Week 11 Reflection (Spaghetti Bridge Project)

The task of the spaghetti bridge project was to construct a durable, effective bridge that was the lightest and strongest it could be. Oh, and it was to be made entirely of spaghetti noodles, hot glue, and tape. It was difficult for me to construct my bridge because in order for it to be able to hold more weight, itself had to have more mass. I found myself struggling a bit on deciding whether to make it heavier, but have it be able to him more mass, or make it lighter and have it carry less. I was unsure on what tactic to go for originally, but I feel as though my plan worked out well.

I decided to construct a more durable bridge, which consisted of more noodles and therefore mass. Although the bridge had to contain two levels for structural support, the top level wasn't to have any mass or cars driving on it, so it didn't have to be as sturdy as the bottom level. Mainly the top level was needed to keep the bridge from swaying back and forth and from tipping to the side. Don't want to lose any cars from the bridge flipping over. Because of this, I made the bottom level much beefier and used logs of spaghetti noodles glued at the ends to create the bottom half of the bridge. I then used logs going the opposite way to provide a place for the masses during the destruction test.

The results of my bridge turned out to be very successful and I was interested to witness how strong spaghetti noodles could actually be. I have to admit that in the beginning I was a bit skeptical of the project, but it turned out to be much more enjoyable than I originally thought. At times it could become frustrating due to the construction process, but it was also extremely rewarding to have such a great outcome from my hard work. It was exciting to destruct the bridges, but also sad to see our work completed.

Lesson learned: don't underestimate the power of spaghetti noodles.

Week 10 Reflection

In the beginning of the week, our class focused more on force pairs and the difference between them and objects with balanced forces. Force pairs consist of two forces that are equal in strength and opposite in direction. Non-force pairs are two objects pushed or pulled that become disconnected. For example, a hand pushing a swing is not a force pair because the swing leaves the force of the hand. However, force pairs remain connected. For example, if a weight is on a block that is dropped, the weight will remain connected to the block as it falls to the ground. Although they contain different weights, they are a force pair and their forces are equal in strength.

You would think that because one object has more weight, it would create more force and push/pull the other object away. But, if you make a force diagram for the two objects, you will find that they exert the same amount of force on one another. If two people are arm wrestling, the two people are going to exert different amounts of force based upon their strength, however, the force of the table on their elbows will make up for the lack of strength of one of the opponents. This then creates equal forces in opposite directions, which in definition represents a force pair.

The second half of the week we began reviewing for our assessment on Friday, which covered all of the standards regarding forces in Unit 6. One activity was using whiteboards in which groups had to represent each standard without using words, but with examples, symbols, ect. It was a great activity to review standards that were covered in the beginning of the unit that can sometimes get foggy for the assessment. In addition, the review sheet we received helped me tremendously in preparing and I could focus better on what I was struggling with by completing the sheet. I hope we do this again in the future.

Wish me luck on my spagetti bridge results!
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Week 9 Reflection

This week in physics was a little mixed up because we didn't have school Tuesday for Election Day and we ended up taking our assessment from the previous week on Wednesday. However, we reviewed unbalanced forces, which the quiz consisted of, and also began exploring paired forces. Because our class was a bit confused overall on the unbalanced force standards, we spent all of Thursday after the quiz Wednesday whiteboarding and going over the correct processes. We reviewed how an object moves in the direction of the unbalanced force and how component forces create resultant forces. We continued to review force diagrams and how to create them from written situations.

I ended up doing really well on the assessment, but I am going to reassess a standard next week because I now understand it much better than before. I forgot the fact that on a ramp, because it is slanted, exerts a force on an angle, not straight up. The force is perpendicular to the ramp, so therefore the force either has to be at a northeast angle or northwest angle depending upon the direction of the ramp. The funny part is that throughout the test another similar question came up, but I completed that one correctly with the ramp angled on my force diagram. So I actually do have a good understanding of the concept, but I'm going to reassess to show my complete understanding this week.

On Friday we began discovering paired forces and used two force panels to introduce the idea. Emily and Donovan pushed the two force panels together, but even when one person exerted more force than the other, the forces on both the panels remained equal. The class then explored further with connected spring scales using mulitple experiments. It was concluded that the spring scales always exerted the same force on one another, but there were two different directions- positive and negative. The graph then looked the same, but was reflected over the x-axis. As we moved at a constant speed, the scales only bobbed up and down a little bit, but at an unconstant speed, they bopped much more frequently and at greater distances.

Until next week,
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Week 8 Reflection

This week in physics we focused on unbalanced forces, component forces, resultant forces, and center of mass. We also worked on more extensive force diagrams when looking at more complex situations. We looked at the differences between and constant and inconstant velocities and how to tell them apart when looking at diagrams. It was conclude that forces have to be balanced in order to have a constant velocity. Therefore, unbalanced forces result in changing velocities. For example, a ball rising in a parabolic trajectory only has the Earth acting upon it in a downward motion, so the ball would not travel at a constant sped use to the unbalanced forces.

This week I also reassessed for the last assessment, which was my second time coming in to redo specific problems. After the class went over the answers on the assessment and the explanation behind them, I understood the act of balanced vs. unbalanced forces much better and was able to put it all together. Because I was able to reassess, I could show my teacher my new understanding of the topic, not just how I had done the first time. It makes me feel so much more relieved about my grade because I can constantly improve and my understanding increases. It's such a great opportunity to get kids to actually learn the material instead of doing poorly and choosing to disregard it.

I have to say that Thursday was probably the most fun I've had all year in physics. The lab with the four balancing girls was so interesting and exciting for the class. Four girls sat with their backs to another person in a square. The girls were told to lay on the person next to them a keep their feet straight and together. The chairs were then taken out from underneath the girls, yet the girls continued to stay in the same position due to the center of mass. Each girl was in control of part of their own mass and the mass of another person. Because each girl has the same forces, they were balanced. I still can't get over watching it, it was so cool. I hope to do more demonstrations like this in the future.

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