Phunky Phryday

Physics A continued with their discussion of work to add the connection between work and energy. We discussed the general definition of energy (the ability to do work) and concentrated on kinetic in today's lecture. Kinetic energy is associated with motion, so if you are at rest, you have 0 Joules of kinetic energy. If you experience an increase of kinetic energy, it's most likely that you increased you speed. Increasing speed reflects positive work being done on you and the amount of work done will equal the kinetic energy increase. Negative work would reduce your speed and, therefore you're kinetic energy. Again, though, the amount of work will equal the kinetic energy change. That relationship is called the work-kinetic energy theorem, but can be expanded to relate work to any energy form. On Monday, you'll work on a lab that allows you to investigate the types of mechanical energy in this chapter and also introduce you to the concept of conservation of mechanical energy.

Physics B conducted their energy transformation/conservation labs today during long block. Transformations between KE and PE_g and PE_e were tackled between two investigations. Throwing in a ball in the air demonstrates the trade-offs between height and speed and the related energy changes, and an oscillating spring highlights speed and displacement tradeoffs, again relating to energy. However, at all times, as your graphs showed, total energy is conserved. We'll discuss this lab on Monday before taking on kinetic energy and its relationship to work.

Intro Physics enjoyed their quiz on the math of forces. We'll go over those on Monday and begin our discussion of momentum. The paragraph you're to write for homework is described on Edline if you didn't jot it down in class and be prepared to share your thoughts with others in class next week.

Honors Physics went over their Chapter 5 tests, then began a discussion of momentum. Momentum was once considered the quantity of motion and it was in light of momentum that Newton thought about forces and changes of motion. We defined momentum, showed how mass and velocity had equal roles in determining an object's momentum and discussed the impulse-momentum theorem, which links force and motion through the aspect of time. We'll get some lab work with this concept next week and also go deeper into momentum by examining the concept of conservation of momentum.