Report 1 – PHYSICS 110
student
Learning Goal: I’m working on a physics report and need an explanation and answer to help me learn.
The report should be approximately 2-3 pages in length and should be double spaced. I’m not picky about font/formatting, I’m just trying to give you an idea of how much content there should be. I am not grading based on spelling or grammar either.
Prompt
The first section of this class has covered all sorts of motion. In addition we have talked about energy and momentum (both relating to motion). Finally we covered rotational/circular motion. Pick some piece of motion that interests you that you see in your personal life. This assignment will have several parts:
You will describe the motion scenario in detail.
What are you observing? What pieces are there? How are they moving relative to each other? Are they moving with constant velocity or accelerating?
Some examples of scenarios to help you pick something:
Your favorite sports to watch/participate in.
When driving home you see a car swerve to avoid an accident.
You go hiking up and over a hill.
You have pets that sometimes do something fun or interesting.
You have literally any hobby:
Saw blades when woodworking (or worse, kickback from a table saw).
Birds flight when watching them.
Knitting to make a sweater.
etc
You will describe the forces at play in the motion event. Describe what objects are applying forces to each other and in what manners.
For example, my favorite sport is rock climbing. If you go climbing you exert forces down on the the holds such that their normal force helps push you up along the wall.
You will describe where energy is and how it moves/transitions during the event.
If I we to talk about a climber making a dynamic move to another hold, I would describe, in detail, how the climber turns some chemical energy in their body in to elastic potential energy in their muscles, which they then turn in to kinetic energy so they can swing themselves up to the hold.
You will describe what parts have momentum and how momentum is transferred (forces) during the event.
Continuing with the climbing example I would mention that the smallest system would be one of the climber and wall, which is attached to the Earth. The climber pushes down on the wall (extended to the Earth) and the wall pushes up on the climber to propel them upward. This is like the reverse of a collision where momentum is conserved, the person and wall (+Earth) recoil off of each other in opposite directions.
That’s it. It will probably be around 2-ish pages (double spaced) in length. Each of those above sections should be 1-2 large paragraphs. If you find that your essay is coming up very short, consider if there aren’t any extra moving pieces that you could describe the motion/forces/energy/momentum of.
That’s it! Let me know if you have any questions!
Motions that we have learned so far that you can choose from:
Newton’s First, Second, & Third Laws
Work, Energy, & Power
Impulse, Momentum, Collisions
Energy conservation
Kepler’s Law
Phases of matter
