How to study distraction free

More last minute advice:

How to study distraction free

Mr. Burk's Top 5 Places to Study in Atlanta

One more great suggestion from Study Hacks is how Adventure Studying is a great way to prepare to study.

What is adventure studying? It's finding a cool, beautiful and quiet place for you to go away and study (and adventure doesn't involve Starbucks).

Here are my top 5 suggestions in the Atlanta Area:

1. The High Museum of Art—admission is a bit pricy ($15), but the cafe across the courtyard is free, rarely crowded and a great place to sit and admire the physics of the alexander calder mobile in the front (ever wonder how it stays balanced?)

2. Chuck E Cheese. You know you loved it 5 years ago. Why not go there, work for 45 minutes and then play some skee ball to put your physics knowledge to the test? If you go, bring headphones and find a quiet corner away from all the dancing robots.

3. A local college—Agnes Scott, Morehouse, Spelman, Emory, Georgia Tech—all of these places have beautiful campuses and libraries. It can be great fun to go to a college library for the afternoon.

4. The Carter Center--Recently completely renovated, you can visit a full scale model of the Oval Office (and that's a place where you really need to understand physics--check out Physics for Future Preisdents--a real course at UC Berkeley).

5. Outside—yes, it's supposed to be a bit rainy and cold this weekend, but it it would be great bundle up, to throw some FARMIPS and and some blank paper in your backpack, and go hike to some quiet, isolated place and solve physics problems under a tree.

movies you will need to analyze for class

Ball drop and toss

how to create an online calendar for the upcoming week

I've created a google spreadsheet to help you plan out your success week to help you demonstrate your best understanding on the exam. To use it, go here

Study Plan for Finals Week

The spreadsheet is read-only, so you'll need to make a copy.

To do that, click on "File > Make a copy" as shown in the image below.

If you'd like me to see your study plan, simply share it with me via google docs (this is completely optional).

5 Mistakes to avoid during finals

Here is more great advice from study hacks:

5 mistakes to avoid during finals.

We'll talk about this a bit tomorrow, but here they are briefly

• Mistake #1: Not Having a Clear Schedule
  
  You should set up a plan for using the time you have to maximum benefit—giving yourself time to rest, and reflect so you achieve maximum understanding.
  
  
• Mistake #2: Not Purging Your Obligations
  
  Avoid letting the little things in your life keep you from having the
  time you need to seriously prepare for exams.
  
  
• Mistake #3: “Studying”
  
  Focus on specific action. Solve problems.
  
  
• Mistake #4: Social Working
  
  While it can be helpful to work with others, often, working in a noisy space with friends can be very unproductive.
  
  
• Mistake #5: Calculating Your Final Grade
  
  I'll let Cal speak for himself:
  
  

  
  Don’t do this! No good can possibly come from such a superficial focus on the numbers. It will add stress. This, in turn, will make it harder for you to execute a reasonable, specific, and efficient study plan. Also, it’s just plain crass. You don’t want to be that person…
  

  
  

Wednesday's Class

On Wednesday, we talked about gravity in Space. It's like constantly being in a falling elevator, because in a falling elevator, your weight is less. If you were on a scale and the elevator was accelerating downward, then you wouldn't weigh anything because you would be floating right above the scale. You would still have mass though. In deep space, there is no force at all, not even gravity whereas space as we know it has a lot of gravity coming from earth. In deep space, the free body diagram would just be a dot because you wouldn't be near any objects that could interact and put force on you.

More about the nature of gravity

Here's a very cool video that describes the true nature of gravity a bit more. It's part of the elegant universe, an awesome 3 hour PBS special on the latest discoveries in physics.

Period 7- 11/24

The first thing we did today was take our 4th re-assessment on vectors. One question had to do with the "Angle of Attack" of a helicopter. You can read more about that subject here; http://www.copters.com/aero/angle_of_attack.html

Next we started to go over the lab. One of the big ideas that we found was that Gravitational Force = Mass x Gravitational Field Vector. Also, we found through our testing that there are 10N for every Kilogram.

After we dove into these ideas, we got into a discussion about elastic forces and the differences in force between small springs such as springs from a pen or a slinky, and also, large springs such as the shocks on a car.

-Tripp

LHC is on!

THe LHC produced the first collisions of protons today.

11/19 class

At the begining of class we took a reassessment on how to find the forces exerted by an object through a free body diagram. After this we had a talk about how we shouldn't just take reassessments over and over. then we went over the motion in two dimensions work sheet that we worked on for homework. an important idea we learned was for a car moving around a curve if the angle between the acceleration and the instanttanious is greater then 90 degrees and is changing direction the car will be slowing down. When the angle is equal to 90 degrees the the car will be moving at a constant speed. when the angle formed is less than 90 degrees the car will have an increasing speed. it is key to remember to the vector of the car's direction is tangent to the curve or circle.

Gamma Ray Satellite may have found dark matter

Here's another great post that describes a recent discovery of what may be dark matter, which makes up 20% of our universe (regular matter is only 4%).

The excess gamma rays could possibly be coming from a hypothesized dark matter called Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), colliding with one another and annihilating themselves into pure energy.

Fermi may have spotted dark matter.

Station 8 Review (Written by Zack H.)

We reviewed station 8. In station 8 we measured the angles and the force of the string and the spring ‎scale and and found the angles to find the mass of the mass. With the angles and forces we found , we ‎were able to find the missing force using vector addition. We learned that when adding vectors you ‎also have to take into account the angles. Unless the angles are in the same direction you can’t use ‎simple math to add them up This explains Mr. Burk’s point in class that one plus one does not always ‎equal two.‎

Want to conquer stress? Exercise is key

Here's a great article from the NYT about a new study on rats showing that exercise allows our brains to better handle stress.

Here's a quote:

It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth, who has been studying how exercise differently affects thinking and emotion. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.

Posterous: another super cool tool!

Have you ever wanted to share a file, mp3, photo, or video without having to email everyone, or post an elaborate facebook status? Perhaps you have some great notes you want to share on the blog.

Well, here's the solution.

Just send an email to post@posterous.com, and attach whatever it is you want to share. Posterous will send you a link to the website you created with that attachment.

It couldn't be easier.

great career advice from the creator of dilbert

Scott Adams, the creator of Dilbert, has a wonderful post on his blog with some great career advice.

Here's a quote:

If you want an average successful life, it doesn’t take much planning. Just stay out of trouble, go to school, and apply for jobs you might like. But if you want something extraordinary, you have two paths:

1. Become the best at one specific thing.

2. Become very good (top 25%) at two or more things.

The first strategy is difficult to the point of near impossibility. Few people will ever play in the NBA or make a platinum album. I don’t recommend anyone even try.

The second strategy is fairly easy. Everyone has at least a few areas in which they could be in the top 25% with some effort. In my case, I can draw better than most people, but I’m hardly an artist. And I’m not any funnier than the average standup comedian who never makes it big, but I’m funnier than most people. The magic is that few people can draw well and write jokes. It’s the combination of the two that makes what I do so rare. And when you add in my business background, suddenly I had a topic that few cartoonists could hope to understand without living it.

