Some helpful files:

Charges and Fields - Assignment sheet reposting - To use with HW3

 

"Help to Calculate F - First Calc" also goes with HW3

 

DC Circuit Simulation Experiment 2018 - To use for Exp7

 

"Creation of Beats Per. 3" - To use for HW2

 

"Beats" Excel File - to be used to follow the directions in "Creation of Beats"

 

 

Calculating a wavelength of a color using a diffraction grating - math help summary

An overly thorough, additional Practice Final Exam on Circuits and Optics

 

An answer page

Optics Unit - Student Obligations

 

Friday, May 24, a final experiment will be conducted. Knowledge of how to ray trace will be required before starting it (in order to measure correctly). The write-up for this will be due on June 1.

 

Wed, May 30 and Friday June 1, plenty of time will be given to work on the Practice Test. (Attached here as Optics Practice).

 

Friday, June 1: The skill of ray tracing will be quizzed in class for credit. For lenses or mirrors. All possible situations.

 

Final Exam day: Half the final will be the Official Optics Test. The Optics Practice test (attached here) will help a lot. The other half of the final will be a repeat of things that were on the Circuit Test

 

The Study Guide attached contains useful textbook entries as well. Great for practice in Optics. And yes, read the book too. Chapters 14 and 15.

 

The days listed above are it for the semester, so don't delay getting prepared.

Circuit Test is Friday May 11

 

I already showed how to use the book to have countless practice tests. There's an attachment as well.

Circuit Solving Notes:

 

Part 1 is series - very easy.

Part 2 is parallel - kinda easy.

Part 3 is very very easy.

Part 4 is called Great Circuit Solving Packet. Its complexity requires the other three.

Due April 23 upon arrival - This was explained and illustrated in class. Students were instructed to come here to access the assigned tasks. It's in the word attachment. Self-explanatory

 

The file called PhET Circuit to Load can't be opened directly on your home computer. If you'd like to try to use it, you have to first download this file and store it somewhere on your computer. Then you go into the PhET simulator and from there, select LOAD. It will then engage your computer browser, and you can find the special file wherever you put it on your computer. This is optional though, and the instructions will make it clear why. Follow the Word file's directions.

Lesson 2

 

Helpful background knowledge to understand behind the scenes of the Charges and Fields assignment.

 

Charges and Field assignment packet is due Wed. April 11

Due Wed. April 11 - Charges and Fields Packet

Answers to the 2nd Practice Test I handed out on 3/21:

 

1. infrared, visible, uv, x-ray, gamma

2. sound, seismic

3. increases - we didn't cover this yet. Not on test. It's refraction

4. refraction - it is actually fair to ask what refraction is. But not the increase/decrease part

5. matter, energy

6. orange or red

7. Doppler Effect

8. B

9. 1250 m/s for both answers

10. A

11. 5.45 times ten to the 14th power

12. violet

13. infrared

14. transverse            The word "transversal" is wrong.

15. 5,000 m/s

16. A) 1.2 m, B) 72 m/s, C) 72 m/s, D) 0.45 m, E) 160 Hz

17. The following answers used 340 m/s as the speed of sound:

A) 170 Hz, B) 340 Hz, C) 1.5 m, D) 1 m

Practice document to help prepare for the short quiz of Monday March 19 is attached.

 

Reading all of Sections 12-3, 12-4, and 13-3 in your textbook would help as well.

Due March 1 - Beats Exercise

 

Use the Word file that corresponds to your period and the Excel file, attached.

Quiz Friday 2/16 - Study Aids attached here.

 

If you look at the practice test and it has a problem with a plane and/or a car, those are not central for the quiz of 2/16. But they are still good to try. They are more useful for pre-thinking before the Flying Pig experiment that will happen on 2/16.

 

Note: The solution in the attached key document to Question 15 was improved at about 5:05 PM on 2/15/18.

A nice written summary of the comet conditions that I mentioned in class and the comparison to circular orbiting speed.

