Conservation of Energy

Physics D and F reviewed gravitational and elastic potential energy and rolled this information into conservation of energy. Energy in total is always conserved, but mechanical energy is only conserved in the absence of friction. If we assume friction is negligible, then we can assume mechanical energy is well-conserved and that can simply problem solving. We'll go over your problems tomorrow (D) before taking on power. F Block will be working on a lab focused on machines, where we'll examine work, mechancial advantage and efficiency.

Honors Physics reviewed their work with conservation of mechanical energy and moved onto power. Make sure you don't confuse power with work - power is the rate at which work is done or energy is converted. So, a more powerful machine does the same work as a less powerful machine, it just does it faster. The unit of the Watt (J/s) applies to the rate at which energy is transfomed or physical work is performed. Tomorrow is review for our exam on Friday and Thursday will be lab work on machines and their relationship to work.

Intro Physics reviewed their pressure with depth problems, then started an activity with density. Folks are looking at how mass and volume are related and make sure to pay attention to the volume measurements done with the ruler and the displacement method. That is going to come into play with our work with buoyant forces. We'll have a little more time with that tomorrow before talking about density and starting to dip toes into buoyancy.

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