Suddenly, becoming extraodinary doesn't sound so hard.

FAILCON: a conference dedicated to failing

It turns out that in the business world, just like the rest of like, of the of keys to great success is failing often and learning from one's mistakes. It can literally be worth billions. Good thing they now have a conference to teach you how...

Thursday's Class, 11/12/09

We started out class talking about quantity vs. quality. We decided that it is better to specialize in one topic than to be decent in many topics. We also discussed FARMIPS and what really qualifies as a FARMIP. We concluded that you can't simply just turn in old reassessments or corrections, you have to gain insight on the concepts by studying them a little bit. Then, we looked at MOP 40, the homework from the last couple of nights on vector subtraction. We looked at this in depth and explained every problem. In fact, our homework for tonight is to make sure we understand the three problems from MOP 40.

Physics Jokes!

A neutron walked into a bar and asked, "How much for a drink?" The bartender replied, "For you, no charge."

What did one quantum physicist say when he wanted to fight another quantum physicist?
Let me atom.

Anything that doesn't matter has no mass.

What did the male magnet say to the female magnet?
From your backside, I thought you were repulsive. However after seeing you from the front, I find you rather attractive.

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Isaac Newton: Chickens at rest tend to stay at rest, while chickens in motion tend to cross roads.

Why did the chicken cross the road?
Albert Einstein: Whether the chicken crossed the road or the road crossed the chicken depends on your frame of reference.

Mr. Burk, I think Anne Louise and I deserve a propsicle for this one.

November 11, 2009 Veteran's Day

At the beginning of class, we took a reassessment which covered concepts from both chapters 2 and 3. We were to turn in the lab station notes. We were given back the graded vector activity lab. We were also given a sheet with concept 2.5.4(Given a velocity vs time graph, can you write a mathematical model to describe the motion?) for reassessing and a the "Motion in Two Dimensions" lab. The main discussion throughout class was about adding and subtracting vectors. We looked over the sheet "More Vector Math" to get practice. Afterwards, we got started on the "Motion in Two Dimensions" lab. Overall, it was a great class.

Will the world end in 2012?

Answer: No.

Read for a thorough debunking of this pseudoscientific meme that is percolating through popular culture.

station 3

in station 3 there were two models set up. The first on is a cart on wheels in rest with two ropes pulling an equal horizotal force on both sides. the other model is a cart not on wheels with two different horizonal forces. they both have a net force of zero the second model is at rest because both sides are equal because of frictional force of the track on the cart so it is at rest.both of these models have a displacement of zero.

Station 4

For Station 4, a mass hung motionless from two spring scales supporting it from each side. It was connected to the cabinet. The spring scales read 3.7 and 3.8 N. After drawing a free body diagram and adding the vectors together, it created a triangle. With the S.S forces pointing NE and NW, the gravitational force was drawn south to close the figure with about 4.3 N. This made since because the mass was still causing the net force to be 0 N. I noticed that the mass actually was 3.7 N when measured, but on the FBD it was 4.3 N. This was fine though because I was close. Fractions of an angle difference could cause this, so it was fairly accurate.

Anna hawkins - station 7!

I did station seven and the whole gist of this lab was that there was a fan cart on a ramp with a 7 degree incline. The fan would only remain stationary if the fan was on a high enough level. The higher the incline, the faster the fan needed to be spinning. When the cart is stationary on the ramp the net force is zero, we know this because the net force is not accelerating. THere are three forces acting on the cart. The force of gravity on the earth was acting downward at a 270 degree angle. The force of the air is moving to the left at a 187 degree angle, and the normal force is acting upward at a 97 degree angle. Another reason that we know that the net force on this object is zero is because the three vectors(forces) all add up to equal zero.

Station 4

In this station, a mass was supported by two strings at different angles. The mass was stationary and therefore in constant velocity, so the net force acting on it must be zero. Since this is true, we know that the forces on the mass, the tension force of strings a and b on the mass and the gravitational force of the earth on the mass, must equal to zero. The tension forces could be easily measured, one had a magnitude of 3.8 Newtons and a direction of 145 degrees and the other was 3.7 Newtons and 30 degrees. To find the magnitude and direction of the third force, gravitational force, the known two forces must be added together using the head-to-tail method and the resultant vector will be the correct magnitude, but in the opposite direction. The third force turns out to be 4 Newtons and 270 degrees.

Report by Tripp

For this lab, I observed the station with the two ramps. The setup consisted of two ramps with a spinning wheel on the higher side of each, a string with one side tied to the cart or block, and the other side attached to a spring scale with weights on the non-spring side. Both ramps were sitting at about 10 degree angles. In order to keep the cart stationary, I had to adjust the weights on the spring scale. By doing this, I was making the Fnet = 0. The forces acting on the cart and block were, gravitational force, normal force, and frictional force.

The FBD for the block can be seen here

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/loader.php?aDrawingID=3fa371edd6e9a7c62f2706cd7384695d&from_email=thdgolfer%40gmail.com&from_name=Tripp

http://www.imaginationcubed.com/loader.php?aDrawingID=04d816b85920f9d2ab199716c0885a89&from_email=thdgolfer%40gmail.com&from_name=JoNNDluysdtiu

Station 4

Station 4 includes a mass and two spring scales. The spring scales are coming from separate angles and holding the mass. The net force has to equal zero because the mass has constant velocity, it isn't moving. The forces acting on the mass are the tension force of the first spring scale on the mass, the tension force of the second spring scale on the mass, and the gravitational force of the earth on the mass. The spring scale on one side read 3.8 N and the other read 3.7 N. The unknown vector was the gravitational vector. When the third vector is added to the other to quantities, taking into consideration not just magnitude, but also direction, the forces should add to be zero.

To see the free body diagram for this situation, go to: http://www.imaginationcubed.com/loader.php?aDrawingID=8992e1a1a7247c54eae0446dc7c7c2e7&from_email=caroline.hufford%40gmail.com&from_name=caroline

I tried the link and the drawing didn't turn out exactly the way that I had intentioned it to. The force on the upper right corner should read Ft, SS2 - M, and the bottom force should say Fg, E-M.

Station 6

Station 6 consists of two models. The first model is a spring scale attached to a string by the hook on top of the spring scale. The force that the spring scale is measuring is 0. Gravity is keeping the spring scale down, while the tension force of the string is keeping it up. The scale is at rest. The second model is a spring scale attached upside down so that the hook where the mass is usually put on is facing up instead of down. The force of gravity is pushing model two down. Keeping it up is a tension force of rope to hook. There is also a small elastic force expanding because of the spring scale and that is pushing the spring scale down.

