More Motion!

Physics F reviewed their work with acceleration and focused, today, on the kinematics formulas. We looked at the formulas, discussed how they were derived and worked several sample problems to illustrate the methods for extracting information from a word problem and choosing the right tools to generate a solution. Tomorrow is all-period practice with kinematics problems so that skills can be nailed down. We'll see these formulas all year and working with them quickly and easily will be a must.

Physics D will also be working on kinematics problems tomorrow, but after we go over today's lab on objects in free-fall. Notice, though, that one of the kinematics formulas we discussed yesterday was used in your investigations. The equations are valid for horizontal, vertical or 2-dimensional motion and we'll use them often for analyzing many types of situations. For your investigation, the graphs you produced for the tossed ball and dropped picket fence matched well with what we would predict for an accelerating object and it was clear that the acceleration had a constant value. We'll discuss the lab in detail tomorrow and provide some tips for your write-up which is due on Monday.

Honors Physics discussed their lab investigation from yesterday and used it as a reference for today's discussion of objects in free-fall. We defined free-fall as motion acted upon only by gravity and demonstrated why objects behave differently in free-fall because of the confounding effect of air resistance. We examined a sample problem that used the familiar kinematics formulas to evaluate motion of a basketball and more problems along those lines are on the homework list. We'll go over those tomorrow, before making a last practice round of our motion problems (expect some tougher ones), Friday is review day and Monday is exam day. Tuesday it's on to angular kinematics!

Intro Physics discussed their graphing and scientific notation homework, then worked on an activity that highlighted the concepts of accuracy and precision. It became clear that small errors in technique had big impacts on the accuracy of our volume readings and the precision of those readings was determined by the specific measuring tool we used. We then started our discussion on the use of significant figures to report precision. We'll finish that up first thing tomorrow, before having a general review of the chapter in preparation for Monday's exam.