Useful lists of tasks for comet orbit

Spreadsheet that will be used in class on February 2, 2018

Due in class on Friday 2/2: The six ordered pairs of T and R values that made close to circular orbits for the student's individually assigned mass value. The website used for simulation was

 

 

and 40 minutes of class time were given on 1/31 for students to get the six ordered pairs by reading the directions on the attached word document.

 

Students were told to have the six ordered pairs recorded and ready to be graphable upon arrival on Friday 2/2. The graphing activity is set up and will happen right at the start of class.

I'm accepting Ballistic Pendulum write-up anytime until noon on Thursday 1/18/18.

 

The attachment summarizes the notes for putting together the full solution that is based on the data that students have already recorded and that I already have written down for each student. A student will be graded based on how consistently he/she figures out results relative to the data that I already have recorded next to each student's name.

 

The attachment contains solution notes that repeat things that have already been shown and stated in class, in most cases repeatedly.

Interactive Physics Collision File to help you go from vA to v0.

Second Practice Test for Chapter 5 - is attached - file name is "Loop Worksheet", its answers on its last page.

 

This one is designed for you to just do, and check answers on your own, which is why I didn't build in time for discussion of Practice Test 2. Such time was not a part of my class plan, BECAUSE I made Practice Test 1, and I made discussion time available for that. Keep reading.

Practice Test 1, which I made available on December 27, was designed for students to attempt and then to have time to discuss all its parts in class with plenty of days to do so. Which is way I made Practice Test 1 one available to everyone on December 27. But as of January 9, not everyone attempted Practice Test 1. That wasn't my design. I made Practice Test 1's availability clear and I gave multiple chunks of time in class to go over its problems. Those who didn't try Practice Test 1 before January 9 made the topic harder than it actually is. Others have found the topic simple, and they did this through in-time practice. I will never be able to have the final say on whether a student finds this class simple or impossible. Only the student can control that. I design it to be simple, I have given the tools to make it so, and many people do well with those tools, and those people have a simple time. It's an active choice they make.

 

Real test is Thursday 1/11, and this is old news.

Chapter 5 Test Study Guide

 

Test is January 11, a Thursday

 

Also attached:

"Energy Test Review Problems" - like a practice test - You'd have to work ahead to be able to do all of these as of 12/20/17.

 

"Easy Essential Introduction to PE - these notes will be assigned on January 3 and due January 5.

 

"Conservation of ME Notes" - these are the last crucial thing in the unit and will be taught by me in person on January 3.

 

For those who like to work ahead, the order of things needs to be: first do "Easy Essential Introduction to PE". Then do "Conservation of ME Notes". Then do "Energy test review problems Condensed". The methods of such things will be shown in class on January 3.

PE HW Quiz Answers are attached: If you missed these last Friday, you were to be looking for this posting, with the answers as they are supposed to be.

 

I'm also writing below the Ballistic Pendulum Speed answer you were supposed to work on in class. I wrote it on the board under the clock, and I repeatedly told people to work on it: If the Coffee Can (with dart)'s low point was called Point A, and it's high point as it swung in the arc was called point B, then you were given time to work on the following and ask questions about them. Assuming Can mass was 100 g (with dart), and point B is 0.4 cm higher than point A:

 

KE at A was unknown

PE at A was assigned as 0

ME at A was unknown                        And you were to solve for speed at A.

 

KE at B was 0

PE at B was 3.92 times 10 to the -3 J. (AKA 3.92 mJ)   Calculation was covered thoroughly.

ME at B was 3.92 times 10 to the -3 J. (AKA 3.92 mJ)

 

This means ME at A was 3.92 times 10 to the -3 J. (AKA 3.92 mJ)

PE at A was  0

This means KE at A was 3.92 times 10 to the -3 J. (AKA 3.92 mJ)

 

Therefore, from KE, v at A is calculated to be 0.28 m/s.

 

A student who doesn't go through the logic above is behind on Chapter 5, and needs to have questions in class ASAP. None of the above logic is new. It's the kind of problem that's covered repeatedly on the Chapter 5 Practice Tests.

