Week of 11/16-11/20

This week in science class we continued to work on position verus time graphs and motion diagrams. We also took a quiz on the graphs and dot diagrams. Which I think I did really bad on. But hopefully I can go in early soon to get the help. We also had two new vocabulary words to add to our list. Path length and displacement. Path length means the length in a path you traveled. On the other hand displacement means absolute distance from where you start. These two vocab words have to do with two main other vocab words we have been using for the past couple of weeks. For path length speed fits with that. And for displacement velocity fits that. Displacement can be negative because you can walk backwards thats going in the negative direction. For path length its speed because there can't be -5 meters only positive physical quanites.

Also we contnues with motion diagrams which look lik dot diagrams but there are delta v arrows indicating the direction and the space inbetween each dot. To see what your displacement how fast and far you have traveled from where you start. The after we had a function or a problem we now knew how to make a position verus time graph of it. Then the quiz was just on the stuff we have learned on this topic and for some reason I didn't get the material like draw a picture of this graph. Which we learned in the beginning of this unit and I can't remember how to do that. So thats one place I had trouble with.

That pretty much ties in my week at school last week and I can't wait till the 2 and a half day week tomorrow. But, lastly the real world application for this week is there are many ways to express how fast to walk and in a certain time. If your walking down a street and the speed up really fast then slow down to a stop. You can express that in a graph, picture, dot diagram, or a motion diagram.

Week of 11/2-11/4

This week was another short week it was three days. We focused on one main topic which was velocity and also we learned formulas to calucate position. Even though this week was only 3 days it was very diffulct for me to follow along. We learned about that Velocity can also mean speed. We used a formula to find position and the formula is x(t) *time=position. For a problem that gives a graph using that formula you can determine the position of the dot at a certain time.

We also had to complete a lab on how far a battery powered car goes each second. The first car we tested had both its batterys in. My team layed down a ruler to determine how far the car went in each second. Another one of my groupmates looked at the clock to say mark at each second. For the first second it travelled 13 and a half inches, then in the second second it made it to the 25 inch mark and lastly for the 3rd second it hit 36 inches. From the first second to the second it traveled 11 and 1 half inches. Then, for the second mark to the third it travelled 11 inches. So the two numbers it travelled in a second it travelled about 11 and one forth inches. Then, to test the car to make it slower instead of putting the two batterys in. We put one battery in and a medel rod. Which made the car run but with only one battery. The car of course went slower then the first car because it only had on battery. We did the same thing we did with the first car. And these are the results. For the first second it travelled 9 inches and for the second second it travelled 14 inches and lastly it went 20 inches. The car travelled 5 inches inbetween the first and second markings. For the inches inbetween the second and third markings its 6 inches. It was a big difference compared to the faster cars intervals in inches. With more battery power or even energy in general it will be more efficient and be more worth while.

The car experiment we did this week I understood it very much but for the formula and graphing I didn't understand it to much. The real world applications for the car experiment is if you have a real car and its filled to the top in gas it will surely drive faster and longer than a car with 1 quart of gasoline.

Week of 10/26-10/30

This week we started a new Lesson which was Lesson 4. It was in a huge kinomatics packet online which we had to complete about 12 pages or something like that. It was on graphs about clock readings and position. Each chart we had to answer a bunch of questions and then make a bunch of graphs. It was a ton of work to start out the new unit. Also this week was very bad because most of our classmates did not complete there homework which got Mr. Finley very angry. I admitt I missed my home work too but only for once out of the three days we had consistent no homeworks. The whole week was really centered to the new unit and Lesson 4. We only had the won teaching which was the graphs.
On the first day that not much people did there homework we were starting the new lesson so I was in the group that did there homework and got to move on. In the "front group" Mr. Finley called it we learned about how graphs should look like if the data on the chart. Was trying to say that the data was speeding up, slowing down, or going at a constant rate. If it was going at a constant rate then the term line would be going up and it wouldn't be curving down or up. If the term line was speeding up then the term line would be getting more vertical. For the slowing down it would be getting more horizantal.
This wek was all lerning about the new unit and learning about the graphs and charts and how to express them in differnt ways. The real world applactions for this week are if your an engineer fopr a roller coaster buisness. And perhaps you want to explain to your boss that the ride is speeding up or slowing down at certain points. You can give him graphs of the speeding up and slowing down or even in a constant rate. The you can show him the charts you got the data for the graphs from and he will be impressed. Give you a permotion.

Week of 10/19-10/24

This week the whole middle school student body was pretty much missing. About 80% of them had been sick and the other 20% were getting ready to be sick. I unfortunatly had gotten sick after 3rd period on Thursday and the full day of Friday. On Wednesday we had started on a experiment we had worked on till the end of the week. It was to observe a little battery powered car try its best to go in a straight line. We later discovered it did not go in a straight line it verded off to the left. Then, we also tested it if the speed and direction of the car changed if it was encountered with obstacles. The first test for that Purpose was that I put a small notebook on the ground and the car had got slower as it touched the notebook but used its force to get over. Then, my group and I made a little ramp to see if the car can go up the ramp and then follow down. It was a open book. When the car started up it took a little while because it needed more force to push it self over the ramp. But, then it finally accomplished that task. Then, after we tested that we wanted to see if not going in a straight line affected that. So, we let the car go in a open path and counted how long it would take to ver off. It took 3 seconds then we put a mouse pad down and a notebook and watched how long it would turn as it goes over the obstacles. It took 5 seconds to go over bothe materials while turning. The we wanted to see if weight changed the way the car turns. Maybe it would turn less while having pressure. With the weight it took 6 seconds not much of a difference. As a conclusion the battery powered car could not go in a straight line it had turned off to the left side. Which effected when it was put into obsacles it made it longer to go over it and the car had also turned a little while going over which made it longer. A car going in a straight line will definatly go faster than a car turning.

