Physics 30 - April 29

Welcome to the last school day in April everyone.  Today in Physics 30 we finished looking at examples of projectile motion by going through example 3 in the notes.  Students then had the remainder of class to work Assignment 4.1.  On Monday we will be doing a lab on projectile motion.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Physical Science 20 - April 28

Today students learned about image characteristics and the different values that they can have.  This is an important concept moving forward in physics as we will be talking about images in many different contexts.  Students then learned about the laws that govern reflection as well as the different types of reflection. This was covered on slides 18-26 in the notes powerpoint.  Students are to have Lab 2.3 done for tomorrow to hand in as well as Homework 2.5.  Tomorrow we will start looking at curved mirrors.

Physical Science 20 - April 27

 Today in class we went over Homework 2.4 and then started to discover another property of light.  We started examining the property of reflection.  Students did Lab 2.3 on the reflection of light in a plane mirror.  Then we went over the analysis and conclusion to Lab 2.3 which is on the reflection of light.  Students who require help with the analysis can check out this handout.  It has on it all the labels that you need to analyze your lab.  Tomorrow we will continue with the analysis of this lab and then start to talk about the concept of the image.

Physics 30 - April 27

Today in class we went through a couple of examples on how to solve projectile motion problems.  This involved breaking the motion up into 2 parts -  the horizontal and vertical parts.  We went through examples 1 and 2 in the notes.  We didn't start example 3.  We will do that on Friday.  Remember that you have your Unit 3 exam tomorrow.

Physics 30 - April 26

Today we started Unit 4 on gravitational motion.  We will begin this examination by looking at motion of objects close to the surface of the Earth.  This type of motion is called projectile motion.  The key to solving problems involving projectiles is to break the motion up into 2 separate parts - a horizontal and vertical part.  Since the only force acting on a projectile after it is gravity, the only motion that is changing then is the vertical motion.  The horizontal motion is uniform motion and the vertical motion is accelerated.  We looked at a couple of demonstrations to display this concept.  We didn't have time however to do any examples.  There is a new powerpoint we are using called Unit 4 Notes found in the Unit 4 folder of the Physics 30 Course Notes link.  We simply went through slides 1-7 today.  Tomorrow we will start looking at examples of how to solve problems involving projectile motion.

Physical Science 20 - April 25

Today in class we went over Homework 2.2.  Afterwards, we learned about another property of light called the rectilinear propagation of light - this means that light travels in straight lines.  We learned about the magnification equation as well how a pinhole camera works.  We took some notes and one example covered on slides 9-16 in the powerpoint.  Students then had the remainder of class to work on Homework 2.4.  I will check this on Wednesday.  Tomorrow is your exam on heat.  Make sure to study all heat assignments as well as notes on kinetic molecular theory.

Physical Science 20 - April 22

Today we started our new unit on Physics and particularly light. We talked about the different properties of light and started looking at the speed of light in particular.  We learned that light travels very fast in a vacuum (300 million meters per second) and this makes calculating distances of very far objects easy.  These distances are called astronomical distances and we went over the definition of a parsec, a light year, and an astronomical unit.  We then looked at an example using these and students were assigned Homework 2.2. We will go over this assignment on Monday.

There is a new powerpoint that students can download to get the notes for this unit.  It is found in the Physical Science 20 link on the right and the notes are in the Physics folder called Physics Notes.  We went through slides 1-7 today.  Monday we will be looking at the rectilinear propagation of light.

Physical Science 20 - April 21

Students wrote their quiz today for specific heat and phase change. After the quiz, students were given a handout that contained an article about the speed of light and how they measured it.  This was called Homework 2.1.  Students were given directions to read the article and answers the questions at the end of the handout.  We will go over these questions tomorrow and then look at what the speed of light means for us.

Physics 30 - April 21

Today in class we finished up unit 3 by looking at Example 26, an exceptionally difficult two dimensional collision problem.  Students were then assigned Assignment 3.8 and they will have more time to work on this tomorrow.

Physical Science 20 - April 19

Today in class students had an opportunity to work on Assignment H4.  This was on enthalpy.  We went over another example in class on how to use Hess' Law and then students used the rest of the period to work on Assignment H4.  Tomorrow we will take that up and then begin our physics unit.

Physics 30 - April 19

Today we had a work period to work on Assignment 3.7.  We were missing most students because of the band trip.  Tomorrow we will look at collisions in two dimensions.

Physics 30 - April 15

Today in class we looked at 3 examples that involved collisions in 1 dimension.  These were examples 21-23.  Students then had time to work on assignment 3.7.  We will continue working on this assignment on Tuesday.  Reminder that on Monday you will not have class as the science department will be away for a PD day.  Have a great weekend everyone!!

Physical Science 20 - April 15

Today in class students were able to gain an understanding of how energy works in a chemical reaction.  We looked at the concept of enthalpy today and how to calculate the change in enthalpy that occurs in a chemical reaction.  The process that we learned involved breaking a chemical reaction down into its parts and to figure out the heats of formation for the parts and then add those together.  This was called Hess' Law.  We looked at a couple of examples today.  We will continue this on Tuesday.  This was all included in a new powerpoint called Enthalpy and it is found in the Heat folder of the Physical Science 20 course notes link.  On Tuesday, we will finish the last example and then have time to work on Assignment H4.  Students are to begin this assignment on the weekend.  Give the first 4 questions a try.

