Physics at MHS Period 1

So today we had a sub again and so we finished watching the video on Einstein and filling out the sheet that went along with it.

It was pretty uneventful, but the movie was kind of cool. 

No homework over break!

H’ok so on Tuesday we were a little baffled still about our crazy data from lab 3 and ended up making histograms!  The histgram for hypothesis 2 ended up being the winner for our k values because the data appeared more consistant. 

We then went on to learn about force. 

*Force: push or a pull exerted on a mass.      a=kMh/Mt —> K=a(Mt/Mh)=M/s^2*g/g=m/s^2

Mt*a=kMh      Newton’s 2nd law: sum of all forces=total mass*aexerienced

Mt*aexp=Fearth-Mh+Ffriction     F=ma=jg*m/s^2

3 Fundamental Forces

* Gravity: about mass attracts mass: weakest!

*Electro-weak(electromagnetic): +charges attract -charges, N. mag pole attracts S. mag pole(responsible for the way light works, our vision, and circuits ->pretty important)

*Strong Nuclear Force: holds nucleus together, Strongest!

Difference between weight and mass-

*mass: resistance to change in motion

*weight: the force of a mass pulling on another mass

ex: holding something is weight, throwing a bowling ball is mass, balancing bowling ball on face is weight, faking with a womens basketball-faking is easier with less mass, a weight on a scale is weight.

Today in physics we didn’t do very much.

We tried to compare our data from the tests we did with the cars. Each group had very different “K values” so that made it very difficult to figure out which hypothesis was the best. Anne collected our data to see if she could make sense of it all.

That was about all we did today!

So today we worked on “Some Scientific thinking.”  After collecting the data yesterday we put our data into a spreadsheet in excel.  After finding which equation (k1=m*a OR k2=m^28a) fit better with our data we compared our answer to the group that was working on the same hypothesis.  Tomorrow we will come together as a class and come up with two more constant equations that are equal to a. 

No Homework!

Kaeli  

Today Donald Griswald came in and talked to us because he used to work with nuclear technology. It was really interesting, he told us about the different things that go on and showed us some examples of things he would work on. He also told us about the project he worked on where when they let the bomb off underground, the earth rose ten stories high. I thought that was pretty crazy; I can’t even imagine anything like that, and I hope never to be able to.

It was nice to know he had some ethics issues with the job when he held it, because it shows that the people making these nuclear technologies do have some regrets about it, though he did say a bunch of people had no issues at all with it, which is a little bit worrisome.

Overall though, it was a really cool presentation and he told us a lot of info!

No homework.

Ummm so Barack Obama has just won and umm today during class we talked about if and when war is justifiable using a rating system from strongly agree to strongly disagree.  We also veered off for a while and talked about how coorperations should have to take responsibility for their actions and the poor treatment/ enslavement of people.

*photographs by Brooke!

so today we broke into two teams, one of 4 and one of 5 and the groups tapped which launcher they wanted.  We then proceeded to test said launchers outside in the freezing cold.

There was no homework!

Hey everyone.. On Monday we talked about carbon fuels v. bio mass and how much better bio mass was.  Ann and her group of students(vt sustainable heating initiative) spoke in front of legislature about this and found out that they needed to solve three problems with bio mass.

1. doesn’t burn efficiently/pollutes the air
2. Only about 1 ton of wood per acre
3. It could affect food production because of the land needed to grow the wood/grass/other plants

The answers the group came up with were–> pellet stoves burn pellets more efficiently and with less pollution.. and that you can burn plants such as Japanese not-weed on the 100,000 acres of underused agricultural land which can produce anywhere from 5-16 tons per acre.  Enough to sustain all of Vermont!

The group also calculated that each dollar in Vt circulates about 2.3 times so then it is beneficial to keep money in Vt because when it is spent on fuel, 80% of the money leaves.  It was calculated that if they kept the money in Vt w/bio fuel, in just one year you could save something like $1,000,000,000 which is more than the money being spent on Vermonter’s fuel who can’t afford it by LIHEAP(Low income house energy assistance program)

We also watched a video on temperature v. heat.  –> Big difference?  Temp. takes into accout hotness where as heat is just a thing that you have.

Big Ideas

• Heat in community
• Heating v. Temp.

Well on thursday we worked on our various assignments and probably talked about the jello war and how it would all work out. Remember its on Monday 4th and 5th period.

“In Vermont, Authenticity is all; they dont try to keep it real, they are real” - New York Times.

its so true

peace