Thursday, June 12, 2008

Physics poems and songs.

Matt won first place with Kyle J in close second.

Went over Hewitt 60 questions test.

Have a great summer!!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Hewitt 60 question test (I selected 36 of the 60 questions)

Watched the 3rd Rock video "Physics of Being Dick"

Time to work on physics poems

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Interesting calculations:
Derived gravitational PE equation and used it to determine escape velocities.
Calculated the size of the Earth if it were a black hole of the same mass.
Calculated nuclear density and compared to the density of the Earth black hole.
Calculated the radius of the Earth if it had nuclear density (neutron star)

Derived equation for tidal forces.
Calculated tidal forces of Sun and Moon on Earth.
Calculated tidal forces of Sun, Moon, and Watermelon on person.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Went over final exam.

Showed Hewitt video, Gravity 2, on tides.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Personal Holiday

Students watched video, 95 Moons and Counting, and then worked on their physics poems.
Students will present poems next Thursday

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Final Exam

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

Reviewed Zapping the Law of Gravitation to get Kepler's 2nd and 3rd laws.

Gave examples of close is fast and far is slow.

Described how the breakdown of this relationship in galaxies led to the idea of dark matter.

Worked examples using Kepler's 3rd law.

Students worked on Kepler's Law worksheet.

Went over worksheet.

Weird Orbit of Mercury.
For homework, students will demonstrate the results to their parents.

Monday, June 2, 2008

Reviewed importance of getting straight line relationship on graph.
Use a large slope triangle when calculating the slope.
Do not just count squares to get slope - this does not work if the axes have different spacings.

Reviewed circular motion and gravity.

Zapped law of gravitation to get Kepler's Laws.

Seniors left for assembly.

Handed out Kepler's Laws Worksheet.