The other experiment we went over this week was on Monday and Tuesday. We went over observers and people seeing if something is moving. The experiment we did was makea paper telescope and look at the soccer ball as Mr. Finley stands still and walks back and forth. First, Mr. Finley stood in place and we had to see if the ball was moving or not. And the ball wasn't moving because we didn't have to move our telescope to see the ball the he made the ball move back and forth and it was moving because we had to move our telescope in order to see the soccer ball. Then, Mr. Finley held the ball in front of him and moved back and forth. The ball was not moving for him because he didn't have to move his telescope but it was moving for us because we weren't moving with him. Then, we had many worksheets to go along with this like a man is standing at a bus stop. There's an a approaching bus with a man in it and then a man next to the man in the bus. For the man in the approaching bus looking at the man at the bus stop he would say that the man is moving. But, for the man next to the guy on the bus he would say that he's not moving because he doesn't have to change is eye sight to see the man. This experiment taught us if objects are moving or not and what different observers saw.

The science ideas were that people could see the same thing but the different way if it depends on where there standing. Also that little battery powered cars could be changed in speed and direction if encountered with obstacles.

Our real world application for the first experiment is that when a car is hit by another car it slows in speed and changes direction. The other one for the other experiment I had already told you its the one with the bus and the bus stop.

Week of 10/12-10/16

This week in Science class was pretty much a rap up for our first unit. We had a test on Friday so the week we just reviewed. We were suppose to dissect a cows eye before the test but the eyes never came in the mail. The part on the test that had to do with the cow eyes were delated. Which means next week our class will hopefully be dissecting cow eyes, and then have a short test on the cow eyes. In order to make up the part of the test that was suppose to be for the eyes. We reviewed Methodology, Nature of light, Behavior of light, Ray diagrams, and the Law of Reflection and much more. For my sake I think I did fairly well besides the last question. Which Mr. Finley might take off.

There are no real world applications really for this week unless studying will help you succeed. The science idea for this week are the topics we reviews this week. This week wasn't the most exciting and there is not much to say about it.

Week of 10\5-10/8

This week was very short because we didn't have school on Friday. We foused on Newton and Huygens hypothesis. In the beginning of the week we had to read a article about Waves and Particles. Isaac Newton had a theory that light is made of corpuscles (meaning "little bodies"). On the other hand, Christiaan Huygens had a theory of that light is made up of waves.

Lets start with Isaac Newtons theory of light. He says when the particles of light go into the medium then they shift a little bit downward. In which the force pulls the particles down the to the right. But, for Huygens he says there are waves that a pulled into the medium then it bends when its into the medium and when it exits it bends again. I said that Newton was corrected because the particles could be correct because particles are in everything. There in light, gases, liquids, etc. But, then the waves could be correct because instead of particles flowing around there are force pulling the waves to a surface or gas. The example of when you throw a stone into a lake there are waves coming off. But, when you breathe in the cold there are particles coming out so you can see your breathe. In the end the article says that both of the theorys are correct. They both work for different things and one can't work for the other and visa versa.

The science ideas I've learned this week is that even though two or more hypothesis are trying to state one topic, doesn't mean they both can state the topic. It doesn't always have to be one and only one real answer. The real world application for this lesson is like I said if you are a scientists and want to see how many waves a huge rock makes in the water. Or maybe who many waves does a small rock do. You can use Huygens experiment. And you will find your answer.

Week of 9/28-10/2

This week we changed gears from just talking about light to more so angles and rays. We had a huge experiment this week that pretty much covered the week. The experiment was if you point a laser pointer at a certain angle on a protractor and it reflects off a mirror will the other ray be at the same degrees. The week we worked on the experiment and then create a lab report for it. Mr. Finley told us we needed 10 trials of different angles and see if it came out as the same angle. Which it did each time. I figured out a way that we don't even need to test it if we really wanted, too. If you wanted a short cut, say you want tho measure angle 130 degrees and see if it ends up on the same angle. You look at the protractor and on the left side it says 130 over 50 and on the other side it says 50 over 130. And those are both the same angle. Thats just if you want to take a short cut.

Towards the end of the week we started talking about what the particle model of light is. And the answer is if you draw a picture of a laser beam there are particles in the beam so that you can see the red beam. Those particles are called the particle model of light.

We learned two vocabulary words through the particle model of light discussion Photons and Transparent. Transparent means you can see through it, its clear. On the other hand Photons mean they are particles that are there own antiparticle and has zero rest mass and charge and a spin of one.

These were the science ideas we have learned this week and the real world application for this lesson could be if you need to see what the angle is of a ray of light you can use a protractor and a mirror to see than degree of the ray.