A Nice New Monday

Intro Physics built upon Friday's discussion of temperature to examine the three major temperature scales (Celsius, Fahrenheit, Kelvin) and then practice converting between one scale and another. We then looked at the idea of heat transfer, focusing on the direction of spontaneous heat flow and how our nerves perceive that flow. We put a specific definition to heat energy and, in lab tomorrow, will look at heat transfer between two materials at different temperatures, as well as between materials where one is undergoing a phase change. Our last bit of discussion concerned thermal equilibrium and that is another concept tomorrow's labs will highlight.

Physics D completed their lab investigation into sound. Most groups worked with the tone dialer software to determine how telephone systems use sounds to encode information. Honors Physics discussed this lab in class today, along with the extra investigation about the mathematics of music before moving on (along with Physics F) to a discussion of sound wave properties, sound propagation, spherical waves, pitch and the Doppler Effect. Tomorrow, Physics D has this discussion and the other two blocks will take a look at sound intensity and resonance.