or full moon when there is the greatest difference between high and 

low water.

A neap tide is a type of tide in which it occurs right after the first and third quarters of the moon when there is the least difference between high and low water.

Impulse and Momentum Relationship

The formula for momentum is p=mv. Something else that is crucial to this lesson is that the change in momentum is: pfinal - pinitial equals change in momentum. The change in momentum is the same regardless of if you stop quickly or slowly.

Impulse is the force upon something and how long force is applied.
The formula we use for impulse is J=F*change in t
And also impulse equals the change in momentum, which stated earlier is pfinal-pinitial.

An essential question we learned recently is Why do airbags keep us safe?
The answer to this question is super complex, but it gets easier with practice.
I am going to highlight the answer, and then after many different example problems, the answer should come easily.

The car will go from moving to not moving no matter how it is stopped therefore ∆p is the same no matter what.
J=∆p (this is the first formula) The impulse will be the same no matter how you are stopped.

J=F∆t
without airbag: J=F∆t
with airbag: J=F∆t
The airbag increases the time of the impulse therefore the force on you is less because small force equals less injury.

Some other examples of this type of problem would be:

• Why does a climber prefer to use a stretchy cord over a metal one?
• Why do padded dashboards make cars safer?

Therefore in all problems with this relationship, they equal each other.

Conservation of Momentum

In conservation of momentum, forces are equal and opposite. This directly relates back Newton's Third Law because he states that all forces must be equal and opposite.

Things I need to know for this unit:

• p total before = p total after

We used carts to model this in a lab. 

We learned that when the carts did not stick together and kept going, the momentum was still conserved. This was shown with the formula

• MaVa + MbVb = MaVa + MbVb

If the carts were to stick together when they met and kept going, the momentum was still conserved also. This was shown with the formula:

• MaVa + MbVb = Ma+b(Vab)

In order to understand what these mean, it would be easier to know this in terms of a cart...which you can see in the image below

In the top one, they stick together
In the bottom image, they keep going in the opposite direction

Another example of the conservation of momentum is when things hit at an angle.

In this example, because it is in top view, we can assume that all of the momentum was in the x direction. If you're wondering what the y is, it is 0 kg m/s...so there is no y direction.
I mean, there is still some y momentum but they cancel out because they go in opposite directions.

If we add numbers to this..

The x direction at the end must be the same because, remember, momentum before must equal momentum after.

Another form of conserving momentum is in bouncing. There is double the change in momentum because it is going from moving to not moving because it is stopping and starting. For example:

The Difficulty

In this unit, I found tides extremely difficult and I am not sure why. The only thing I can think of is that my class was really distracted the day we went over it in class. Unfortunately, even when I came into conference period, I still did not understand it. I learned a little bit from my class peers' podcast at the end of the unit. 

I did not really overcome this difficulty, I just re-watched the video and looked at my notes and I am hoping that going into the test I will be okay. 

Effort, Learning, Problem Solving

In this unit, my effort during class stayed consistent. I think I didn't ask as many questions in class but i always came in prepared for class with my homework done and studied my notes from the night before. 

One thing I didn't do as well in, was my quiz taking abilities which scares me for the test because I don't know if I will have everything mastered by tomorrow when I will be taking my test in the conference room. In activities, I actively participated. I would have to highlight my podcast because Catherine Eckerd and I had to work on it all alone the day before it was due and it came out perfectly *props to Catherine*. 

I think I remained persistent because even though I didn't understand some of the major topics in this unit, I re watched videos and I actually practiced problems in order to get prepared for assessments and not only "review my notes". I collaborated well with my group members in labs, especially when we had difficulty with our lab equipment and had to do everything later than everyone else. Also the podcast example above. Patience has been issue for me with my class this unit because this has been the most difficult unit for me and although I cannot stand up to my peers and tell them to stop distracting me, I've had to keep calm and keep going. 

Goals

1. To make sure my group remains involved with our group activities so we dont end up doing things last minute
2. To ask my peers even after I come into conference period and still don't understand what is going on.

