Monday, December 6, 2010
Mon-Day 1
Physics - the Momentum and Circular Motion unit is extremely important. Some of you wasted two weeks of this course not learning the material, and not asking questions to help you to learn the material.
There was more help available for this test than for any previous test: the practice test, a lengthy set of worksheets in the packet with fully detailed answers, extra help before and after school. Why throw away a unit exam, when you can ace it with some practice, persistence, and repetition.
Be sure to go over the test, check the thorough answer key on Blackboard.
This material is emphasized on the Regents exam, and is central to understanding mechanics in Physics.
The big disappointment is that almost all of you have proven how well you can learn physics, when the pressure is on. Don't take a vacation when you do well on a previous test; use that psychological "momentum" to continue to do better and better.
Thank you.
Today we collected did the centripetal force requirement lab; we varied the INDEPENDENT variable, the Tension in the string, by attaching various masses to the string, which pull the string with the force of their weight/gravitational attraction to the earth.
Theoretically, the greater the centripetal force requirement, as supplied by the source- the tension on the string- the greater the velocity that can be sustained on the circular path.
We then did the same incline problem that we did on Friday except that this one had a frictional force between the block and the ramp. We saw that the total work done equalled the work done against gravity in the vertical direction plus the work done against friction all along the length of the ramp.
We also introduced the meaning/definition of power, the rate at which work is done.
4th/5th period - we discussed a method, a flawed but occasionally potentially useful (though distasteful) method of determining significance of a given resonance structure when there is no spectroscopic data (the best method) available.
There was more help available for this test than for any previous test: the practice test, a lengthy set of worksheets in the packet with fully detailed answers, extra help before and after school. Why throw away a unit exam, when you can ace it with some practice, persistence, and repetition.
Be sure to go over the test, check the thorough answer key on Blackboard.
This material is emphasized on the Regents exam, and is central to understanding mechanics in Physics.
The big disappointment is that almost all of you have proven how well you can learn physics, when the pressure is on. Don't take a vacation when you do well on a previous test; use that psychological "momentum" to continue to do better and better.
Thank you.
Today we collected did the centripetal force requirement lab; we varied the INDEPENDENT variable, the Tension in the string, by attaching various masses to the string, which pull the string with the force of their weight/gravitational attraction to the earth.
Theoretically, the greater the centripetal force requirement, as supplied by the source- the tension on the string- the greater the velocity that can be sustained on the circular path.
We then did the same incline problem that we did on Friday except that this one had a frictional force between the block and the ramp. We saw that the total work done equalled the work done against gravity in the vertical direction plus the work done against friction all along the length of the ramp.
We also introduced the meaning/definition of power, the rate at which work is done.
AP Chem - we did some more Lewis structure examples, focusing on the rules of resonance, and determining the more/most significantly contributing structure to the "true" structure of a molecule, as based on x-ray spec and IR spec data.
We also introduced the determination of ELECTRONIC geometry, as based on the regions/domains of bonding or nonbonding electrons around the CENTRAL atom.
We also discussed the wider range of repulsion of lone pairs of electrons.
I will post more practice problems on Blackboard.
Do not worry about determining the shape of the molecule yet; try that part on Thursday.
# posted by C @ 1:29 PM 
