Due by the end of the week:

Your defended calculation of the coefficient of friction for the taped part of the Air Track Experiment.

 

Safest bet for making sure it's defended and in lab report format is to just fill in the template of the attached Word Document.

 

And, as has been gone over thoroughly in class, the attached spreadsheet is helpful as well. The spreadsheet has Period 2 in the file name, but it covers both Periods 1 and 2.

 

People working ahead can look at the last three columns in the spreadsheet and figure out what those three columns tell a person about Chapter 5.

Schedule Change: Chapter 4 Test is postponed 1 week until Thursday November 13.

 

In the days between November 6 and November 13, each class meeting will have a short 10-point quiz that covers the kinds of things that will be on that test*.

 

This is to promote the right kind of studying and practice as opposed to cramming. Some people with the cramming mentality were on the road to disaster had the test date been as originally scheduled. I try to find creative ways to help them see this. They can't see it by me just telling them (which I've already tried.)

 

*Lots of things to use to review and practice have already been in students' possession for awhile: All the tutorials, the packet named "Concept Review Ch 4 and Problems", the last quiz (whose solution is attached to this message.)

 

The topic of the Thursday Nov. 7 quiz will be about the same thing as the last quiz: The use of Newton's 2nd Law from free-body-diagrams like the tutorials, basic definitions and vocabulary: how mass is different from force, how mass is different from weight, how weight is different from g, how not all force is weight, complete knowledge of the different units used for each quantity and for both British and metric system, how acceleration is different from velocity, etc.

 

Nothing new. Just giving people a chance to get their stuff together and to learn from prior cramming mistakes. And to learn to not cram when it comes to studying.

UPDATED: Attachment included now

 

Reminder: Mystery Mass due Tues. 11/5

 

The design of my class is such that a person is NOT supposed to be struggling with that at the last minute the night before it's due. If that is the case, the student needs to have attempted to solve it prior to the last class, and time and resources were given for that. (Tutorial 5, 2 versions, which has been posted for awhile now, for example) Obviously, pointing that out doesn't help a student who is stuck now. (But do register this for future assignments and avoid the last-minute situation in the future.)

 

So what about the student who is stuck now? Is there any way this can still, even at this last minute, become the simple half-hour bit of HW it's supposed to be instead of some long ordeal? Well, I'll see what I can do.

 

(No promises, though. By posting this, I'm already going above and beyond. THE STUDENT was supposed to come prepared on November 1 by already having tried the problem before that and was supposed to ask the specific questions about the solution ON November 1. I could tell that many people had not even tried setting up the problem by November 1. It's not my job to bail those students out, but I even so, I've completed an attachment to show them how much easier things could have been had they been more proactive before November 1.)

 

I just cranked out a brief document and attached it to this posting. It has examples of algebraic-style questions a student was supposed to ask by November 1 for an assignment that is due November 5. Nothing is being sprung on students by the teacher at the last minute. I've explained above what this posting is all about and why ideally, I shouldn't be posting it. But whatever, I've made another helpful document, and it can't hurt. One of the nice things about the internet.

 

Also, some people worry about whether the assignment has to be a lab "report". That is a needless worry. If the word "report" is causing problems, it means the student isn't understanding what a report is. Look at the pre-made worksheet you get to use for the Mystery Mass. It is my gift to you. Anyone who doesn't see all the elements of a report in the structure of that worksheet is not understanding what a report is. A report states objective, it lists data clearly, it gives space for analysis with clear work-showing space, and it culminates in a final defended answer for what's being solved for. Are all of those elements in the worksheet? Look at it. I will let you figure that out.

 

Again, if this question is something a student worried about, well why didn't that student ask about it in class on Friday, November 1? I was present all period, and was available for questions for at least half of that period.

 

If these things are a big deal the night of November 4 just because something is due November 5, it means strategy and planning mistakes were made prior to November 1.

 

When something is due on a certain day, you go home the class PRIOR TO that due date with all confusion about that assignment already resolved on that prior day. If you don't, assume it won't go well. Maybe it will, but it's extremely risky.

Chapter 4 Resources:

 

Attachments are tutorials for the way things are done. None of it is common sense and requires reading. But my tutorials are self-correcting reading. They let you know if you're doing things right - if you read it. A friend can't read it for you. A tutor can't read it for you. Etc.

 

Tutorial 1 was already given to you as hard copy.

Tutorial 5 is the exact same thing as the Mystery Mass solution.

Tutorial 4 is for the all-important skill of Free-Body Diagramming.

 

Free-body diagramming is an all-important skill. It's not common sense. It requires active checking. I recommend using a checklist. I've made you a checklist. It's called "Perfect FBD Strategies."