Connections:

Newton's Third Law: When playing tug of war, the team that wants to win must know to push harder on the ground with their feet.

Tension: When using string or tiliting things in order to get it to not break easily. 

Relationship between impulse and momentum: When driving.

So many more connections! But these are some that relate to me specifically. 

Unit Podcast:

Enjoy this one! Although it is not the best one we've created, Catherine and I put a lot of work into this video. Hope it helps you!

A Tide Resource

This a video that was created by the author of our textbook, Hewitt. He explains with nice animations what ocean tides are in relationship to the moon, sun, and Earth. 

This relates to what we are currently learning in the classroom because we are trying to understand what neap and spring tides are, and also how the moon and Earth are in relationship (direction, speed, orbit). 

Something that was interesting in this video was when he talks about the blob and how the Earth is rotating daily while the moon does not rotate in one day.

I hope this is helpful! Enjoy!
-jl

UNIT 2: Blog Reflection

PART A:
In this unit, we learned about different way of moving, not transportation wise, but moving up, down, at an angle, etc.

Newton's Second Law --
In this lesson of the unit, I learned that things are able to accelerate and the cause of acceleration is force. This is because force is proportional to acceleration.
For instance, if force increases, acceleration will too and vise versa.
That can be represented as a~F
This led us to learning about Newton's Second Law of Motion. This law states that acceleration equals force/mass or in other terms, f=ma. 
This formula also means that acceleration is directly proportionate to force and it is inversely proportional to mass.
Analyzing this further, a larger mass will mean that there is a small acceleration.
Another part of this law has to do with mass and weight. This now includes things falling, not just moving to the left or the right, therefore we have to acknowledge gravity. 
A formula for this is: weight = mass times gravity or w=mg. We learned that gravity will always be 9.8m/s, or to make things easier, round it up to 10m/s. 
For example: If a box has a mass of 2kg and we know that gravity is 10m/s, what is the weight?

Looking at this example, this is how you would solve

But after looking at all of this, a question that may come up, is "how does acceleration depend on force and mass?". This is a lab that we did in order to find out how the acceleration of a system is related to the mass and force on a system.
We learned that if the net force is constant, acceleration is constant also. To find the force of the system, we use the equation shown above w=mg. To find the mass of a system, we simply just add the weight of the items used.

Skydiving --
In the skydiving lesson, we learned that as speed increases, the force of air resistance increases. In simpler terms,they are directly proportional. 
REMEMBER: this is in terms that you are accelerating on earth only. 
This also means that you start out at zero seconds. 
An easy way to think about this is to remember that f.net = f.weight - f.air
Also, if net force decreases, acceleration decreases because they are directly proportional, in this case. In terms of the velocity, it always increases because it is still accelerating.

F.grav can also be seen  as f.weight

Another term that we learned in skydiving, was terminal velocity. This means that it is at the point in its movement when it is moving at a constant velocity. As we already know, velocity is the opposite of acceleration.

Two things that will change air resistance, are speed and surface area. This is because they are both proportionate to air resistance.

This is showing terminal velocity; the point in which both the f.weight and f.air are equal

As much as the arrows in both of these images want to make you think that the person is moving upward, remember that it is not. It never moves upward. All it is trying to show is how it is attempting to reach terminal velocity. 

So all in all, when your speed goes up, your air resistance does too. 

Also, a key point while learning about physics is that a negative sign does not mean negative, it means that it is going in the opposite direction. Now look at the pictures below, and try to solve for each one. The answers are included below. 

                           

Free Fallin' --

In free fall, there are many things to remember:

1. There is no air resistance
2. The only force acting on it is gravity
1. It is at a constant 10m/s
3. It does not matter what the weight of the objects are, gravity is the only thing that matters and like I stated before, it is 10m/s^2

This is how you know that it is due to gravity alone:

Created on Paint

Example:

Someone was on top of a cliff. They threw a ball straight down. It took 3 seconds to hit the ground. 

