4/9 qod

How did we use marshmallows to measure the speed of light?

--ch

3/22 Vidas

Today in Honors Physics, we continued to work on the sound labs. We performed a variety of experiments, including clapping in the hallways, using strobe lights, and listening to Clay's fantastic singing. If you finished in class today, you needed to staple the labs in numerical order and turn it into the folder.  If not, we have some time at the beginning of class tomorrow to finish, but most of the time will be spent answering questions and working on the sound test review.  Just a reminder: Sound Test is on Monday, Sound Test Review is due on Monday, and our Quarter Exam review guide is due on Tuesday.

QOD: Although our group did not reach this part of the lab, I predict that the reason the speed of sound changes when traveling through Carbon Dioxide is because it is a different medium and it is a denser gas than normal air.

3/22 qod

How did traveling through carbon dioxide change the speed of sound?

--ch

3/21 Tesmer

Today in 3rd period we started off by turning in the detecting decibles worksheet, the loudness worksheet, and the pair check from the previous day if it had not already been turned in. Then, we watched a video on how the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed. After that, we watched a Mythbusters video on Rubens flame tube. Then, we broke out the palm pipes. Each of us received a different length pipe that, when hit on the palm of your hand, produced a note. Miley directed our class as we played a couple of songs. Finally, we proceeded to work on the sound lab that we will finish tomorrow.

QOD:
The Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapsed because the strong pulses of the wind caused the bridge to vibrate at its natural frequency. The bridge began to resonate. Eventually, the concrete cracked and it collapsed.

3/21 qod

Why did the Tacoma Narrows bridge fail?

--ch

3/20 qod

Why is the decibel scale logarithmic?

--ch

3/19 qod

Describe a situation where both the signs are positive in the Doppler effect equation.

--ch

3/16 qod

What causes the Doppler effect?

--ch

3/14 qod

How does elasticity affect the ability to transmit sound?

--ch

3/12 Schwab

Today was the first day of  OGT's so our class period was moved to after 5th. To start of class we took a cell phone pull (after Mr.E redid the poll because it wasn't working) for "The Swinging Pendulum" worksheet.  Next we turned to pg. 161, the pendulum lab, and worked with our lab partner, not our table, to find out what the correct answer was to the worksheet we had for homework. Liz and I found that the string length affected the number of swings, and weight of the bob and the height of the bob did not affect the number of swings. Once the lab was finished we turned in the lab and picked up our homework (vibration wkst) and the vibration packet. Something strange that happened today was that Hunter insisted on having a hug with Coats-Haan and Buck. Then team "I Heart Life" had a very special intimate hug.
QOD- How did you control your variables in your pendulum experiment?
when testing height we made sure we didnt change the length of the sting, and we used the same bob at both heights
when testing which bob would swing more we made sure the height remained the same and the string length for each was the same
when testing the length of the string we made sure to pull it to the same height and used the same bob in both string length tests 

3/12 qod

How did you control your variables in your pendulum experiment?

--ch

3/9 Miller

Well we had an eventful day in Physics. It was the big testing day of Windmills and Rube Goldberg machines! We began with the windmill of my group, Casey, Lauren and Bryan and our windmill succeeded in lifting 2000 grams, which no other windmill could lift. I did get the chance to see Amalea's group including Chrissy and Clay, and their Rube Goldberg was successful. This was the last I was able to see as my group made a journey out to cars after disassembling our windmill. I do know that the other Rube Goldberg was successful and no other windmill succeed in lifting more weight than ours did. There was no homework over the weekend. As for the qod, What do you think were some of the biggest barriers to making the windmills lift more weight? I think the biggest barriers were the construction, because our nail popped out int the lifting process, the material of the wheel, it seems the paper could only do so much, and the size, seeing that we had a huge wheel and it lifted only 2000 grams.

So it was a pretty awesome day in Physics, Stay Classy third period!

3/9 qod

What do you think were some of the biggest barriers to making the windmills lift more weight?

