Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Circular Motion and Gravitation

What I learned about Circular Motion and Gravitation...:



When I went back over my UCM quiz I learned a number of things that I either forgot or facts that I did not know. This is a bad thing because the test is THURSDAY!!(but good too!!) I learned that in circular motion the acceleration of the object is called the centripetal acceleration. This acceleration is always pointed towards the center of the circle. This is not the centrifugal force because that word means that the acceleration is point outward not inward. I also noticed that instead of saying ma you use mv^2/r because we are dealing with centripetal forces.



What I have found difficult about Circular Motion and Gravitation....:


What I have found difficult about this topic is to not give up so effortlessly. For example, in some problems it may not look like you are given enough information to solve for a variable but if you keep putting in variables that you do know into the equation then you can ,eventually, get the equation that you need to use,

My problem-solving skills...:


They are excellent, it’s just the keep moving forward part (explained above) that I seemed to have trouble with. Also, sometimes I do not press the right buttons on my calculator which ends up with me getting the wrong answer.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Newton's Second Law

This is what I learned about Newton's Second Law:


In Newton’s Second Law it is about how an object will change in velocity if something pushes of pulls it. It explains that the force will cause the object to change in velocity and to accelerate. The acceleration of the object is directly proportional to the force. Example: If Carly pushes the book across the table and it accelerates but if she pushes five times harder then the acceleration would be five times greater. I also learned that the acceleration is inversely proportional to the mass of the object.



What I have found difficult about what I have studied is:

The only thing that I am struggling with is the friction part of Newton's Second Law. Not a lot of known variables are given in these types of problems so I easily get overwhelmed and defeated. However, once I sit down and actually concentrated I can, eventually, figure it out.



My problem solving skills:

My problem solving skills have definitely improved greatly opposed to the pervious trimester. However, I think my main problem solving issue was that I was clearly not trying hard enough the first trimester. I enjoy the topic that we are currently discussing and understand most of Newton's Laws.