• How high is the building/How far in 3s:
• d=1/2gt^2
• d=1/2(10)(3)^2
• d=1/2(10)(9)
• d=1/2(90)
• d=45 m
• How fast did the ball go?
• v=gt
• v=(10)(3)
• v=30 m/s

Projectile Motion --

When something is moving in two directions. We have to figure out the vertical and horizontal directions.

1. Vertical Direction: has a constant acceleration (10m/s). We use the formula d=1/2gt^2. Vertical velocity is basically the height, and the height determines time.

2. Horizontal Direction: always remains with a constant velocity because it has no force. We can calculate horizontal velocity by using the formula v=d/t.

Projectile motion follows a parabolic path.

Throwing Things up at an Angle--

In conceptual physics, we will always throw things at a 45 degree angle. When we throw something, it is moving in the horizontal direction to reach its end point. The vertical velocity will be the height and something we will always know is that it has a constant velocity. 

In order to find the horizontal velocity, we use the same equation as before v=d/t. But when throwing things at an angle, we have to use the equation a²+b²=c²

As you can tell, the horizontal velocity always remains constant, and the vertical increases

Something that is really cool is that these angles form triangles! That is why we use the formula I stated right above the image. A key fact to remember is that if the hypotenuse of the triangle is 1.41, 14.1 or 141, we have a 1,1, square root of 2 triangle. Those are the types of numbers that will most likely appear on the test.
In order to find the hang time of the object, you do the same thing you've done with everything else. You must start from the initial velocity and decrease by 10m/s going up, and going down you must increase. 

A real life example of throwing things at an angle

• In this unit, I found that it took me a long time to grasp the concepts. Throwing things straight up is still a lesson that I have not yet grasped completely.                  
• I overcame this difficulty by going into conference period well before the test in order to study more. Also I re watched the video and looked at the lesson in the book. 
• I wouldn't say the light bulb has necessarily clicked yet, but what has made it clearer is that I have used multiple resources in order to learn more.

**My problem-solving skills, effort, and learning**

In this unit, I feel like I showed effort even when I didn't understand (which was most of the time). I did not get frustrated or lose my patience even when other people were being distracting. I completed all of my homework for this unit an came into conference period. In the class, I showed up on time with my homework done and questions ready. With the blog posts, I always posted them before the class periods and I found helpful videos again.

1. Persistence: I am usually always determined to get the answers correct and to master the lesson day by day. Although that has not happened much in this unit, I feel like I was still persistent in trying to learn the lessons.
2. Communicating both spoken and written words: In class, I do not feel like I participate as much as I should. I think my written work is better than my oral skills. 
3. Collaboration with group members: My podcast group is perfect, therefore it is really easy to each take a part and do what we have to do, which I think I collaborate a lot in. In my labs, however, it is usually hard to stay focused but I usually collaborate a lot on these because if I dont, we wont get it done, which at times is frustrating.

GOAL: Next time, I hope to speak up a little more when I don't understand something, even if the class may get annoyed.

PART B:

I learned in this unit, that we can apply Newton's second law to things that have direction such as up, down, at an angle etc. I like using real world examples in order to grasp the material a little more. I can relate throwing things down to a ball for example. I can connect throwing things at an angle to kicking a soccer ball. 

HERE IS THE PODCAST FOR THIS UNIT: Created by Jasmin, Catherine Eckerd, and Abby.

According to Ms. Lawrence, it was really well done, so watch it! You might learn something! Enjoy!

  

                         

A Resouce for Ju: Free Fall

What you are about to see here is a video made by Hewitt. He is explaining how to find free fall with the equations that we have used in class using diagrams and cool animations. This relates to what we are learning in class because we learned these equation and Mrs. Lawrence taught it the same way he is doing with the example of the cliff. 

I found interesting when he shows the speedometer and makes it clearer top understand why free fall happens the way it does. Although, it is lengthier than other videos, it's very useful.

..ENJOY..

