Physical Science debriefed yesterday's static electricity experiment and further discussed the concept of electric discharge. Attention then turned to the idea of electric fields, electric potential energy and potential difference. Good time to drag out the ol' Tesla Coil for a demonstration. One day, I'll have to put together a set of photos of the puppy in action, but I doubt they'd come out as nice as this time-lapse image of a larger Tesla coil in action. Also, it lives in my classroom all year long - I should think about modifying it for a practical use, like these guys:
Physics discussed both plane and concave mirrors and were introduced to the techniques of ray diagrams and the mirror formula for analyzing situations involving reflection. Tomorrow, A block will conduct a lab activity on polarization and E block will get the opportunity to conduct their mirror experiment. The polarization lab will be conducted when we return from vacation, for E block.
Honors Physics finally got the chance to explore mirrors and image formation. Data was pretty good. The law of reflection held up well, with θI = θR in most cases (or at least close enough for government work). The distance required to read the eye chart in a mirror was 1/2 the distance required to read the same eye chart without a mirror, confirming that an image is the same distance behind a mirror as an object is in front of a mirror. If you could read a line at 2 meters without the mirror, you only had to stand one meter from the mirror to read the same line. 1 meter in front of the mirror + 1 meter behind the meter for the image equals 2 meters! The curved mirrors demonstrated the variety of images that can be formed through reflection by choosing the proper mirror and correctly positioning the object. Tomorrow - light polarization.
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