Sunny Monday!

Well, I hope that everyone had a better weekend than me, as all I did was lie on the couch and berate the dogs for not taking of the household chores for me.

On Friday, Honors Physics worked on review problems for the Chapter 4 exam. After going over those problems today, it was pretty clear that an additional day of review is required before the test. So, go over your notes, problems sets and book and prepare questions to bring in tomorrow. We began reviewing the chapter in class today and got up to Newton’s 2nd and 3rd Laws of Motion. We’ll continue the chapter overview tomorrow and address any specific issues on content or problem-solving strategies. Exam is on Wednesday.

Physical Science ended last week by working a set of problems dealing with momentum. Always remember to keep an eye open for unit conversions required to work a problem – this set was rich with them and that is a pretty common situation. Physical Science B went over those problems today and E block will go over them tomorrow. Physical Science E engaged in an investigation of momentum, through the use of collisions. By varying the velocity of a constant mass, the momentum varied as a direct proportion. The more momentum, the harder it was to stop the moving cart; the less momentum, the easier it was to stop the moving cart. By adjusting the mass of the cart, a change was noticed in the interaction. Changing the mass of the cart would change the cart’s momentum, more mass - greater momentum, less mass - less momentum. We’ll discuss momentum and its conservation if more detail in class tomorrow.

Physics F and G watched a film about the speed of light on Friday and should be grateful for that fact. The number of films I show in that course can be counted on one hand with 4 fingers and a thumb left over. The film was a good one, though, to introduce the unusual (to our daily observations) phenomena associated with the speed of light and techniques that scientists are considering for trying to break that velocity barrier. Today, we briefly went over the discussion questions for the film and then completed the review for tomorrow’s exam. On Wednesday – work!

Homework

Honors Physics: Prepare review questions and complete friction lab (if necessary)
Physical Science B: Review momentum problems
Physical Science E: Complete lab write up
Physics F and G: Study for exam