Snow!

The first snow of the year and it actually stuck! That does not bode well for my hope for an easy winter...

Physics A and B reviewed their Chapter 4 tests and their work/work-kinetic energy theorem homework before turning attention to potential energy. We looked at two energies of position, gravitational potential energy (PE_g) and elastic potential energy (PE_e), the same two on which we focused during our recent lab investigations. Make sure you know what goes into calculating each energy type, their connection to work and that each can change depending on the situation. We'll look more at those energy changes when we take on conservation of energy tomorrow.

Introductory Physics had more practice working with the math of conservation of momentum today in class. You can't really give a formula for conservation of momentum besides p_i = p_f, because the physical nature of the circumstances will have you script that relationship differently for each scenario. The key is to think about the relationship itself and use your knowledge of the problem to write down the members for initial momentum and final momentum. Tomorrow, a quick quiz on impulse-momentum and conservation of momentum before we conduct a lab investigation on the impulse-momentum theorem.

Honors Physics reviewed their work with conservation of momentum before detailing aspects of specific types of collisions - perfectly inelastic, inelastic and elastic. For all, momentum is conserved; however kinetic energy is conserved only for elastic collisions. We'll review the chapter material tomorrow and look to Tuesday for our Chapter 6 exam.