Week of January 4, 2010

This week in science class we learned about Astronomy. We learned that the moon revolves and rotates around the earth. We also learned that rotating means changing in orientation but not position and revolving is a complete turn or change in position but not orientation. I learned that the moon and the sun rotate counterclockwise and that it takes 29 1/2 days for the moon to go through all of it's phases. I made the phneumonic device; Nanny Wilson Froze Watermelons For Willie Till Winter to help me remember the phases of the moon. The phases of the moon are New Moon, Waxing Crescent, First Quarter, Waxing Gibbous, Full Moon, Waning Gibbous, Third Quarter, and Waning crescent. These phases keep repeating. Lastly, we started making force diagrams for the earth in relation to the location of the moon and sun. This lead us into learning about the tides on earth. The moon pulls on the surface of the earth and since the surface is mostly ocean it pulls the ocean and creates tides and waves. It is important to know these things if you want to be an astronomer, or are interested in anything that has to do with the different waves and tides of the ocean.

Week of December 14, 2009

This week during Science I learned more about forces. i learned that the earth applies more force on a heavier object, but when you drop the two they hit the ground at the same time. We also talked more about the greater the force that you have the greater the acceleration of an object. And the less the mass the greater the acceleration. I also learned that when two forces are balanced, there is no acceleration. The object is either not moving or moving at a steady rate. An object is always moving at a steady rate, even if it is a steady rate of 0 miles per hour or meters per second. We also talked a lot about friction and what a world without friction would be like. You would not be able to stop driving or to stop sliding unless you crashed. You would not even be able to start running because in order to start you have to use friction to push your feet off the ground. We learned about Newton's Third Law. When Kathy pushed on Laura and they were on carts, Laura and Kathy both moved. We also tested this on springs. What we learned from this was that even if an object is not pushing back, it is pushing back and that every object returns the same amount of force that is pushed against it.

I learned this by doing the spring experiment, the Laura and Kathy experiment, and dropping two thing while standing on a counter.

It is important to know these things because if you do not know Newton's three laws then you will not understand how an object starts to move, how it keeps moving, and how other objects effect the way he moves.

Week of December 7, 2009

This week in Science i continued learning about forces and their effect on the objects in the world around them.

Thing Learned: drawing force diagrams

Learned By: identifying all of the forces that effect an object of interest and the direction that they are pushing

Thing Learned: which way an object of interest will move

Learned By: identifying the unbalanced force effecting the object and which way it is pushing

TL: that delta V arrows and the direction of the object (like a ball or car) go in the same direction

LB: drawing force diagrams and comparing them to the delta V arrows on motion diagrams when they are drawn

TL: that two balanced forces cancel each other out and make the object of interest stay still

LB: splitting into two equal groups and pushing on opposite sides of Mr. Finley's car

TL: scales measure the force of someone/something applied on them (weight not mass)

LB: watching Amy and Amanda do an experiment on You-Tube

TL: people weigh less on the earth's moon (or other small planets or moons) than they do on earth

LB: comparing the earth's mass to the mass of other planets because the mass of the earth is bigger so the pull of the earth is stronger

TL: the greater the mass the smaller the acceleration

LB: having Kathy and Laura pull Mark, JR, and Aage in a cart

It is important to know these things if you go into physics in college or high school and also so you can just understand who will go faster down a slide; you or your little brother, and so you will understand that you don't actually get fatter in an elevator.

Week of 11/30/09

This week in science I learned about forces and their effect compared to other forces. Like the force of your hand against the forces of gravity. I learned how to make force diagrams. You make a dot and label it the object of interest. like a ball or house or frame. Then you draw all of the forces that effect the object as arrows. The longer the arrow, the stronger the force. You label the arrows the F (force) of an object on the object of interest. I also learned that all objects and only objects can exert force.