 

"Mass is Not Force, Weight is Force" - who really knows why they're different? It's required by the end of this unit.

 

For an exam on this topic that is Thursday Nov. 7, these resources have to be taken into one's brain BEFORE Friday 11/1. So space these things out starting now. Some will happen in class. Some will happen at home.

Due Date Reminder:

 

The Newton's 2nd Law Track Pulley Lab Report is due at the start of class on Wed. 10/30.

 

Time was already given for questions on it. Any aware person who read prior notes I gave and who has listened in class was supposed to either know exactly what to state in this report on 10/28 or to ask questions last class, on 10/28. And despite that, I attach here ANOTHER one-page example that shows precisely what to do to have numerical conclusions for this experiment.

 

Therefore, there won't be discussion of this on 10/30. It's either going to be handed in for on-time credit or it's not. If the paper handed in is not what has been assigned, it will be handed back to the student and will be credited later on as late (assuming the student eventually does what was assigned.) Circumstances that would cause a rejection of the assignment:

 

1) Something not in report format. The objective must be stated clearly. This objective is extremely simple and has been repeated countlessly in person and in writing: The objective is to determine, via two separate numerical comparisons (Part 1 and Part 2), by what margin the track-pulley system fails to agree with the frictionless version of Newton's 2nd Law Theory. If this isn't answered in two parts with two specific numerical comparisons, then this assignment is nowhere close to done. If it's unclear why there are two parts with two numerical conclusions, then the student hasn't been paying attention AND hasn't been reading, and that person desperately needs to study the final last-chance document that I attached to this message.

2) Not including a conclusion: shockingly common error. The conclusion is the entire point, and it answers a central question. It's not a summary. The conclusion answers the objective. It should be obvious by now that the conclusion of this assignment is the very statement that contains the two numerical comparisons (one for Part 1 and one for Part 2) just mentioned above.

3) Submitting graphs and charts made by someone else. You may not submit the graphs that I made on Excel as your own. You must make your own. I did those for presentation convenience in class. To serve you, I made you the spreadsheet and posted it, so that you would all have a convenient time putting the data into your own lab report. But you must write your own report, which means make your own data charts, make your own graphs, etc. However, you MAY use the slopes that came off the Excel best-fit lines. This is because those best-fit lines are shared results among the class, and not everyone in class is using Excel Trendlines. So just pretend you did the two slopes yourself and got the same ones as shown on Excel. These slopes have also been repeated in other Word documents, like the one attached to this message. Definitely report these slopes with their units in your analysis section. Photocopies of lab partner's graphs or charts will never be accepted either.

4) Telling me at the moment something is due "I couldn't complete this, because I can't use Excel at home." All of this information is two weeks old and has been conveyed through multiple channels, not just Excel. (Excel is only one convenient way to do this; it's not a requirement.) These charts of numbers were displayed in class multiple times for students to copy down. If getting the required numbers recorded was a problem for a student, they should have asked to clear that up well before 10/28, and this assignment is due on 10/30.

5) A report that fails to show all raw data immediately after the Objective section and before any calculations are shown as part of Analysis. And since each of you were assigned to a specific track, for this experiment, you should especially highlight the raw data that went with the track that you were at. (You're presenting the whole class's group data set as well as your own.)

 

Well, all of that above is redundant. It's already been explained in writing and in person. That's it. For someone not knowing precisely what to do, and who hasn't been asking questions, maybe the attached Word document will be a successful last word verifying the simplicity of the topic.

 

I've also re-attached the data file yet again.

Keep watching this space through Saturday, October 26. To be posted here and coming soon, by 10/26:

 

A template that shows what a typical lab report tends to look like is attached right now.

 

The report for the Track-Pulley Experiment that will be handed in Wed 10/30 will answer the following Objective: In an analysis that neglected friction, by how much did each of the Parts 1 and 2 fail to reveal Newton's 2nd Law?

 

"By how much" means a percent error. And therefore that's two percent errors to report, one for each part of the project. And each percent error has to come from the slope of a relevant graph. This has been covered in prior documents handed out to the class and posted online as well.

 

Reminder: Test Chapter 2 Monday 10/7

 

It covers old material, all Chapter 2 only, no concepts on the test that would have been new* in the last 10 days. Many prior practice tests have been worked through, no cramming is encouraged. The only reason for this posting is that a student asked for a specific posting of some of the practice test documents that were given out in class as hard copy. Attached are all the practice tests that I've made available in the last 10 days with answers.

 

*A new question on a practice test in the last 10 days is not the same thing as a new concept of the last 10 days. The test covers Chapter 2 concepts, none of which were introduced anytime after September 26. Yes, any student should have seen new practice questions in the last 10 days, and all such questions are fair game-type for a test, but the concepts those questions require are 10 or more days old.