Station 2

In this station, we examined the situation of a 5 kilogram mass on a force plate. We specifically looked at what forces were acting on the mass. The two forces acting on the mass were the normal force of the force plate going upwards and the gravitational force of the earth going downwards. We measured the normal force to be 50 Newtons, and since the object had constant velocity, the net force had to be zero. This means that the gravitational force also equals 50 Newtons. We then saw that as the incline increased, the magnitude of the normal force decreased and vice versa. I honestly tried as hard as I could to put a picture of my free body diagrams but I just couldn't find a way how to. In order for the net force to be zero (since the mass is not moving) when the incline is raised, there has to be another force that is equal to the normal force and at the same angle as the incline. That force is frictional. Since you know what the gravitational and normal forces' magnitudes were, you can find the size of the frictional force by having it make the net force equal to zero.

Also, I see that Zach posted something about this station right before I did. I was honestly almost done. I hope that's alright.

Station 2

In station 2, there was a scale on top of a track. I put a 20 N block on the scale when the scale was on flat ground. I then put a few books under one side of the track to put the track at a 10 degree angle. I put the 20 N block on now, the block showed up on the scale as only weighing 18.5 N. On a level track, there are only two forces working on the object, which is the gravitational force of the earth on the object and the normal force of the object on the earth. But when the angle is changed, another force is added. This is the frictional force of the track on the object. We know that the net force in both of these situations is zero, because the block is stationary.

Station 3

Station 3 involves two separate ramps, each with a car on it. Ramp one has a low friction cart with a spring scale and weight attached to each side. Both spring scales measured 2 N. The forces acting on this cart are the gravitational force of the earth on the cart, the normal force of the ramp on the car, and the two horizontal tension forces of the rope on the block.

Ramp two has a cart with a block under it (creating friction) with one attached spring scale measuring 2.2 N and the other measuring 3 N. Even though the two weight measurements are different, the car is still motionless. This is because the side with the small weight has a force of static friction acting on it, causing both sides of the cart to have equal amounts of force. The other forces acting on this car are the gravitational force f the earth on the block, the normal force of the block on the cart, and the horizontal tension forces of the rope on the cart. The net force of both cars is 0.

The online drawing of forces is at this link. http://www.imaginationcubed.com/loader.php?aDrawingID=276d17d61f25418ca856339574be9174&from_email=alanac1%40comcast.net&from_name=asdf

Thursdays Class

Thursdays class was very interesting. For the first half of class we talked about the importance of sleep and why we need it. We talked about how just the loss of one or two hours can decrease your ability to learn a lot. Some scientist did an experiment to test this theory. They told a certain number of 6th graders to stay up on night and another group to get a good night sleep. THe next day, the kids who had not gotten much sleep seemed to perform at around a 4th grade level compared to the other kids who got sleep performed at a 6th grade level. An average teenager around our age should be getting around 8 - 9 hours of sleep a night. Some interesting facts on how to get a better night sleep are to not drink caffeine after 4 p.m. and to make sure that you are not watching TV or looking at a computer screen an hour before you go to sleep.

Thursdays Class

Thursdays class was very interesting. For the first half of class we talked about the importance of sleep and why we need it. We talked about how just the loss of one or two hours can decrease your ability to learn a lot. Some scientist did an experiment to test this theory. They told a certain number of 6th graders to stay up on night and another group to get a good night sleep. THe next day, the kids who had not gotten much sleep seemed to perform at around a 4th grade level compared to the other kids who got sleep performed at a 6th grade level. An average teenager around our age should be getting around 8 - 9 hours of sleep a night. Some interesting facts on how to get a better night sleep are to not drink caffeine after 4 p.m. and to make sure that you are not watching TV or looking at a computer screen an hour before you go to sleep.

Station 7

There are several forces acting on the cart while it is on the track. They are: the downward gravitational force of the earth on the cart; the normal force of the track on the cart; and the force of the air on the cart. When the cart is on the right side of the track, the fan needsto be at a lower speed than it would need to be on the left side of the track. Thyis is because the slop eon the right side of the track is smaller than the slope on the left side of the track. You would need less air force on the right side of the track because their is less gravity acting on it. So the net forceshoudl be closer to zero if the force of the air and the force of gravity are closer in size. On the left side of the track, the fan should he at a higher speed, because there is a higher force of gravity acting on the cart, therefore we need the air force to be higher so they can be equal.

Sleep tips from the Mayo Clinic

Here are some great sleep tips

What is the best study break? Taking a walk in the woods

Scientists are interested in all sorts of questions, including "what is the best study break." Here's a study that tested how taking a short walk as a break from studying affected student's ability to memorize a series of numbers. It turns out that taking a walk in the woods significantly boosted student's memory compared to those who took a walk along city streets, or did not take a break at all.

What is the best way to take a study break?

Master the art of stealth studying

This is another great post from Study Hakcs on how to master the art of stealth studying.

Some tips:

1. Construct study guides on the fly.
   When taking notes — in class or while doing a reading assignment — start constructing your study guide at the same time. The easiest way to do this is to copy the questions from your question/evidence/conclusion clusters and paste them at the top of your document as you go along.
   Print study guides immediately after construction.
   This is a great way to do FARMIPS—simply write out a question during our discussion and save it for later
   
   
2. Print study guides immediately after construction.


As the professor winds down, or as you finish your reading assignment, send your notes to the nearest public printer. (Or e-mail them to yourself so you can load it up on a public computer connected to a printer). Before doing so, however, reduce the font to the smallest size you can still read. (This will prove useful later.) As you walk out of the classroom, or library, swing by the printer to grab your printout.
Review using the “10-Minute Detour” method.

As soon as you have your first study guide printed, start looking for ways to add a 10-minute detour to a walk across campus you already need to do. Make these detours pass through somewhere quiet and unpopulated. During these detours take out one of your expanded study guides and start doing a quick quiz-and-recall review. Do this out loud. As you walk. (It’s okay to do this quietly to prevent unexpected institutionalization). In 10 minutes you might knock off 2-4 questions. Some additional notes on this process:



• Get in the habit of sprinkling these detours throughout your working hours on working days. (If you’re between classes, your mind is probably already in a deep thinking mode — or a mild coma, depending on the professor).



• Try to review new material within 24-hours to help cement it while it’s still fresh.





3. Ask questions every class. Attend every office hours.

To make stealth studying work, you need to understand all the material as quickly as possible. This means you need to come to class attentive and be a question-asking fiend. When you don’t quite understand how something fits a broader point, ask. If you don’t want to keep interrupting the class, save a collection of specific, concise questions to ask the professor immediately following class. Attend office hours most weeks to discuss the topics you found most difficult. Think of this as a pain-free, advanced review session. We have no time to spare for you to re-learn this material later on before the test. If you don’t get it down the first time, we can’t get your study time down to an hour.

The physics of free throw shooting

Now that basketball season is here, it's a good thing that physicists have worked out the best way to shoot a free throw.

See here: The physics of free throw shooting

Some tips from the article:

First, the engineers say that shooters should launch the shot with about three hertz of back spin. That translates to the ball making three complete backspinning revolutions before reaching the hoop. Back spin deadens the ball when it bounces off the rim or backboard, the engineers assert, giving the ball a better chance of settling through the net.
Where to aim? Tran and Silverberg say you should aim for the back of the rim, leaving close to 5 centimeters - about 2 inches - between the ball and the back of the rim. According to the simulations, aiming for the center of the basket decreases the probabilities of a successful shot by almost 3 percent.