 

If you didn't work on the Pendulum problems above as instructed, or didn't get the answers above, but never asked questions about these exercises, then you fell behind. But maybe that didn't happen for many individuals, and maybe for them, the Chapter 5 Test on Thursday will be as simple as I intend it to be.

Final Exam Topics and Practice Problems attached

Big Helpful Document for Air Track HW that's due Wednesday. Just answer the brief questions in order.

Solution Notes that go with the Air Track Task from the class of Monday 12/10

Completing the Exp. 7 Prep that I had on the board in class and reading this assignment sheet ahead of time is what is due Tues. 12/5.

Spreadsheet Key for the Air Track Experiment

 

You can use this to see if you were doing the problem correctly. The fact that no masses are entered tells you that mu could be calculated without ever knowing your glider mass. That's true of the mu value but not the friction force value.

This is nothing to hand in. It's more help, to be aware of well before the Chapter 4 test, hence the "due date" meaning that you look at these and know they are there. Two attachments.

 

The first goes with Problem 63 from Chapter 4. Careful instructions: go to that problem first before reading any of my papers, and draw three careful free-body diagrams, one for each of the three masses. Make the free-body diagrams as perfect and clear as possible. Do NOT redraw a picture of the situation. I don't look at FBD's if they are crammed into a picture of the situation. It's three separate masses, and three separate diagrams of forces, with each diagram separate from the others. After your diagram is careful and perfect, THEN open this attachment and use it to correct your FBD-making skills. Note: this attachment was also available as hardcopy in class.

 

The second attachment is another version of the Mystery Mass solution where I've added some discussion and elaborations of algebraic expressions and some advice on how to do the algebra itself. (Understand when algebra advice is not the same as physics advice.) Because this is Mystery Mass elaboration, this other attachment is based on something you've had for awhile called Tutorial 3. I call it "Tutorial 5 - 2nd Version" and it's here for those who started Tutorial 5 but got stuck and wanted more help on the details along the way.

HW: What's due is the attachment, Gravity, Weight, and Mass. People who were absent are expected to do it as well, because I've attached it here. And there is one other thing due, mentioned below. (A huge amount of class time was given to do both of these things during class on 11/21 by the way.)

 

The final solution for the coefficient of friction of the tape on the air track is also due on 11/27 and depends on a-three. (And I checked and graded and returned a-three quickly so people would know how they're doing.) Everyone had plenty of time in class on 11/21 to take care of both of these tasks and have little to do at home.

 

Nobody is required to hand in a formatted write-up on 11/27. Just calculating the value of the coefficient of friction on the tape is fine. And it should only take a few minutes.

 

Posted are a couple more helpful documents in case anyone got stuck on Gravity, Weight, and Mass. The one with Deeper Thinking in the title is for those people who want to know WHY The formula is right. It's not a necessary document for help using the formula. The one with "Instructions" in the title is very helpful with advice on how to use the formula. I'll let you figure out what the other two documents do for you.

HW Due Tues. 11/21: Using the data that you recorded on Friday 11/17, calculate the acceleration of your air track glider for its motion between points D and E.

 

Also, open up this attachment. Page 3 of it helps with this HW specifically. Beyond this HW, use Pages 2 and 4 as well.

 

I posted a Study Guide for finishing Chapter 4 on 11/18.

Test day for Chapter 4 is December 1, but read the attached Study Guide.

 

As of 11/20, the Chapter Concept Review is now posted. This has much in it that's a bit like practice testing.

 

After that, also posted on 11/20, is an excerpt from a test I gave a couple of years ago.

 

And after that, here is another Tutorial, Tutorial 4. This is one is pretty advanced. It shouldn't be attempted until has worked through Tutorials 1, 2, and 5 (5 being just the Mystery Mass) AND also, Tutorial 4 shouldn't be attempted until one has done by other Tutoring Document that I wrote for Chapter 4 Problem, #63. I'll attach that to another posting.

 

And finally, one more document called Review Questions. This is like more practice test questions.

 

You may now extend your practice over a week and a half so that you do not get surprised on the December 1 test or have to stay up late the night before cramming for it.

