Halfway to Friday

Honors Physics, Physics F and G all suffered through exams in the area of sound. Tomorrow, each class begins their unit on light with an over view of light and reflection. We’ll hit refraction and lenses in the next chapter, but will likely hop over diffraction and interference to make sure that we have sufficient time for electricity and magnetism.

Physical Science B completed their sound and light material with a discussion of refraction, lenses, dispersion and prisms. A refraction tank was used to demonstrate the diffraction of light as it passed between air and water and how light incident at an angle greater than the critical angle displayed total internal reflection. We looked at a natural fiber-optic material (ulexite) and discussed the use of fiber optics in the communications industry. Lastly, we described how prisms promoted dispersion and how water droplets in the atmosphere, functioning as prisms, create rainbows. Tomorrow, a lab on lenses, magnification and image formation.

Physical Science E had about the same day as B block, but did not make it as far as full coverage of prisms and dispersion. We’ll complete that discussion tomorrow and you will get to see rainbow formation by prisms. We’ll start our sound and light review, which we will complete on Friday in preparation for Monday’s exam.

Homework

Honors Physics A: 14.2 Section Review and Chapter Review items #6, 8, 12
Physical Science B: Read lab activity p. 524-525
Physical Science E: 15.4 Section Review
Phsyics F and G: Chapter Review #1-13