A Taste of Spring

...or springs, in the case of Honors Physics. Today's warm temps made staying inside and actually being school-y very difficult, but folks diligently conducted their lab investigations on energy conversions and conservation of energy. The Ball Toss lab demonstrated the conversion between kinetic and gravitational potential energies and the Energy of Simple Harmonic Motion lab tracked transformation between kinetic and elastic potential energies. The graphs very nicely showed that when one form of energy decreased, the other form increased by an equal amount, keeping the total amount of mechanical energy constant. We'll go over the lab on Monday, as well as the homework problems for conservation of energy before taking on the topic of power.

Physics A had a discussion about friction during today's class period. The origin of frictional forces was described, with static and kinetic friction being contrasted in terms of role in motion and magnitude. The coefficient of friction was introduced as a way of evaluating the role of surface materials in determining frictional resistance and the calculation of frictional force and net force was practiced in class. This latter bit was the focus of Physics B's work and we made our way through a variety of problems showing how to integrate friction into problems involving the motion of objects. Monday is general review day, so come with questions, and the Chapter 4 exam still falls on Tuesday. On Wednesday - Work and Energy!

Introductory Physics folks spent the period discussing projectile motion. We defined projectile motion, differentiated between situations where objects were and were not moving as projectiles, explored the general features of projectile motion and practice problems solving for aspects of the motion of horizontally-launched projectiles. We'll review this on Monday, before turning attention to the last of Newton's laws of motion - Newton's Third.