Week 16 Reflection

This week in physics we expanded and experimented with free falling objects, the velocity at which they fall, and at what position they are at in specific seconds during the fall. We reviewed that objects fall at the same speed despite their differing weights due to the earth's gravitational force of -10 m/s/s. In addition, we also continued drawing position vs. time graphs, velocity vs. time graphs, acceleration vs. time graphs, and motion maps. We discovered that an object falling is speeding up in the negative direction with the velocity getting more negative and a constant acceleration.

We then looked at the path pattern of rockets being propelled into the air, which have the same tendencies of a free falling object. Because a free falling object creates a quadratic shape on a graph, it is half of a parabola. This means that the launching portion of the travel is symmetric to the ending portion. The rocket starts with an abundant velocity and continues to lose speed as it reaches its peak. At the maximum height, the rocket stops momentarily before reversing to a negative direction. As the rocket fall, it accelerates each second and covers more distance than the second before. As the rocket hits the ground, its velocity is equivalent to its starting velocity when launched.

On Thursday, we were able to go outside for the rocket experiment, in which we were able to launch rockets of different strength. It was interesting to see how long it took for the rocket to reach its peak and then hit the ground. My groups rocket, which was a super powered, took 7.1 seconds, which means that it took 3.55 seconds for the rocket to reach its peak. It was an exciting experiment and I enjoyed it. On Friday (today), we took our assessment on this unit. I though it went pretty well, but there were some parts that I was a but confused on. But, I cane arm further and reassess next week if need, so no worries.