The engineers say that the ball should be launched at 52 degrees to the horizontal. If you don’t have a protractor in your jersey, that means that the shot should, at the highest point in its arc to the basket, be less than 2 inches below the top of the backboard.
Free-throw shooters should also release the ball as high above the ground as possible, without adversely affecting the consistency of the shot; release the ball so it follows the imaginary line joining the player and the basket; and release the ball with a smooth body motion to get a consistent release speed.

“Our recommendations might make even the worst free-throw shooters - you know who you are, Shaquille O’Neal and Ben Wallace - break 60 percent from the free-throw line,” Silverberg says with tongue firmly in cheek. “A little bit of physics and a lot of practice can make everyone a better shooter from the free-throw line.”

Great Quote on Intelligence from Mindset

I think intelligence is something you have to work for ... it isn't just given to you. Most kids, if they're not sure of an answer, will not raise their hand to answer the question. But what I usually do is raise my hand, because if I'm wrong, then my mistake will be corrected. Or I will raise my hand and say, 'How would this be solved?' or 'I don't get this, can you help me?' Just by doing that I'm increasing my intelligence." -- 7th grade girl.

Brian Cox on Stephen Colbert

This is great. Stephen Colbert takes on the LHC, and then he interviews Brian Cox, rockstar physcist.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Big Bang Theory
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Brian Cox
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Religion

Wednesday Summary

Today in class we finished up on the quote and began on a class lab. To start, we measured out the force of a spring stretched out to .5m. This turned out to be 1 Newton. Using logic, and then proving it with a force measurer, we determined that 2 springs had a force of 2 Newtons. Then we measured the acceleration of the cart when the cart had the two different forces acting on it. (Three times averaged for accuracy) The average acceleration of the cart with one spring pulling was .23 m/s^2 with two springs .52 m/s^2. Then Mr. Burk set the two springs (1 N each) to pull on the cart at opposing, 22.5 degree angles. He asked us what the net force would be. Almost unanimously, the class the decided 2 N. 1+1=2 right? (The dissenters couldn't say why not) Since the 2 N force would be the same as the acceleration in the 2 spring measurement. However, when we measured the acceleration, we found it to be about .33 m/s^2, not the .52 we expected. The reason was because the net force in the direction we were measuring wasn't 2 N. We used a ratio to prove this. F(1)/F(2)=A(1)/A(2). When we set the ratio up with all our known data (F(1), A(1), and A(2)) and solved for F(2) we found that the force was equal to 1.4 N. That's right 1+1=1.4. Afterwards we learned that forces acting at angles can be added by vectors. Study hard for the Assessment tomorrow!

This may have something to do with what we did today, but I'm not sure. Regardless, it's pretty cool.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2EMXle8raw&feature=related

Tuesday Summary

Today in Class, we discussed the quote and its fallacies and Newton's second law. (F=MA and A=F/M) For the remainder of the class, we used the voting system to review for the test, ahem, assessment. If you still need some help with the second law, check these videos out. This guy, Julius Sumner Miller, is pretty funny.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EazLCATeYoY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=amNWC0Af8OQ&feature=related

This is amazing

This guy is drawing the NYC skyline from memory starting two days ago, and is filling an 18 foot with his artwork, and is expected to finish Friday.

earth and the sun compared to big stars

This is really cool! I had no idea we had found stars this big until I saw this.

http://www.dump.com/2009/05/16/we-are-small/

October 22, 2009

Today in class we started by talking about why it was easier to draw a acceleration vs. time graph, when starting with a velocity vs. time graph, than drawing a position vs. time graph. We concluded that it was easier because when you are drawing an x vs. t graph you have to think backwards. After that we watched a short video on working in space. The astronauts were having trouble working outside of the space shuttle because of Newton's second law. It states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When the astronauts were in space there is not any gravity to anchor them to any surface. On earth we are always touching the ground creating a base for us. When the astronauts would try to spin a wheel, they would spin in the opposite direction, making work almost impossible. Since then they have found ways for the astronauts to anchor themselves on the space shuttle. The next blogger will be Melissa.

Want to see scribes at other schools?

We aren't the only class in the world with a blog and scribes who post summaries of the day's class. Take a look at these, and you might find some good ideas:

Scribes at other classes

10/21/09

Today in class, we started by taking a reassessment, which tested changing a velocity vs. time graph into a position vs time graph. Afterwards, we picked new groups and did the Tug Of War lab. During this lab we discovered that stronger isn't really relative to the game of tug of war. It doesn't matter if you are a baby or the world strongest person, the force both people exert on the rope will be equal. This is true because of Newton's 1st law which says that when you exert a force on an object, the object will exert the same force back on you. We drew free-body diagrams and found that the only forces that aren't equal are the frictional forces of the ground on the separate people. The only way you win tug of war is by exerting a great force on the ground, because then the ground will exert that same force on you. After we concluded this information, we went outside and experienced this lab by actually playing tug of war. We proved our hypotheses by testing multiple ways of tug of war, for example, boys vs girls, concrete vs grass, etc. The next blogger is Virginia Catherine.

Getting it wrong: surprising tips on how to learn

There's a GREAT article in scientific america talking about some of the latest research on how to learn.

When you have 15 free minutes you should ready this. (You probably have 15 minutes when driving to school, so why not download instapaper to your iphone, and read it on your phone).

Some highlights:

People remember things better, longer, if they are given very challenging tests on the material, tests at which they are bound to fail. In a series of experiments, they showed that if students make an unsuccessful attempt to retrieve information before receiving an answer, they remember the information better than in a control condition in which they simply study the information. Trying and failing to retrieve the answer is actually helpful to learning. It’s an idea that has obvious applications for education, but could be useful for anyone who is trying to learn new material of any kind.

By challenging ourselves to retrieve or generate answers we can improve our recall. Keep that in mind next time you turn to Google for an answer, and give yourself a little more time to come up with the answer on your own.

The article seems like it practically lifted my FARMIPS idea from today's class, but it talks about how you can adapt this method to any course—imagine making a super study guide for history, or English. How much could you rock those classes?

10/20/09

Today in class we took a reassessment. It reassessed us on making a p vs. t graph from a v. vs t graph and finding the displacement. After we took this we went over how to do it. when we finished going over that we were going to work on our lab but instead we talked about Newtons 2nd law and things that we need to know for our labs. At the end of class Mr. Burk gave us our comments and "grades".

Success requires hard work (but not all in one day)

This is a nice blog post that elaborates on many of the themes we've talked about before.

Success Requires Hard Work (But Not All in One Day)


Why not start writing a book?

While success may require a lot of hard work, that doesn’t necessarily mean that work is hard to do. A book may contain 80,000 words of carefully edited content, that’s a lot of hard work. But writing 800 words almost every day for four months isn’t hard to do.

