A Day o' Labs

Honors Physics and Physics B conducted their investigation of free-fall acceleration and verified that objects fall with constant acceleration, not variable acceleration or constant speed. We would witness constant speed in free fall only when an object reached terminal velocity, the speed at which the force or air resistance balances the object's weight. We'll look at that idea later when we discuss forces in detail.

Physics F conducted a lab investigation that allowed students to create three graphs describing a single motion - a cart moving up and back down a low-friction incline. Each graph provided vital information about the cart's motion, and all reinforced the idea that the acceleration of the cart was constant throughout its travel. Graph interpretation is a vital skill in physics and these past couple of labs have provided lots of opportunity to practice the skill.

Physical Science discussed yesterday's lab investigation before looking over the independent graphing homework. Make sure you are able to create a graph that follows all the guidelines for effective graph design and that you are able to choose the right type of graph for the data set. Of course, the fun really begins with graph interpretation and that is something we will work on all year.

Homework
Honors Physics: Complete lab writeup and free-fall problems assigned Friday
Physics B: Complete lab writeup
Physics F: Complete lab writeup
Physical Science: p. 29 #24-27