Tutorial 2 - Use to check your answers

Printed Notes from Class Lesson, Chapter 4 Tutorial 1 - No friction example

Tutorial 5 - This helps a lot with the Mystery Mass Solution Method

A reminder, not an assignment. Some students need to avoid a zero on Experiment 2 by completing it before October 31. It's possible that some of these people want a reminder of the Experiment 2 Objective, precisely as it was stated in class several times: The Experiment 2 objective is to determine the acceleration of a measured bouncing ball for three time frames: 1) while it is moving upward (free of the ground), 2) while it is stopped at its highest point, AKA apex, and 3) while it is moving downward (before striking the ground the next time.)

 

The only good way to defend an acceleration determination is to show work for calculating the slope from a velocity versus time graph. The effort needed to make the velocity versus time graph was something for which big chunks of class time were given. It can be done on Excel.

The Specific Track-Pulley-Cart results from Friday, 10/27

 

They are clearly depicted in the two attached files. Study both. Identify what came out well, what didn't. For any graph shown that is a line, know what its hoped-for theoretical slope was supposed to be.

 

Period 2 people need to see what Period 3 got. And Period 3 people need to see what Period 2 got. That's why I posted both files. Neither Period did the entire measuring exercise completely and correctly, but pooled together, it did all get done. And that can be seen in the graphs in BOTH files. Your job is to figure out what specifics to look at.

 

No, I'm not grading this on October 31. But you just measured it. And it's going to become the Experiment 4 write-up soon, so it would make little sense to wait. Open up the files and figure out the puzzles now, and bring your questions to class.

Chapter 2 Wrap-up Document 1: The Test Date is Wed. Oct 11, and this is old news. It's written on the Study Guide which was given to students weeks ago.

 

This file is an electronic copy of Definition-oriented Practice Test Questions that I handed out in class many days ago. Also to be posted will be the answers to these.

Chapter 2 Wrap-up Document 4: Additional Test Practice Questions. These are the type where solving and math are usually involved.

 

This file has the questions on Page 1. Answers are on Page 2. It's assumed you don't look at the answers until you've tried the whole thing.

Another Practice Test Helper: This one is very brief and shows how grading of a problem would look. It shows where the points would come from, and why an example solver earns 4 out of 6 instead of 6 out of 6.

Key for Vertical Launch Measuring Game Assignment: Whether you got these 4 questions right or wrong on Thursday October 5, you should treat them as useful practice questions, and see if you can prove the answers on your own now. This attachment is the ideal answers that all students were shooting for on Thursday, October 5. I've also attached the original questions.

A Typical Lab Report Format Example: You may download this file an use it for general structure, just changing the contents to be filled with your specific experiment content.

Attached are the solving notes from Thursday class, 9/21. There is a quiz on Wed 9/27 on this solving topic. Any problem on a quiz would be less sophisticated than this attached problem. I'm going to be posting more solving notes of other practice problems over the next couple of days, so watch this space.

Quiz-Related: Answers to all the Practice Problems that are in the textbook are posted here. (I mentioned this in class.) You do the Practice Problems to measure how well you know what's coming on the quiz of Wednesday 9/27. Don't expect me to collect Practice Problems. You are in charge of your practice.

Quiz-Related: Solving notes for Textbook Practice Problem on Page 55, #4. (Identical to the hard copy I handed out in class.)

Quiz-Related: Solving notes for Textbook Practice Problem on Page 58, #3. (Identical to the hard copy I handed out in class.)

Quiz-Related: Solving notes for Textbook Practice Problem on Page 64, #4a. (Identical to the hard copy I handed out in class.)

Excel File for the Full Dupas Sample Bouncing Ball Data Set

 

This is closely related to the Homework I set as due 9/19, but I wouldn't specifically graph from this file for that HW. (To graph easily, either use the Excel file that is called the Condensed Sample Data Set or use the Word file that has a chart of the same simple values.) You have to read the Word file to see the exact wording of what I said was homework (and I said it clearly in class.)

