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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