Rockstar physicist explains the LHC

Brian Cox, a real rock star (he was in the rock band D:Ream, which had the hit song Things Can Only Get Better--this song became the theme song for British Prime Minister Tony Blair's campaign), is a physicst at the Large Hadron Collider. He explains his the LHC and how it will help us to understand the secrets of the universe in this fantastic 15 minute talk.

LHC rap

One of the coolest rap songs ever, the LHC rap, also does a great job of explaining the Large Hadron Collider. Check it, yo.

what is this?

Propsicle to the first person to figure it out...

What's it like to win the nobel prize?

Carol Greider, winner of the 2009 Nobel prize for discovering discovering telomeres bits of seemingly useless DNA on the end of each of your chromosomes that progressively get shorter as you age and your cells reproduce. As it turns out, these bits of DNA are deeply linked to the aging process.

Anay, Dr. Greider has a fantastic interview with the NYT in today's paper, and one quote is absolutely worth reading and pondering.

Q. DID YOU ALWAYS WANT TO BE A BIOLOGIST?

A. My parents were scientists. But I wasn’t the sort of child who did science fairs. One of the things I was thinking about today is that as a kid I had dyslexia. I had a lot of trouble in school and was put into remedial classes. I thought that I was stupid.

I hope you'll take away the knowledge that if you struggle in science, or any subject, it is no measure of your ability to succeed in that field or your intelligence. Truly, hard work and persistence are the key to success at any level—even winning a Nobel prize.

blog spot from sept. 8.(I thought i has posted it but i guess it never worked. sorry)

Today in class we reviewed the engineering a "photo finish" lab. Some of the major points that we hit were the slope is defined as rise/run which equals a change in v over a change in t which also equals acceleration. Another point is that the final velocity of the cart should be 2x as large as the velocity of the buggy. The second half of class we worked on the photo finish follow up. On this worksheet it has three different graphs and we compared the buggy to the cart on the ramp on position vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs.

10/7/09

Today, for the first half of class, we talked about how if you work on something for 10,000 hours, you will greatly improve. for the second half, we split up into groups and did a lab on Newton's Laws.

The nobel prize in physics

The Nobel prize in physics was just awarded today for the fundamental breakthroughs that led to two things you use just about every day. Fiber optics, the technology that allows light to carry gigabytes of information through optical fibers, allowing you to stream entire movies on your computer, or make a phone call to the other side of the world for pennies.

The other breakthrough was the development of the CCD, the charge coupled device, which you'll find in any camera phone, or digital camera. This discovery allowed us to convert tiny packets of light into electrical signals, which heralded digital photography. Once we started putting CCDs into telescopes like the Hubble, we could see incredibly feint objects billions of light years away, allowing us to peer at the universe as it existed billions of years ago.

NYT story on the physics nobel prizes


A great description of the discoveries from the Nobel Prize Committee

How do you make dry ice?

A number of you have asked questions about how to make dry ice. Ask the internet, and it delivers:

How to Make Dry Ice

I know we were wondering during class how dry ice was made. Go to this link and scroll down to the video to see how dry ice is made and manufactured. I am not really sure how to make it inito a link so you might need to just copy it into your browser.
http://www.continentalcarbonic.com/dryice/

A video worth 5 minutes--and homework

Part of your homework tonight is to watch the following video. This video is a nightline story on The Talent Code, a book written and read the article linked below

Enroll yourself in the Genius Factory

The other part of your homework is to read the article "Why Talent is Overrated."

This article summarizes the excellent book, Talent is Overrated, which goes into great detail about how top level performers like Tiger Woods use deliberate practice to improve their performance.

You should also definitely check out the website of the Talent Code, it offers tons of tips on how to unlock your talent, improve your abilities to learn, and more.

Homework: Evaluate your group

Part of your homework tonight (for Wednesday) is to complete this evaluation of your gruoup.

A Driving Texting

Today I passed a jeep on peachtree and the driver was texting so I took a picture of him.

Want to know more about dark energy and dark matter? Check out this video.

Patricia Burchart, a particle physicist and professor at Stanford explains all we know about Dark Matter and Dark Energy. This is a great talk, in 16 minutes, it will explain our latest understandings about what our universe is made of.

A great quote you might have missed

If you didn't have a chance to read the great article in the NYT on Carolyn Porco, who heads the Casssini space probe studying saturn, I thought I'd highlight one quote from the article, which ties in nicely to what we talked about today:

To my mind, most people go through live recoiling from its best parts," Porco told The New York Times. "They miss the enrichment that just a basic knowledge of the physical world can bring to the most ordinary experiences. It's like there's a pulsating, hidden world, governed by ancient laws and principles, underlying everything around us -- from the movements of electrical charges to the motions of planets -- and most people are completely unaware of it. To me that's a shame." A shame, indeed.

Also, you might be interested in knowing a bit more about this amazing photo I linked to. Here's a description from BadAstronomy.com. Saturn-shine is a amazing concept...


That, duh, is Saturn, taken by the ever-amazing Cassini spacecraft. It’s actually 75 different exposures stitched together, and was taken on August 12, just a little over a day after Saturnian equinox, when the Sun shines straight along the rings. The illumination from the Sun is about the same everywhere, but on the left the rings are illuminated by Saturn-shine glowing down on them, making them a bit brighter.

Working in the car = Bad idea

The NYT is doing a whole series on distracted driving. This time, it's talking about people who try to get office work done in the car.

Also, props to Noah, who found a link to the Distracted Driving Summit, which is taking place now.

Wednesday's Class

Today in class we started to take notes on inertia. We did an experiment where we put a block of dry ice on a level ramp. When the ramp was perfectly level, the dry ice did not move. We then set up a motion sensor at one end of the ramp, and pushed the dry ice towards it. The block of dry ice moved at a constant velocity towards the motion sensor and had an acceleration of 0. We began to talk about forces, and what forces were acting on the block of ice. We determined that the gravitational of the earth was acting on the block of ice, as was the force of the hand that was pushing against the ice. For the second half of class, we worked on our texting projects.

Friday's class

First we split up into groups of two and we created 2 witeboards per group. The first was a constant velocity board and the second was a constant accerlation board. for each board we drew a velocity vs. time graph and a position vs. time graph. For both graphs we wrote an equation and then desctiribed the equations with words. Then we can together as a class to discuss these boards. For the second half of class we worked on our texting while driving projects.

Get 3 months in jail for texting while driving in Utah

Here's a great story from NPR that describes the efforts states are taking to stop texting while driving.

Utah Tackles Texting And Driving Problem Head-On

Interesting article on Truckers Texting

The NYT has a fascinating piece on big rig truckers insisting that they be exempt from any legislation on texting while driving.

