Test Day!

Lots of tests on deck and now that those are over, we can get back to work...

Physics A and B worked on their Chapter 6 exams. Physics A also conducted a lab investigation that centered on levers. This coming chapter looks at torque, circular motion and simple machines (along with other things), so this activity was a nice introduction to that material. Three classes of levers were designed and tested for the mechanical advantage they produced. Even within a class of levers, it could be seen that the distance between the effort force and the fulcrum, compared to the resistance distance to fulcrum, made a difference in mechanical advantage. We'll relate those distances to the idea of lever arm and bring in the concept of balanced torque to fully explain your results. Remember, no formal write-up, but do have the questions answered, including the Going Further for tomorrow.

Honors Physics had their Chapter 7 exam to enjoy and tomorrow will have folks conducting an investigation on buoyant force to start our unit of forces in fluids.

Intro Physics reviewed their work on pressure with depth before moving on to buoyant force. We discussed Archimedes work to gain knowledge about buoyant force and let Archimedes Principle explain why objects float or sink in different fluids. Floating and sinking is based on the net force acting on an object placed in a fluid and Archimedes Principle lets us establish the size of the buoyant force to add to the object's weight to get the net force. We analyzed how density plays into the calculation of buoyant force and ended the class with a series of problems on buoyant forces. We'll go over these tomorrow, before looking at some questions about buoyant forces.