Newton's Second Law Resource

This video is from YouTube which was originally from Brightstorm, with a man who clearly and in simple terms, explains Newton's Second Law of Motion. You will quickly see the three properties included in Newton's 2nd law listed on the man's whiteboard and then he goes on to do an example which is pretty difficult but once he explains it, it is super easy to understand!
This video was super helpful when he just lists things out because 
1. I like lists
2. He did it quickly and it was to the point without having to use big words. 
He also includes the formula in there! Although it is f=ma, it is the same thing as saying a=f/m

Unfortunately, the video did not have embedding so I posted a picture of what to search up if you would like to find this video...but you can still see the three properties listed right there. 

Here is the link to the Youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdVyLc2CUZA
ENJOY :D 

UNIT 1: Blog Reflection

PART A:

In this unit I learned six different lessons about movement:

In this lesson of the unit, I learned that Inertia was a property of motion that is NOT a force. This law states that an object in motion will stay in motion and an object at rest will stay at rest unless acted upon by an outside force. We did experiments such as a ball popping out of a cart and seeing if it would land in front of, behind, or inside of the cart. The ball landed inside the cart which proved Newton's law about motion. When we experimented about rest we were able to prove his law when a tablecloth was pulled from under dishes on a table and the dishes stayed in place.

 A major lab we did to prove what I had learned in class was the Hovercraft Inertia Lab. This lab was a hands on lab that showed us Newton's Law.

Along with Newton's First Law, net force is a key point to learning about objects in motion and at rest. But first, we had to learn what force was. Force is, in simple terms, a push or a pull. Force is measured in Newtons. A Newton is basically a quarter of a pound. After learning what a force was, I learned that a net force was the overall force on an object when all forces are added together. .

This is an example of net force.

In the picture shown above, there is a tug of war going on. Although many may not think of this game in the physics aspect, there is a force being put on both sides of the rope. For example, if the children on the left are pulling the rope with 60N and the kids on the right side are pulling the rope with 60N as well, one must subtract the forces from the left and the right. This would look like this: 60N - 60N = 0N. The answer will be the total net force. This would be an example of something that has forces acting on it but does not have a net force because (as you saw above) the net force is zero.

Something with a net force, is for example, two people pushing a box in the same direction. In the picture shown below, the person on the left is pushing with a force of 400N and the person on the right is pulling it with a force of 300N to the right. Add these two forces together, because they are going in the same direction, and you will get a net force of 700N.

I also learned that something can move and not have a force acting on it (ie: a rock in space). 

Equilibrium is a state of balance which means that there is no net force on the object. This occurs anytime a net force on anything adds up to zero Newtons. Two example of this happening is when objects are moving at a constant velocity or when they are at rest. 
When an object DOES NOT have a constant velocity and is not at rest it is called acceleration. 

This leads into the next topic, about speed, velocity, and acceleration. 
Speed is the rate that an object moves at. Speed is measured in:

• miles/hour
• meters/hour
• kilometers/hour
• centimeters/second
• etc etc etc

Velocity, on the other hand, is the speed of an object in a certain direction.
Notice how, speed and velocity can be confused to be the same thing but the difference is that velocity requires a certain direction. Velocity can be shown by arrows also called vectors (shown to the right). These arrows show direction and magnitude. Velocity can change when there is a change in direction or when it is speeding up or slowing down.
Something I learned about constant speed and velocity is that an object can have constant speed but cannot have constant velocity at the same time. 

I also learned about acceleration in this unit. 
Acceleration is: the change in velocity / time interval.
The unit used for acceleration is meters/seconds^2.
I also learned that when a ball is rolling on a horizontal slope velocity is constant, and there is no acceleration. When a ball is falling down or being thrown in the air, the acceleration is ALWAYS 10m/s^2.
Some examples we learned about during this lesson, was just seeing a marble roll down a straight table or an inclined table. 

I learned two very important formulas during unit one. These two formulas are:

• the how fast formula: velocity=(acceleration)(time)
• this formula is basically used for any time the question is asking how fast something went. one must plug in the numbers for the known, and find the unknown.
• how fast describes velocity
• the how far formula: 
• distance=1/2(acceleration)(time^2)
• how far describes distance

To have a hands-on experience of this lesson we did a lab on constant velocity versus constant acceleration.