Remember that we will not have class on Monday due to the science department PD day.  Have a great weekend everyone.

Physical Science 20 - April 14

Today in class we learned how to calculate the heat involved in not only going through phase changes but also temperature changes as well.  This involved using multiple equations to calculate the change in heat at different temperature points.  You just have to understand what those temperature points are.  That being said, we will just be using water for this since we know the melting/freezing and boiling/condensing points well.  We went through a couple of examples and then spent the rest of class working on Assignment HT3.  We will go over this tomorrow and then move on to enthalpy.  The notes covered today were on slides 19-26 of the measuring heat powerpoint.

Physics 30 - April 14

We began to look at the conservation of momentum and how we can apply that to different situations.  We went over a couple of examples related to explosions and how to solve them with the conservation of momentum and then we also learned about the different types of collisions.  This was covered on slides 49-53.  We will start looking at collisions tomorrow with an examination of collisions in one dimension.

Physical Science 20 - April 11

Students learned how to calculate the heat changes that are involved in changing a substance's phase. The key concept to this is understanding that phase changes do not involve temperature changes. The notes students took today were on slides 11-18 on the Measuring Heat powerpoint.  At the end of the class, students then worked on Assignment H2.  We will take this up tomorrow along.  Tomorrow students will get a chance to prepare for their midterm on Wednesday.

Physical Science 20 - April 8

Today in class we learned how to calculate the amount of heat required to change the temperature of a substance a certain amount.  This is dependant on the mass of the substance, the change in temperature and the specific heat of the substance.  We went through a couple of examples and students spent the remainder of class working on Assignment H1.  This was all covered on a new powerpoint called Measuring Quantities of Heat.  This is found in the Heat folder of the Physical Science 20 course notes link along the right hand side of this webpage.  We covered slides 1-10 today.  On Monday, we will look at how heat changes when we change phases.

Physics 30 - April 8

Today in class we learned about the law of conservation of energy and how we will use it to solve problems.  It involves understanding how different forms of energy are converted from one form into another.  Students really have to have a good grasp of how kinetic and potential energy interchange.  We took notes from slides 30-36 in the Unit 3 Notes powerpoint and went through examples 13 and 14.  We will finish this lesson with example 15 on Monday and get some time to work on Assignment 3.5.   This will be the last assignment included on the first in class assignment, which is scheduled for next Wednesday, April 13.  It will be on Assignments 3.1-3.5.

Physical Science 20 - April 7

Today in class we learned today how to manipulate formulas.  As well, we learned how about the process that we will use to solve problems in this class.  These 2 skills were outlined in a powerpoint labeled Equations and Word Problems.  It is found in the Physical Science 20 course notes link on the right.  Students were given two assignments to work on over the weekend.  The first one, called Homework 1.2, is about manipulating formulas.  The second one, called Assignment 1.1, is about solving word problems and I am looking at the process which was outlined in the class.  Check the course notes link for the assignments.  

Physics 30 - April 7

Today students learned about potential energy and how to calculate it.  The concept of defining a reference level is important in understanding potential energy.  Students were given Assignment 3.4 to work on. Tomorrow we will begin to look at the law of conservation of energy and how to work with it.

Physical Science 20 - April 6

Today we finished up our notes on kinetic molecular theory.  We did slides 11-25 on the powerpoint from yesterday.  There was no assignment with today's lesson but students spent the remainder of the class period working on their lab reports for Lab C4.  This is due Friday.

Physics 30 - April 6

Today we looked at the concept of energy and learned how to calculate kinetic energy.  We also learned how to about the work-energy theorem, where you can calculate the work done by figuring out the change in kinetic energy.  This was covered on slides 15-23.  Assignment 3.3 was given at the end of class. We will go over this on tomorrow and then learn about potential energy.

Physical Science 20 - April 5

Today students finished up Lab C4 by measuring the mass of the silver they produced as well as the mass of copper remaining.  After cleaning up the lab, we started into our new unit on heat.  This will not take us too long to finish.  We began by looking at what heat is and discussing some major points to kinetic molecular theory.  This was all covered on a powerpoint called Kinetic Molecular Theory.  This powerpoint is in the Heat folder of the Physical Science 20 course notes link.  We only covered the first 10 slides today in class.  Tomorrow we will finish the powerpoint.

Physics 30 - April 5

Today in class we talked about power and how to calculate it.  We went through a coukle of examples covered on slides 10-14 and students had the remainder of the period to work on Assignment 3.2.  This will be due tomorrow.  Tomorrow we will move one to look at energy and specifically kinetic energy.

Physical Science 20 - April 4

Welcome back everyone.  We had a whole 10 days for our reactions to setup.  This worked well for us as we did the 2nd part to Lab C4 today.  Students were extracting silver today from their reactions.  We spent all day working on the lab and extracting the silver.  Tomorrow we will finish up the lab and start into the heat unit.

Physics 30 - April 4

Welcome back from the break everyone.  Hope it was restful and relaxing and you are ready to drive to the summer.  We only have about 10 weeks of school left so get ready.  Today we started the third unit in Physics 30.  We began looking at the physical definition of work and what work is.  We did examples 1-3 and looked at some special situations where work is zero.  Students then had the remainder of class to work on Assignment 3.1. We will take this up tomorrow.  We are moving on tomorrow to look at the concept of power.