Marching into the Weekend

Physics A and B reviewed their work with potential energy and then turned attention to conservation of energy. We had our lab work in this area to draw upon for examples of how energy transformed into different forms/types and how these transformations did not in any way change the total amount of energy present in the system. When friction is a big player in the game, conservation of mechanical energy can be very poor, but when friction is well controlled, we can see good conservation of mechanical energy. Conservation of total energy always holds, though, even if some is turned to non-mechanical forms. On Tuesday, we'll quickly add power to our bag of tricks and begin the review process for Wednesday's exam.

Intro Physics took their momentum quiz and then moved on to a lab that dealt with the impulse-momentum theorem. with a force sensor and motion detector, data could be collected for force, time and velocity which, with the mass of the cart, put together a nice picture of how the impulse acting on an object produced a change of the object's momentum. Folks are testing loose elastic materials, producing a long time interval for the force to act and stiffer materials that have forces act on the object for a much shorter time. We still have data to collect and analyze and that's what we'll work on when ewe come back on Tuesday.

Honors Physics went over their collisions homework before walking through the chapter in preparation for Tuesday's exam. On Wednesday, we shift gears a bit and start to tackle circular motion.

Have a great long weekend!