--ch

03/08 Miley

Honors Physics was an eventful day as usual. We first turned in our section 4 lab and homework from the “Behavior of Simple Electric Circuit lab we had been working on for the past week. We then checked over our homework from last night, the Circuit worksheet, which covered Ohm’s law in relation to series and parallel circuits. The biggest problem was # 3 on the back on the 35-3 part. Mr. Ebersole told us that all the circuits had a resistance of 1 ohm. This is based on the fact that the 1 ohm and 1 ohm are in a series. In a series, you add the resistance together and we got 2 Ohms. Then he told us that the 2 ohms across created a parallel. So you needed to add (1/2) + (1/2) = (2/2) = 1 ohm. If you continue this process for any of the circuits, you will continue to get 1 ohm. As we finished up the homework, Mr. Ebersole realized that Mrs. Coats-Haan’s office was locked and the quizzes were in there. He decided that he would send Hunter down to the teacher’s longue to see if she was there. Just as Hunter was about to leave, Mrs. Coats-Haan walked in and opened the door. Mr. Ebersole passed out our quiz of section 3 and 4 of the lab and Ohm’s law. We had the rest of the class to finish the quiz. Once we turned the quiz in, we had to pick up “The Swinging Pendulum” paper which we’ll be going over Monday. Our only homework was to finish up anything we may need for the Windmill project. Tomorrow in class, we’ll spend the whole time testing our projects and Mrs. Coats-Haan shared with us a few details:

1. If you’re bringing in anything tomorrow morning, you need to take your backpack off before walking about around the area with the projects. Your backpack could ruin someone’s project and that would really suck for them.

2. Make sure you have uploaded your PowerPoint presentation to one of Mrs. Coats-Haan’s computer by 3^rd period tomorrow. In order to upload into the right folder, you need to go to My Documents à 2012 Windmills à period 3 folder. If it’s not in the folder by 3^rd period, the project will be counted as late. Make sure to give the PowerPoint a name aside from “My Windmill Project” so Mrs. Coats-Haan can easily identify the PowerPoint.

Stay Classy 3^rd period!

QOD: What variables affect how long it takes for a pendulum to swing back and forth?

The variables would be the mass of the pendulum, the length of the swing, and the angle of the pendulum. (Not sure if this is right though)

3/8 qod

What variables affect how long it takes for a pendulum to swing back and forth?

--ch

Meese 3/7

Today was Wednesday (aka Hump Day) in Honors Physics and what a great one it was. As I strolled into the room with about fifteen seconds to spare as normal, I heard an abundance of conversation around the room. As I listened closer, I was able to hear people express their relief of being done with the monsterously long lab that we had to endure of the past two weeks. Although every was expecting a day of relaxtion, there is always more physics to be learned. Today we learned about Ohm's Law and Equivalent Resistance, which explains mathematically what we just learned through our labs. We leanred a new equation, V=iR where V is velocity, i is current (why?) and R is resistance. We also learned later that V is in volts, i is in ampheres (again, no sense) and R is in ohms, represented by a capital omega symbol. We also learned in the next section that the resistance of the single resistor that wouldm produce the same effect as that produced by the network is equivalent resistance. (Pstttt, here is the good part) But, the equations for equivalent resistance depend on if the network is in series or in parallel. If it is in series, you merely sum up all the resistors. However, if it is in a parallel network, you have to add the reciprocals of each resistor. We then worked through the rest of our examples on our example sheet and got a double-sided worksheet for homeowrk. Windmills are due on Friday and we have a quiz tomorrow over Sections 3 and 4 in the lab and our notes that we took today.

QOD: The mathematical equation for a series network is just R1 +R2 + R3 = Req, therefore stating that as resistors are added, the overall resistance increases. But, the mathematical equation for parallel networks is 1/R1 + 1/R2 +1/R3 = 1/Req which proves a theory stated earlier in our labs that the more resistors are added to a paralled circuit, the less resistance the overall circuit has.

3/7 qod

Use the mathematical equations for finding equivalent resistance to explain the results you observed for bulb brightness in the lab.

--ch

3/6 qod

Why is it better when Christmas tree lights are wired in parallel vs. series?

--ch

3/5 Lee

When the warning bell rang, almost everyone got straight to work. As the class settled down, Mr. Ebersole went through our expectation for the day.  We continued to work on the lab and today section 3 Lab was due. If your group was further behind, you could come in during 5a or 5c to finish.  Section 3 homework was the homework due for tomorrow. We also had to remember to use the greater than or less than signs when explaining the brightness of the light bulbs so that Coats-Haan and Mr. Ebersole could grade them easier.  A lot of us didn’t remember that part so we had to make some last minute changes.

QOD Answer: When you add bulbs by parallels, the resistance is decreased.  When bulbs are added in a series, the resistance is increased.  The current in a parallel is great than a current in a series.

3/5 qod

If you add bulbs in parallel, what happens to resistance and flow through the battery?

If you add bulbs in series, what happens to resistance and flow through the battery?

--ch

3/2 qod

You have a circuit with multiple switches and bulbs.  You are asked to rank the bulbs in all possible switch positions.  Please describe how you should report your answer.


-ch

3/1 qod

There are two circuits.  One circuit has two bulbs in series.  The other circuit has two bulbs in parallel.  Which circuit has the brighter bulbs?  Explain why.

--ch