Week 2 Reflection

To start off, this week in physics I have discovered that I need to develop a new way of thinking and learning to be successful in this class. I'm normally used to reading the book, studying extremely hard for the test, getting an A on the test, and then slowly losing what I have learned over the next following weeks. However, physics is different. It's a more hands on subject that builds on the knowledge you should have already aquired. It's not necessarily based upon memorization, but rather personal experiences and experiments. This is something that I personally am going to need to get used to, but as we say in physics, challenge accepted.

In this past week I have also learned a ton about setting up an experiement properly, getting results, and analyzing those results to uderstand why we proposed the experiement in the first place. I find that using the whiteboards is extremely useful in expressing ideas in my head and for making mistakes. There have been times when my group has had difficult graphing or has made a mistake in using mathmatical techniques that weren't needed. But because we are using a bigger space to put down these ideas, it's easier to disect the problem and get assistance from my teacher. In addition, we're a group and we learn together through our mistakes.

I know this sounds basic and a bit corny, but physics has to do a lot with thinking, problem solving, and also problem shooting. For example, in the buggy challenge outside of the school, there were many possible ways to calculate results, but which one was the best? Even after completing the experiment, I'm not quite sure. Do you measure the distance the car goes in 1 second and quadruple it? Or do you find the distance the car goes in 4 seconds? Which one is more accurate? This is the process that confuses me, yet interests me. This is something that I hope to master this year.

So long until next week.
TmPhys12