Relative Motion Once Again!!

Its been a while since we have talked about relative motion, so lets take it back a few steps! The most important thing to remember when dealing with motion is that it is always relative. Now you probably recall the upcoming question... "RELATIVE TO WHAT!" That's where things can go in all different directions!

For example, my two friends at the volleyball banquet tonight were walking together towards the food line. I snapped this first picture of them (lets just say they're walking at 5 m/s... that seems really unrealistic but I'm telling you, they were hungry!) They were able to carry a conversation because relative to each other, they were moving at 0 m/s. My friend in the blue dress started walking 3 m/s faster (8 m/s) to get to the line faster. To the girl in the blue dress, it seems as though the other is moving backwards (negative) when really she, herself, was just walking faster. Then, the same girl in the blue forgot her ticket! Oh no! She quickly turns around and walks quickly to her table at  5 m/s passing her friend (who is walking at the same speed). When they pass each other, it seems as though they are moving faster because all they can the blue girl can say is "WAIT FOR ME". She could only fit in 3 words because relative to her friend, she was moving at double the speed (10 m/s). When moving in opposite directions at the same speed, an object's speed seems to double!

Much more to learn in physics!!

2D Kinematics and Projectile Motion!

We have learned about the basics of vectors and how to use them, and this week, we learned a lot more!
First, we learned that equivalent vectors are vectors that have the same direction and magnitude! We also learned about the Vegas rule which relates to the saying "what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas". The Vegas rule states that all axes are independent: what happens on the x axis stays on the x axis, and what happens on the y axis stays on the y axis! During our last class this week we talked about the ball toss again and how it relates to the Vegas rule. The x and y axes are independent. We learned that the x axis is constaaaaaaaaant because it is moving at a constant velocity. The y axis is accelerating because a curved graph shows acceleration (fast slow stop slow fast). The picture below shows the y axis of the path of the ball my mom is throwing.

Vectooooooooor!

"I go by Vector. It's a mathematical term, represented by an arrow with both direction and magnitude. Vector!  That's me, because i commit crimes with both direction and magnitude. Oh yeah!"
- Vector. Despicable Me

This explains the definition of a vector! Excluding the "crime" part, a vector is an object with both direction and magnituuuuuuude! We learned that in adding and subtracting vectors, we measure from the tail of the first vector to the tip of the last. Lastly, we learned that a resultant vector is the answer (tail to tip).

In the picture below, my sister and dad are throwing a volleyball in our driveway. My dad is 12 feet infront and 5 feet to the left of my sister (red vectors). When represented with vectors, you can find the distance the ball traveled by finding the hypotenuse of the right triangle formed (green). Using the pythagorean theorem, i found that the ball traveled 13 ft. We did something similar in class with a football but I only have volleyballs!
There's a lot more to learn about vectors!

Passing Physics Onto My Parents!

It is amazing the amount of information we learned in just the first period of school! Who knows how much we'll learn throughout the rest of the year. Teaching my dad about physics was easier than I thought. He was pretty knowledgeable about physics, but I also taught him things that he didn't know! Although he knew about accuracy, precision, qualitative and quantitative data, and the standards of measurement, he stumbled on things having to do with kinematics, such as velocity, acceleration, and the equations. I taught him the different equations (dat, vat, vad, etc.) and he thought it was much easier to learn it that way! The graphing rules that I went over were also very new to him and he recited it for me twice. I think he understood them well! I showed him some of our past worksheets and quizzes and let him try some problems for himself. It feels good to know so much about physics and be able to share it with my dad!

Overview of the First Quarter!

We learned so much in physics in this short first quarter! The first thing we learned was observations. We learned that qualitative observations deal with the appearance and qualities of the objects. Quantitative observations deal with measurements. We also learned about Accuracy v. Precision. We learned that accuracy is something right on point, while precision is when you are consistent in your trials, but not necessarily accurate. Next, we learned about standards and why they are important. Standards are important so that everyone follows the same units and that everyone can communicate with each other.

We then learned about motion and the four words that are the most important when talking about motion:

"All motion is relative."

The next thing asked would be:

"Relative to WHAT?"

From the unit of motion, we explored more kinematics and how to solve problems using variables. We learned about speed, velocity, distance, time, acceleration, and displacement. The equations are listed in one of my earlier posts (dat, vat, vad)!

One of the most important things we needed to learn this quarter were the GRAPHING RULES.

1. The slope of a position v. time graph is velocity.

2. The slope of a velocity c. time graph is displacement.

3. The area under the curve of a velocity v. time graph is displacement.

We learned so much!!

These are examples of the graphs we needed to make and analyze in our labs this quarter.