More resources for studying

I've put up the unit 2 review sheet solutions. You can find them here:

Unit 2 Review Solutions

I also made a few videos that might be helpful

1. Doing the Ch3 (mislabeled) self assessment
2. Reading a position vs time graph
3. Reading a velocity vs time graph

Wednesday, September 23

Today, we started off class with looking at a constant position vs. time graph. We read the graphs to find the velocity and the acceleration at a certain point. If the line(the object) is moving towards the origin, there is a positive velocity. If the line(the object) starts out positive then becomes zero, there is a negative acceleration. If the slope<0, there is negative acceleration. When there is a constant negative velocity, this indicates that the object has turned around. Also, when trying to find if there is negative or positive displacement in the graph, if the area of the negative slope is bigger than the positive, there is a negative displacement. Afterwards, we put what we had just learned to the test and worked on a worksheet on reading kinematic graphs. On the worksheets, we found acceleration/velocity using position vs. time graphs. If the slope is constant there is a constant acceleration. If there is a positive slope, there is a positive acceleration. And if there is a negative slope, there will be negative acceleration. SLOPE=ACCELERATION. We then used velocity graphs to find the position vs. time and the acceleration of the object.
Tomorrow, we have an assessment on Unit 2:Constant Acceleration.

P.S.~Friday's blogger is Melissa

A great bio in the NYT, and some AWESOME pics

The NYT has a wonderful feature on Carolyn Porco, head of camera team of
the Cassini space probe which was launched to study Saturn.



You've got to see some of the images (click on the image to see at full resolution):

Unit 2 Review

Is Unit 2 Review still due tomorrow?

Finding distance covered after acceleration

I am confused about how to calculate how much distance a car has traveled after x amount of time, accelerating at a constant rate.

Here is the question:

A car traveling with an initial velocity of 20 m/s accelerates at a constant rate of 3 m/s² for a time of 4 seconds.

What distance does the car travel during this process?

I found the velocities after each second and added them together, but webassign said it was wrong. Please help. thanks

* also, does anyone know how to do #13 on the webassign review?

How to review for unit 2 assessment

We're approaching an assessment this Thursday, and with no class on tuesday, you should not wait until Wednesday to begin reviewing. Here are my suggestions.

1. Begin by reading over the Unit 2 Major Concepts Sheet. Circle any concepts you are unclear on, and email questions to the blog.
2. Make sure you are comfortable solving all the problems on MOP 26—this is a nice review of constant acceleration model, which is one of the more difficult concepts in this unit.
3. Do the problems in the Unit II review. I will post solutions on wednesday.
4. After that, go back to the Major Concepts sheet and try to figure out which problems from MOP 26 and Unit 2 review test which concepts.

Class on Friday

On Friday, we had a double period. We started off our invigorating class by going over our OMG/NBD texting project. We then broke into our groups and worked on the lab for a little while, but we soon came back together as a class to go over our finding. We figured out that the speed, distance and reaction times are figured up together create alarming results! When you are going 60 miles per hour and slam on the breaks, your care goes an extra eight and a half meters compared to if you had slammed on the breaks without the extra time it took to react. This is the difference between falling off of the 14th Street Bridge, or more realistically hitting someone. Here is a PSA that has been shown in England for a couple of weeks.

Enjoy!

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--
John Riley | CEO, John Riley IT
www.johnrileyIT.com | 404.545.7438
User-friendly, turn-key IT solutions

How to submit assignments electronically

A few of you have been emailing me assignments, and while this as been great, I'm realizing that keeping track of these assignments is difficult, given the number of emails I am getting, so I'm setting up this process for submitting work. If you plan to submit an assignment via email (and I encourage you to do so, I ask you follow these guidelines:

1. Submit a readable document (I can read all versions of word, open office, pages, excel, etc). If you write your stuff in something crazy like wordperfect 1.0, email beforehand to make sure I can read it. If I can't open the document, YOUR GRADE IS ZERO, AND WILL REMAIN THAT UNTIL YOU SUBMIT A READABLE ASSIGNMENT (AND YOU WILL SUFFER A LATE PENALTY).
   
   
2. Follow the following convention for naming your document:
   "Period number Last Name First Initial Assignment title. " So Bob Smith, submitting his texting paper from 7th period would title his document: "7 Smith B Texting Letter" without the quotes. Do not name the assignment unrecognizable things like "texting paper" or "stupid physics assignment." (you might lose points for the second one).
   
   
3. If you got an extension from me in advance, please copy and paste my response to your request into the body of your email to me.
   
   
4. Follow the same convention for your subject line that you do for naming the document. "7 Smith B Texting Letter."
   
   
5. Email your attachment, FROM YOUR WMS Account (or otherwise easily recognizable email, not laxgirl17@aol.com) to the following addresses (add these addresses to your address book):
   
   For 1st period: jburkWMS+1stper@gmail.com
   
   For 3rd period: jburkWMS+3rdper@gmail.com
   
   For 7th period jburkWMS+7thper@gmail.com
   
   

Thank you in advance for following this procedure. It will greatly simplify my record keeping, and will allow me to return assignments to you more quickly. AS a reward for submitting your assignments following this procedure, I will give +1 point bonus for all assignments submitted using these procedures (you can resubmit if you've already submitted). In the future, I might deduct points for submitted assignments that do not follow this procedure.

Thursday's class - Caroline Hufford

On Thursday, we did the speeding up and slowing down lab with the whole class and Mr. Burk. Before we did the lab, though, Mr. Burk asked us how you knew if you were moving towards or away from the origin. After drawing a graph, we saw that if position and velocity have opposite signs, then you are moving towards the origin. We then did the lab. There were lots of different examples of what would happen if you changed the position of the car and of the motion sensor. What it came down to was that if velocity and acceleration have opposite signs, that means the object is slowing down. If velocity and acceleration have the same signs, the object is speeding up. On Thursday we also learned how to find the displacement of an object whose position doesn't start at 0 m. The position of the object equals the initial position plus the initial velocity times time plus half acceleration times time, squared. Or, (change in)

x = xo + Vot + 1/2at^2. This is the model for the position at any time of an object with constant acceleration. If you have a constant velocity however, x = xo + Vot.

Brian Greene Explains String Theory and Extra Dimensions

Here's a great video of the world's best dressed physcist, professor Brian Green, describing string theory, extra dimensions and lots of other cool stuff.

How to blog

I finally had a spare moment to put together a short jing on how to blog, and a couple of other neat features of the website. Check them out here:

How to blog (< 2min)

How to put an equation in a blog post (< 2 min)

How to search the blog and use the class calendar (< 2min)

Texting Letter

Are we allowed to pretty much just copy and paste our Dr. Phil assignment into our texting letter for the first two paragraphs where it says we should use the info gathered from Dr. Phil, and other articles on the website?

Exploring physics of Distracted Driving #e, f

Does anyone understand how to do this? Are we using the triangle that we predicted? Thanks

Wednesday, Sept 16

Today in class we took a reassessment. Then we walked through the Speeding up and Slowing Down sheet as a class and got that done. Then we did the Exploring the Physics of Distracted Driving lab, where we tested our reaction times on the computer and typed up our data on a google spreadsheet. Then we worked on the lab some more.

Links you need for the texting project

We're going to be working on the texting project in the next few days, and you will need to use these links for your work.