This led into our next lesson of slopes, lines, and equations.
First we reviewed what a slope was. Slope is rise/run. 
Then we learned about the equation of a line. The equation was y=mx+b. This was basically a review from 8th grade math. 
We know that in this equation, y=mx+b stands for something.

• y stands for units
• m=the slope
• x=
• b is where the line crosses the x axis.

I learned that in physics, the b part of the formula will almost never be used, therefore we just leave it out. 

That changes to y=mx.

Something really cool about this equation is that we can use it in physics with a different equation. The equation d=1/2(a)(t^2) fits directly into this equation. This is shown below.

How the equations fit into each other. Taken from Joey Kreigler. 

On a graph we learned that time^2 belongs on the x axis and distance belongs on the y axis of a graph.

What I found difficult about what we studied was acceleration and when it was constant, increasing, or decreasing. I overcame this difficulty by reviewing Ms. Lawrence's video on acceleration which you can find here. 

The thing that made the lightbulb click was seeing the diagrams in class with the slopes. 

**My problem solving skills, effort, and learning**

In this unit, I feel like I demonstrated full effort towards learning the material. I completed all of my homework for this unit and wrote down things I did not understand plus asking questions in class. In the class activities, such as labs and group projects, I added input and showed up to class on time. With the blog posts, I always posted them before the class periods and I found helpful videos while also commenting on Joey's blog.

1. Collaborating with my group members: I would say that I was very responsible in getting my podcast group to meet on a certain day outside of class. I contributed by bringing my camera and filming. 
2. Self confidence in physics: I am pretty confident in my abilities and will not stop asking questions or looking over my notes until I feel it has proven me wrong. I do not usually just take someone else's answer without questioning it first. 
3. Creativity: Creativity has always been something I lacked, but I have never given up on trying to be creative to do things. If you watch our podcast (shown all the way at the bottom), or look at my previous blog posts, or see the pictures included here, I would argue that I took a long time to add a creative aspect instead of just making these things simple. 

GOALS

My goals for the next unit is to come to conference period more by going and asking questions. Also I hope to correct my quizzes during study hall just to make sure I understand what I am doing wrong. 

PART B:

Physics is all about making connections to everyday life and in this unit, I definitely l

definitely learned that. For example, Newton's First Law applies to almost anything 

moving. For example, airplanes, cars, wagons etc. Net force and equillibrium can apply to

things like bikes. Acceleration can apply to a rolling soccer ball down a hill or on the 

field. 

Podcast for Unit 1 - I really hope you learn something from this and enjoy it! Good 

luck on the test!!

Constant Velocity Vs. Constant Acceleration

In class, we did a lab about comparing constant velocity to constant acceleration and learning the difference between the two. The purpose of this lab was to learn how to implement what we learned about acceleration and velocity in class, into real life examples. We also learned how to use lines to determine acceleration and use the equation of a line (y=mx+b) and solve things in physics. 

After this lab, I learned that the difference between constant velocity and constant acceleration is that constant velocity is when something is moving at a constant speed. Constant acceleration is when the object or person is moving at a constant rate. Constant velocity can relate to the hovercraft post I wrote about here. Constant acceleration can be for example: a ball rolling down a hill, at a constant rate of 4 m/s (squared) which means that it will keep doing that until it reaches its stopping point. 

The group that I was in and I, conducted this lab by using a large marble to see the constant velocity on a straight table. We measured every 1/2 second by marking the table with chalk. Then we realized that they had about equal distances; the differences were usually off my 1 or 2. 
Then we put the table at an incline and rolled the ball again. We had predicted the faster the ball went, the further apart the distances between each 1/2 second would get. We were right. These two takes of data, helped us realize the difference between constant velocity and constant acceleration. 

This picture (found on Google) is proving our project.

I found out that constant velocity and constant acceleration relate in two ways which are inversely related. If something has a constant velocity, it cannot have a constant acceleration and if something has a constant acceleration, it cannot have a constant velocity.

