And We're Back

Intro Physics reviewed their work with specific heat, calorimetry and conservation of energy, before getting some practice solving problems involving heat transfer between objects. If we can assume some degree of conservation of energy, we can assume that the heat lost by one object equals the heat gained by a second and use that relationship to solve for specific heat of one substance, temperature change (initial or final or final temperatures, too) or mass. We'll go over these problems tomorrow before turning attention to phase change and latent heat.

Physics D and F discussed the concept of harmonics and the harmonic series produced by stringed instruments, pipes open at both ends and pipes closed at one end. We examined how the instrument types formed standing waves and why pipes closed at one end are different than the other two instrument types. The homework problems will give you practice calculating harmonic series for these instrument types and tomorrow, we use harmonics to discuss the concept of timbre before turning attention to beats and beat frequency.

Honors Physics worked on two lab investigations in class today, one focusing on beats and beat frequency and the second on standing wave formation. Beats are produced by interference of two waves of similar frequencies and the number of beats per second (beat frequency) is equal to the frequency difference between the two notes, and the data we collected in lab verified this relationship. The more difficult of the two investigations involved forming standing waves, which only form a certain frequencies in the medium. It took folks awhile to get the waves formed and stabilized long enough to collect data, which demonstrated that as wavelength decreased, frequency increased and by a predictable value. We'll talk about he labs tomorrow, as well as the harmonic series problems that were assigned, in class tomorrow before turning attention to timbre and beats.