• Online reaction time test: use this to measure your reaction time. (you must also measure your reaction time using the ruler test). You should post your data to the google spreadsheet so that everyone in our class can see it.
  
• NYT Distracted Driving Simulator: This is a great simulation that will tell you how your reaction time is affected by texting while driving. Please enter your data into the spreadsheet.
  
• Stopping distance: Here's a table of stopping distances that might help you to get a sesne of how far a car can travel during your reaction time.
  
• Stopping distance spreadsheet: this is a useful spreadsheet for determining your stopping distance based on a number of factors.
  
• Find your legislator. Useful for writing your letter.
  
  

Imaging the Tenth Dimension

http://www.tenthdimension.com/medialinks.php
--
John Riley | CEO, John Riley IT
www.johnrileyIT.com | 404.545.7438
User-friendly, turn-key IT solutions

September 15, 2009

Class was very fun today. We started off with reassessment #4 and then we had a great discussion about grades. Grades sheets were passed out as were an advice sheet and a few txting while drvng. project sheetings Then we did Minds On Physics page 99 Chapter 25. It was about acceleration and velocity and how they go together. It also had to do with some displacement concepts. Overall, it was a fun and productive class.

More gold from study hacks

I've already told you exactly what you need to do to ace physics (go back and read my post about how to study for a physics assessment. But maybe acing physics isn't enough for you. Maybe you want to ace all your classes, become deeply intellectually engaged by what you're learning, and change the world. Well, Study Hacks strikes again, with a great post titled "The Definitive Guide to Acing your Schedule." The post is again more aimed at college students, but easily adapted to high school, and the advice is pure gold.

Setup a separate chat with your professor, your TA, and a student who took the same course in a previous semester.
In each chat session, ask the same question:
If you were to write an advice guide about doing incredibly well in this class, what would the chapters be?


It takes around an hour to complete this exercise. But it’s results are near magical. Gone is the guesswork about notetaking, reading, and how best to review. In its place is specific advice that is tuned to the specific challenge you face. You’d have to be a real slacker not to do well with this treasure map in hand.

Ok, so you don't have a TA, but imagine if you set up a meeting during backwork with one of your teachers and you asked him/her this question. What would you learn? You might also help your teacher to think carefully about what is necessary to ace a class.

Great new album from they might be giants

Hi All,
As I mentioned in class, They Might be Giants released a great new album filled with fun songs about science this week. They've also put up a video of the first song from the album, "Science is Real." Check it out...

Class on 9/9/09

First, we took reassessment number 3. Then we went over the homework, which was the Photo Finish Followup. We analyzed velocity vs. time graphs of the buggy and cart and figured out velocities, slopes, and winners of the races. We also solved the displacement and distances of the cart and buggy races. Today we did three labs:The Stopping distance lab, the backpack lab, and the dry ice lab. In the stopping distance lab, we pushed a block of wood along the table and measured how long it took to stop and how long it was passing through the photo gate timer. We found that friction, the force of the push, the velocity and the length of the wood impacted the results. The higher the velocity, the longer it will take to stop. To find the velocity of the cart, we divided the cart's length by the time in the photogate. then we conducted the experiment and recorded the data. The experiment related to how if you are texting while driving and see something to avoid in the road, like a kid, what the distance you should allow yourself to stop depending on your current speed. The back pack lab showed that when we dropped it from a certain height, it fell at a constant rate of acceleration. The dry ice lab showed us that when it's going through sublimation, the gases coming out of the dry ice keep it off the table, causing little to no friction. This showed that it has a constant velocity and cannot stop on its own. The end

Humorous idea for the day

Luckily, in this class pain doesn't have to be your teacher.

Are you living well or preparing to live well?

Another great post from study hacks. Here's a quote:

The happiest students are those who try to shape their life into something that’s meaningful, quality, and enjoyable right now; the type who get excited about the philosophy seminar they got into, and then spend an early Fall day outside getting acquainted with the reading. These students aren’t afraid of hard work, but they keep it carefully contained, because they know there’s a lifetime more where that came from, and if they can’t handle it well now, when will they ever?



If you’re not trying to live well now, what are you waiting for?

Remember, I'm always free during backwork (or just about any other time) to talk to you about how to put these ideas into action.

Definitely worth 20 minutes of your time

No matter what your politics are, you should take 20 minutes to watch this speech by the president today about how hard work and goal setting can help you to achieve your dreams, and solve the world's problems. It's wonderful speech worth serious thought.

Thursdays Class

Thursdays class was the most important class we've ever had. We went over the history of grades and school, and we went through the process of assessing in Mr. Burk's class. Then we received our assessments and talked about them. The most we could have gotten on any concept was 3/4 and to show our full understanding, we will be assessed at the beginning of most classes until we have covered all of the concepts.

Class 9-4-09

Friday, in class, we talked about the difference in position, distance, and displacement. Position is the distance and direction from the origin. Distance is the length with no direction. Displacement is X final - X initial. There is never a negative displacement. We also talked about the photo finish lab. The buggy and the cart on the incline travel the same change in distance in the same amount of time. We discovered that our graph for the cart on the incline was a parabola. We used GeoGegbra to determine that is was a parabola. We also learned that over a very small amount of time, the velocity is nearly constant. Instantaneous velocity has 3 steps:
1. small time interval
2. time interval must be small enough so that it looks like constant velocity
3. find the average velocity of the very small change in time and you have instantaneous velocity.
We ended the double period in the computer lab working on our lab.
Anna is the next blogger.

Velocity Packet Question 2

For #19, it says to use your graph to find the distance traveled by the buggy during the entire trip. So I used the formula
v = change in position/ change in time -- and converted it to change in position = velocity/change in time.

So I did distance = 47.6 cm/s per 5 s, and got 9.52 cm ....which does not at all seem like the correct total distance for this....how should I be doing this???

Velocity Packet Question

For #18, it says to add a line representing the velocity of the buggy to the graph in #16. I made my graph for #16, but I can't figure out how to add the line representing the velocity of the buggy to my graph. How do you add the line?

Class 9/2/09

Today we had a double period. During the first period we had our first assessment. In the second period we started the "Engineering a 'Photo Finish" Lab. In class we completed Part A and for homework we have to do Part 2 through question 11. For Part A we were introduced to a new more expensive type of buggy, a car on a ramp. We had to position the ramp so that the buggy and the car reached the end of the ramp at the same times. Then we found the velocity of the buggy and graphed it on a position versus time graph. Next we guessed what the position versus time graph would look like for the car and graphed it on the same axis as the buggy. Finally we used Logger Pro and the motion detector to find more exact data on the velocity of the car. We need that data to complete the homework.

Question about photo finish lab

Does anyone know how to do number 10 on the homework? What are we supposed to draw, and do we draw it on to the graph that we printed out?

Videos you will need for the "Photo Finish Lab"

I've created a set of short, instructional screencasts on how to use excel. You will need these when we get started on the "photo finish" lab.

