10/1 Physics update and homework due 10/8
Hi folks,
Today we spent some time getting to know the concept of acceleration. It's a key concept in physics and one we will be working with quite a bit and coming back to a lot over the year. Most of today was spent on a lab working with the acceleration of rubber band powered vehicles.
Homework for this week will be to work with the data we collected in class to create some graphs and to use those graphs to answer some questions.
First off, using only your group's data, create two different graphs. (Please use graph paper.) One for velocity vs. time and one for acceleration vs. time. Time should always be on the horizontal axis.
Once you finish your graphs, answer the following questions.
1. What was the greatest acceleration that you saw overall?
2. What was the smallest acceleration?
3. When you saw a negative acceleration, what did that mean the car was doing?
4. What was the highest speed any of the cars achieved?
5. If a car has a constant positive acceleration, what is the car continuing to do?
6. If a car has no acceleration what is the car continuing to do?
7. Draw 2 more graphs (one for velocity and one for acceleration) but this time, try to image what the graphs would have looked like in a perfect world. In other words, if the cars had a nice steady acceleration at the beginning and at the end of their runs. Think carefully about this. The acceleration graph may be different than you first think.
Today we spent some time getting to know the concept of acceleration. It's a key concept in physics and one we will be working with quite a bit and coming back to a lot over the year. Most of today was spent on a lab working with the acceleration of rubber band powered vehicles.
Homework for this week will be to work with the data we collected in class to create some graphs and to use those graphs to answer some questions.
First off, using only your group's data, create two different graphs. (Please use graph paper.) One for velocity vs. time and one for acceleration vs. time. Time should always be on the horizontal axis.
Once you finish your graphs, answer the following questions.
1. What was the greatest acceleration that you saw overall?
2. What was the smallest acceleration?
3. When you saw a negative acceleration, what did that mean the car was doing?
4. What was the highest speed any of the cars achieved?
5. If a car has a constant positive acceleration, what is the car continuing to do?
6. If a car has no acceleration what is the car continuing to do?
7. Draw 2 more graphs (one for velocity and one for acceleration) but this time, try to image what the graphs would have looked like in a perfect world. In other words, if the cars had a nice steady acceleration at the beginning and at the end of their runs. Think carefully about this. The acceleration graph may be different than you first think.
Best,
Jim Mueller
(919) 907-3217
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