In this lab, we found out that there are two formulas that will help us figure out constant acceleration and constant velocity. To solve for constant velocity we used the formula v= d/t. To solve for constant acceleration we use the formula a= change in velocity/time.

The lines in a graph for constant acceleration and constant velocity compare to each other because they have a straight line and based on the time, they are most likely spread apart evenly. But for constant acceleration, they spread further apart when it is going faster.

I used the graph I created and the equation for a line (y=mx+b) to support my data because when I explain that the lines were spread equally apart, I was able to see on Excel, that they were even. Same thing for when they were spreading further apart. 

The key important things I learned in this lab that will help me in the future are:

• How to use the equation of a line
• How to graph lines
• How to use excel to prove my data
• The difference between constant velocity and constant acceleration

Fun with Velocity and Acceleration

The video you are about to see will probably be one of the most helpful things for this chapter in physics class. If you can't tell yet, I learn best by hearing music or watching animations and this has it all. You are about to see a video by They Might Be Giants that explains the difference between speed and velocity and includes a lot about acceleration in there. It shows different examples from the everyday world and is really cute!

This video relates to what we are watching in class because it shows the outside world, which will give you real-life examples. Also this may help you because the song is very catchy and it includes small details that will make a big difference, for example, direction. Hope you like it!

Hovercraft!

Today, we did a lab involving a hovercraft and we learned about Inertia.

1. Riding on a hovercraft feels like you are gliding on a balloon. It felt like this because the bottom was full of air and the hovercraft was gliding on the floor. If someone hadn't tried this before, I would tell them that it was fun and that they should expect to feel like they were floating on air. Riding on a sled, skateboard, etc. was different than riding on this hovercraft because the hovercraft does not stop unless someone else stops it for you. A skateboard or sled would stop after a while. Also, something other than a hovercraft would have increasing velocity the whole time, while a hovercraft accelerates and then maintains a constant velocity. 
2. I learned that inertia was another way to speak about Isaac Newton's first law which is: an object in motion stays in motion and an object at rest stays at rest unless it is acted upon by an outside force. I learned that net force was combination of all the forces that act on a specific object. We also learned about equilibrium which is basically when an object has a net force of zero which is in a balanced state.
3. Based on this lab, acceleration seems to depend on net force and the movement of the object. 
4. Based on this lab, I would expect to have a constant velocity when there is a constant force and no acceleration. 
5. Some members who participated in this lab were harder to stop than others because of their body mass. Because of how fast the hovercraft was moving and how heavy the person was, it made it more difficult for the hovercraft to stop. 

Newton's First Law

This video is a short music video about Newton's First Law called Inertia. It is showing scenes of people moving and staying at rest.

This Inertia video relates to our physics class because we are currently learning that "when an object is in motion it stays in motion unless it is acted upon by an outside force" and "an object at rest stays at rest unless it is acted upon by an outside force."

This video might be helpful in understanding the concept of Inertia because the song is catchy and can stay in your head, therefore it might be easy to recall information.

Intro-PHYSICK!

1. What do you expect to learn in physics this year? 
This year, I plan to learn about things that I can apply to my everyday life. Considering that usually classes don't really work that way, I am excited to know that in physics I will be able to connect to my everyday world. I expect to grasp the concepts Ms. Lawrence will teach us instead of just memorizing for the grade. Although I do not know many things about physics, I want to be able to be comfortable in the classroom and not be scared about this class.

2. Why do you think studying physics is important? 
I think studying physics is important for college, especially for the field of medicine (which I am interested in).  Also studying physics is important because we can understand why things move and work the way they do in everyday life which is pretty cool! We will be able to understand how moving things are created.

3. What questions do you have about physics?

1. What is physics? 
2. Why do things move in different speeds and how can they increase or decrease speed?
3. How can one create objects with acceleration? How do you "put" acceleration into these objects?

4. What goals do you have for physics this year?
My goals for physics this year include:

1. Maintain a good average in the class
2. Understand the material while working with others to see their viewpoint on certain topics
3. To use my resources wisely, come into conference period, and seek out any help that I may need.