 

What to do with this file. Go to the mostly blank velocity column, and practice your ability to program in the correct velocity as an Excel Formula. You can check your answers by comparing to what's over in the Word file (which were correctly done.) This is a worthwhile exercise for checking your understanding. (And if anyone thinks that getting those velocities wrong in this file somehow prevents them from doing the graphing I said to do for HW, then that person isn't reading the directions over there on the Word file, and by not reading, they'd be missing out on how I made the velocity graph easy for everyone.)

Condensed Dupas Lecture Data File - The Excel version

 

The main reason this might be useful is not for any calculation purposes. This file has all calculations already pre-done correctly. So any charts you see here are just like the ones in the Word file. But there are two reasons they are good to see here: 1) you can study how the calculated columns were programmed and if you put thought into WHY they are programmed that way, you'll learn some physics, and 2) Graphing convenience. If you'd simply like to make your HW (due 9/19) graph directly from this posted Excel file, go for it. (The Word file is for people who want to do it by hand.)

Brief HW problem I assigned due Wed. This is movie-related. This paper restates exactly what I said to do. The paper is customized depending on whether the student is in Period 2 or 3, but students of both classes should read the entire page.

 

This problem is in addition to the Metal Marble acceleration conclusion, which was a pre-existing HW task (which many students had already finished) also due Wed 9/13. There is a separate posting reminding students of the metal marble HW problem.

Experiment 1 Task Due 9/13. This was the acceleration of the Metal Marble. My specific instruction in class was: "Have your metal marble's acceleration value proven on paper with units. The contents of this proof are that the metal marble's acceleration comes from the slope of the good and precise final velocity versus time graph that you were to have made." This graph must be on paper and be precise. It must be large, and have fine grid lines horizontally and vertically. It must be done on graph paper. If done on a computer, you have to tell the computer to include the fine grid lines before printing. The axes are to have been drawn with a ruler. The best-fit line is to have been drawn with a ruler. The slope and therefore the acceleration has to come off of that perfectly straight best-fit line. The slope calculated from the graph requires all of the above care and precision in order for that slope to be accurate. Don't present a slope if it's not from final velocity versus time. (You'd be surprised that some people do hand in height versus time, which is never a line. That would be a waste of time.)

Keep in mind that a preliminary HW was already graded where I critiqued the graphs if they lacked any of the precision elements listed above. Mistakes at that prior time were fine. But if you made them, please don't repeat those mistakes.

 

OK, none of this was new news. Just a reminder. Due Wed 9/13 at arrival.

Due September 7 for 15 points: Calculate the acceleration value in cm/s/s that results from your Experiment 1 data. This is a multi-step process. In case anyone is tempted to say it was unclear or vague, the attachment here is an exact reproduction of what I said to do in class and how to do it. As I illustrated in class and as you see in this attachment, a graph of vFINAL versus time is required. If you don't know why this matters, then read this attachment.

The Physics Course Syllabus

 

By saying "due September 5", that means read it by then so you know facts about the class.

 

Also, I put all useful documents in one place for simplicity. I put it in the slot called "Assignments". In the assignment description, I will say loud and clear whether it is an assignment to be handed in for a grade versus an "assignment" that is a powerful worksheet for student practice, but not one that I am collecting as a credit item for students. For example, I will often post Practice Tests. These are certainly important assignments, because they help students with the assignment called studying. But I do not collect them for credit. When something is to be collected for credit, there will be a notice in the assignment description telling the students when they will be handing it in. Experiment 1, The Law of Falling Bodies, is one such thing, and will be posted here soon.

 Supplemental Notes - Pink Ball Game

 

This came from a powerful conversation in Period 2, on August 29. I promised to turn it into a written-down exercise to help any student who might have thought I went a bit too fast with my math in class. I think I did a good job writing a useful document. This paper has become a useful study exercise for all students. Even though this is not graded, it should be seen as important for all students to take advantage of to boost understanding. There are two specific exercise tasks described on this document. It's meant to help all students. So it should be seen as an assignment even if it's not for points. To be caught up, one should understand it by Tuesday, September 5. It will also be given out as hard copy on Thursday, August 31.