Week of October 19, 2009

This week in science I learned about motion.

I learned these ideas by conducting multiple experiments.

First, was the telescope experiment where we made a paper telescope and held it up and kept something in focus. The way I was holding it was my initial orientation. Then we followed Mr. Segan run with the ball while keeping the ball focused in my telescope and discussed how we know something is moving. Something is moving when the background changes, you have to change position to keep it in view, and when you compare it to something still.

Next, we did movement with observers. Every observer sees movement a different way. For example, a person who is in the process of sitting down will see a person who is standing straight as going up. Or a person in a car driving away will see a person standing still as getting smaller and farther away, when in fact they are not moving at all. We did an experiment with Someone on the side walk, two cars (one fast one slow), and a person on a bench, then we discussed how each person would see the movement of the cars.

Then, we learned how to describe movement with different directions. We learned that left and right does not always work because people face different ways and everyone's left and right are different depending on where they are standing. We tried to use cardinal directions, but that is hard to do if you do not have a compass. Then we decided that a coordinate graph setup is best with an x and y-axis, and positive and negative sides of each axis.

Lastly, we learned how to measure the movement of thing like cars by coming up with a time interval (like 2 seconds) and marking where the car is every two seconds. You can mark where the car is by putting down a piece of tape and marking with a marker or a cube where the car is every time interval.

These ideas are important to know so you can accurately explain the movement of objects and their location. This will help you communicate with people and measure where things are or how fast they are going. it is good to know this stuff when you are driving or making a model car. Also, to explain where a boat or car is and which way it is going to a friend facing the other direction or all the way across the street.