1. How to export data from logger pro

2. How to make a position vs time graph in excel.

3. How to find the instantaneous velocity using excel.

4. How to make a velocity vs time graph in excel.

Physics 9/1/09

Today in class we reviewed displacement. We went over how to find displacement on a time vs. velocity graph and a position vs. time graph. We also played a game to review for our assessment tomorrow. A problem was shown on the board and we all voted on what we thought were the correct answers. Then we had to convince everyone that our answer was the correct answer.

Reflection on Buggy Lab

I can't seem to figure out how to do problem 6 on the buggy lab. It asks to write an equation for the position of the buggy at any time using x(position) and t(time). Anybody know how to solve that problem?

The Big Bang Explained

Ever wonder what the big bang is all about? What a multiverse is? This 2 minute video gives a great explanation by physicist Janna Levin, who is also a fantastic author. She wrote How the Universe got is Spots, and the award wining fiction book, A Madman dreams of Turing Machines. Both are great, quirky reads.

How to study for a physics assessment

Ok, so if you check the course calendar, you'll see that you have your first assessment in physics coming up next week. How should you study? Read carefully for my step-by-step guide to demonstrating deep understanding

Big picture of what you're doing:

1. Get out your copy of the Major Concepts for Unit 1. Read these through, and circle anything that seems completely unfamiliar to you.
   
2. Remember the purpose of this assessment. I am looking to help you see how well you understand these ideas. You can help yourself tremendously, by figuring out, before the test, how well you understand these ideas and making sure you master them.
   
3. While you study, your job should be to find/create problems that test these major ideas, try them, and then trouble shoot your work until you master the concept.
   

Step by step of what you should do:

1. Get a bunch of blank sheets of white paper or graph paper (if you're making/interpreting graphs).
   
2. Copy problems that we've done in class, on homework, and on webassign onto a a sheet of paper (one problem per page). Don't copy your answer from class notes.
   
3. Try to figure out which of the Major concepts this problem is testing, and write that at the top of the page.
   
4. Solve the problem. Try to do it in as much detail as possible. If you get stuck, write out a sentence explaining what you don't understand. The check the solution, and finish the problem. Recopy this problem and put it back into your stack of problems you're working on.
   
5. Keep working through problems until you've successfully mastered one or more problems from each topic.
   
6. Check yourself for small errors, like omitting units, writing bogus numbers, calculating slope as x/t, etc. Make a note of these on the problem, and focus on not making this mistake the next time you solve a similar problem.
   
7. If you can't find a problem from your notes or homework, this is a sign your understanding of this topic is incomplete. You can find additional problems in the text, or online by googling for them. You can also email me.
   
8. If you get stuck on a problem or concept, you are welcome to email me or schedule some time during backwork or a free period. But I also encourage you to use the blog to help increase your understanding as well (see below).
   
9. When you're done, you should have a small booklet of 10-20 problems that clearly show mastery of each topic.
   
   In practice, this doesn't take nearly as much time as you might think. With five days between now and the assessment, you can spend 10-15 minutes working out problems for 3 concepts per night, and have covered all 11 concepts by Monday night, giving you Tuesday night to go back over any last remaining concepts you're slightly unclear on.
   
   

   Using the class blog to ace a physics test

   
   If you find yourself stuck on a particular concept or problem, I encourage you to use the class blog to help you find the answer. Just create a new post (label it "reflection") and describe your problem "I can't see how to solve problem 2.4," or "I don't know how to draw a position vs time graph from a velocity vs time graph." Doing so will do a number of things:
   
   
   
   1. Just explaining what you don't know will often lead to greater understanding.
      
   2. You writing about a problem will help your peers to these themselves on what they understand.
      
   3. You will be contributing to the class community, and this will positively impact your grade (both intangibly and tangibly).
      
   
   
   Likewise, if you know the answer to a question posted by a peer, I encourage you to comment and leave a response. This will positively influence your grade.
   
   More tips:
   
   1. The science of studying, from Study Hacks

The art of taking notes in science class

Have you wondered exactly how you should take notes in physics to achieve the deepest understanding? You're not the first to ask the question, and not surprisingly, the author of Study Hacks has a few things to say about the art of taking science notes.

Notice that this post talks about going over your notes, but not just re-reading them, instead, it suggests you work to recopy/add to your notes so that you can develop a set of notes that can re-teach you the material in 10 years.

This can be a LOT of work, and I would encourage you not to do this for everyday we take notes, but if there's a time when we're covering something that seems particularly difficult, it might be a good exercise to try to go back and recopy and improve your notes.

Here are a few more tips from a college professor of geology.

day 3

today in class we used a photogate to measure how long it took dominoes set up at various distances apart from each other, to to fall a certain distance predetermined by the distance between each domino. We set the dominoes up at distances 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, and 4.5 centimeters apart.

Physics 8/27/09

Today in class we continued with our discussions of calculating velocity using graphs. We also did a lab using a sonar device that could measure where we were in relation to it. We then used it to calculate our velocity by walking from it and back towards it from distances of 2.5 meters and 1 meter. We moved at an almost uniform speed which meant that the slopes on our graphs were also uniform and were almost straight lines.

Tripp is our next blogger.

Beautiful time lapse of Persied Meteor shower

Sometimes, physics begins with just admiring the beauty of the world around us. Check out what you see if you spend a night taking photos of the sky during the Perseid meteor shower. To get a explanation of what you're looking at, check out the always great, Bad Astronomy. Be sure to click on the HD link to see this movie in all its glory.

Corrections Policy

Hi All,
Thanks again for a great class! I want to explain things a bit further on my offer of corrections.

In general, I will allow you to correct just about anything in this class. Under the following conditions:

1. You seriously should consider whether you need to do the corrections. I know this is hard, but you should ask yourself "am I doing this to raise my grade, or show I really understand an important idea?" If it's to raise your grade, I would suggest that you consider not doing corrections. You will have many, many grades in this class (more than 100 a semester, in all likelihood), and one 2/4 or even a 0/4 will have almost no effect on your final grade. Seeking perfection is a recipe for unhappiness and lack of sleep.
2. Ask yourself if you have time to do corrections. If you aren't getting 8.5 hours of sleep per night, or you're behind in something else, you probably should focus on those things first. They will have a bigger impact on your grades and happiness.

If you decide to do corrections, follow these rules:

1. Turn your corrections in within a week after the assignment (unless you make arrangements with me).
2. Re-do the ENTIRE assignment. Do not simply copy your old work--do it again, with fresh eyes.
3. When you get to parts that you missed, you should ALSO write an EXPLANATION OF WHAT YOU DID WRONG (this is essential for credit).
4. At the end of your assignment write a note specifically stating EVERYONE and EVERYTHING you collaborated with. You are forbidden from looking at another student's work if you are doing corrections. Omitting someone/something you collaborated with constitutes an honor violation.
5. Turn in both your old and new assignment. If it seems like you copied your old work, I might not give back all the points you missed.

That's it. I reserve the right to modify this policy for specific assignments, or rescind it altogether if it is being abused.