Countdown!

Vacation starts next week, but this week is still a full five days of learning!

Physics A and B reviewed their Archimedes Principle activity from Friday before turning closer attention to the topics of density and buoyant forces. We looked at how a fluid's density determines (along with the object's volume) the magnitude of the buoyant force acting on the object and how that, along with the object's weight, determines whether the object floats or sinks in the fluid. Remember the formulas we highlighted in class, since they are rather ignored in your textbook, for tonight's problems and make sure you can find them on the formula sheet for your future assessment (not this week). Tomorrow, B Block works on a more detailed lab for buoyancy and A Block turns attention to fluid pressure.

Intro Physics reviewed their forces in fluids test and the work with simple machines. We then turned attention to a start on reviewing the ideas of work and power with two questions on the board that folks worked on individually and then in groups. We'll go over those questions tomorrow and then take a look at how those questions relate to the concept of energy.

Honors Physics reviewed their work with specific heat and then turned an eye to latent heat. Specific heat relates to temperature change through the input or output of heat energy and latent heat takes on phase change. When a substance at a phase-change point gains or loses energy, the temperature doesn't change because the particles kinetic energy does not change. What is changing is the potential energy of the system and that does not relate to temperature. The latent heat of fusion concerns the liquid/solid phase change and the heat of vaporization concerns the liquid/gas phase change. We'll go over the homework problems in class tomorrow before starting some review work for heat and temperature.