I learned these things by having one person hold two thing in their hands, like a bowling ball and a basketball, and ask them if they are exerting more force to one of the objects. I learned about the forces by drawing pictures of the situation that is in the question. Then you draw arrows on the picture to explain the forces. I learned what length to make the arrows by knowing that if the two arrows are equal and the equation equals zero that the object is being held steady.

It is important to know these things because forces are all around us and so we should know what a force is and how they work. We also should know about which things exert forces so we can predict how an experiment is going to work. Also, if you will eventually be taking physics then you should know all about forces and how they effect the objects around them. Forces are everywhere, so you should know about them and how to factor them into a situation. That is why you should know how to draw a force diagram.

Week of November 16, 2009

Thing learned: predicting when two things will crash

Learned by: making graphs, tables, and functions.

Thing learned: coming up with speed per unit

Learned by: delta position divided by delta time or x2-x1/t2- t1

Thing learned: when two things are a certain distance apart

Learned by: making tables and/or graphs

Thing learned: relationship between speed and velocity

Learned by: |v|= speed

Thing learned: "dot diagrams suck"

Learned by: they don't tell you enough about the motion of an object

Thing learned: making motion diagram

Learned by: doing problems like the one with the motorcycle and the moon. You can make one by adding arrows, an origin, positive and negative directions, and labeling ( V1, V2 ect.)

It is important to know these things so that you can read graphs and describe motion. If you know this than you will be able t accurately display data to anyone who wants to read it. You can show it better than a dot diagram or picture. Scientists use this information to make roads and speed limits. You also need to know this if you are a pilot (when two planes will collide) or astronauts. If you are making cars you need to know this stuff. And if you are coming up with a speed limit you need to make sure that cars will not flip over or skid when making a turn.

week of November 2, 2009

This week in science class i learned about graphing and describing data and writing functions.

I learned these ideas by:

Drawing trend lines to explain the graph. A trend line points to the general direction that the points are going to. They don't need to be exactly on the points but they have to have an arrow at the end.

Writing Functions. To make a function you write the dependent variable and put the independent variable in parenthesis next to it. Then you multiply the physical quantity number by the two units and then by the variable.

Using variables as numbers we don't know. This is hard to explain but it is like using a letter in place or a number that we don't know, like in algebra. For example, the starting time of a jogger could be t1 and the ending could be t2.

Coming up with variable expressions. For example, if you want to find out how long the jogger ran for you would have to do t1-t2. It is hard to figure out these expressions when the questions and situations become more complicated.

It is important to know these ideas so you can make graphs if you are a salesperson or you are trying to convince someone to do something. KNowing this stuff will help you express your data once it is collected, so you can display it in a way that is easy to understand and work with. It is good to find patterns in your data so you can make predictions about what will happen (like people do when choosing stocks). It helps to know the independent and dependent variable in your data.

Week of October 26, 2009

I learned about showing motion in tables and graphs.

I learned this by doing several experiments.

We drew a picture of a car activity and labelled negative and positive sides. Then we learned how to make dot diagrams and turn those dot diagrams into charts. (position vs. time)

We also learned to switch the axis's. When something is headed toward the negative side the graph needs to be adjusted. We can draw this graph by making a big plus sign and labeling the positive and negative sides of the y and x axis. Then you draw your graph going down into quadrant 4, or the positive x negative y box.

We experimented with how to draw graphs of things not moving and how to make graphs curve. We also made our own situations to pre-existing graphs.

Then we learned how to compare dot diagrams and graphs. We learned about positive and negative motion. when a line on a graph is going up, it is positive motion, when it is going down it is negative motion.

Lastly we learned to make index's for different kinds of popcorn brands to find out which pops fastest. An index is a number that helps to compare things. It is similar to a ratio.

It is important to know these things because then you can show how things are moving and discover important things like when two asteroids will collide or two objects. Also, this will help you understand and help you make graphs in math class, when you have to do similar things. Overall, I think it is important to know these things to explain and understand motion.