Things Spinning

Physics F conducted a lab investigation centered around centripetal force, tangential speed and orbital radius. Students varied radii and measured the tangential speed of a rotating body, given a specific (yet varying per trial) centripetal force. It was seen that the greater the centripetal force, for a given radius, the larger the speed needed to maintain it and a larger radius required a greater speed to maintain for a specific centripetal force than a small one. We'll discuss the lab tomorrow, before reviewing our work on torque and moving on to simple machines.

Physics D worked on torque today, by defining torque and looking at how manipulating the variables of lever arm and angle of applied force impacted the toque a force delivered. We practiced working with the torque formula and, tomorrow, we'll add the direction of torque and net torque to our toolbag. Then, it's on to simple machines.

Honors Physics reviewed their homework for rotational equilibrium, then turned attention to odds and ends for rotational dynamics. We looked at Newton's 2^nd law for rotating systems, momentum and its conservation and kinetic energy/conservation of mechanical energy. For the formulas, they are easy to work with from the standpoint that all you have to do is replace the variable in the linear form with its angular analogue, but remember that moment of inertia has its own formula based on the shape of the object. Tomorrow's lab will allow you more practice working with these ideas, and we'll go over your homework problems on Monday.

Intro Physics took the period to practice working problems dealing with conservation of momentum. It is important to properly read through the problem to identify and organize information and use the basic conservation of momentum relationship in a way that is appropriate for the scenario of the problem. Tomorrow, we'll go over these problems and look specifically at how the MCAS approaches the topic of momentum.