Physics Blogger

What happened: A challenge activity that we did in class was set up with a diagonal ramp connected to a horizontal ramp that was set up on a table. Beside that table was a cup that the marble needed to land in. The goal of the challenge was to find out where to release the marble on the diagonal ramp so that it ultimately ends up landing into the cup. However, we were not allowed to test drop the marble at different places on the ramp to see where it would go.  During the process, my group tried to calculate the acceleration of the marble going down the horizontal ramp and the time it takes. We did this by finding the mass of the marble, finding the angle degree of the diagonal ramp, and by test dropping the marble from the horizontal ramp (but catching the marble right when it got to the horizontal ramp) and timing it. Our group realized right when the marble gets onto the horizontal ramp, the velocity would become constant (because the marble in not moving at an angle). However,

What I learned & Reflection: *If I were to drop a ball with one hand and simultaneously throw a ball sideways with my other hand, both balls will take the same amount of time to land on the ground. *A force diagram with unbalanced forces (the object is accelerating) does not show the direction of travel of an object. *When it comes to the topic of objects moving in parabolic motion, I feel comfortable with the introductory material we did in class. Given the angle of trajectory and the initial velocity, we can figure out the time it takes for the object to reach its highest point, how high the highest point is, and the landing point of the object. We solve these variables using sin/cos/tan and kinematic equations that we previously figured out. Although I feel alright with this topic, I still feel iffy about moving on to more difficult questions. For example, the challenge question given from last class was that if we were given the angle of trajectory and the initial velocit

What I learned: *Ways to find friction:     ->If an object has balanced forces (it is either not moving or has a constant velocity), that means the force opposite to the force of friction is the same as the force of friction. (A car is moving constantly on the road. For the vertical forces, the downward force of the Earth and the upward force of the road are balanced. For the horizontal forces, the force of the car in the direction that it is traveling is ___Newtons. That means the force of friction in the opposite direction is the same amount of Newtons too.)     ->If an object does not have balanced forces (it is accelerating), then one can use sin/cos/tan to solve for the force of the friction. (Some variables you might need are the quantitative forces of the other vectors and/or the angle of the forces if it is diagonal.) *Surface area, speed and shape DO NOT AFFECT the force of friction *The type of material and mass AFFECT the force of friction *For my group experimen