Wright State University Lake Campus/2015-9/Phy1050

Phy 1050 Fall 2015

mon 8/31 edit

Went over syllabus and looked at first question in

http://dev.physicslab.org/img/4020ec64-6deb-484d-9e97-ed2e77cf92bd.gif

tues 9/1 edit

Use this resource,

Wikibooks:FHSST_Physics/Rectilinear_Motion/Graphs

to solve these problems:

How things work college course/Motion simple arithmetic quiz

Physics is about generalizing something simple to something abstract.

  1. If I travel 50 miles per hour for 3 hours, I travel 150 miles.
  2. d = vt where d is distance, v is velocity, and t is time.
  3. This method only works if one travels at the same speed. Let's try another way to get the same answer.
  4. The area of a rectangle is base x height. Thefore the distance traveled is the area under a curve of velocity (on the vertical axis) plotted against time (on the horizontal axis).
  5. The simplest generalization of this rectangle-area rule is to plot velocity versus time and calculate the area.
  6. Does it work? Yes, but explaining why is beyond the scope of this course.

wed 9/5 edit

Solutions to this wikiquiz

is now available at

Got to question 7 on

  • How things work college course/Waves (Physics Classroom)

For more info on this see

thu 9/10 edit

Using Excel to add waves. edit

Measuring the octave and the fifth with slide whistles edit

Mon 9/14 Test questions edit

Send B3dy linke to newtons dark secretes with instructions.

Tue 9/15: Newton's Dark Secrets edit

Thu 9/17: Plane mirror image lab edit

Nicky Walker https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UEB8ndiTMlc

Tue 9/22: diffraction with a laser edit

Continue with daily lecture: Bell's theorem/Introduction See spooky 1909 experiment:

How_things_work_college_course/Quantum_mechanics_timeline#Taylor_makes_things_spooky_with_very_dim_light_in_1909
Diffraction in ocean waves

http://resource.isvr.soton.ac.uk/spcg/tutorial/tutorial/Tutorial_files/diffractmovmov.gif

Results: We bent light around a raser blade and observed a diffraction pattern of unknown origin on one side. We cut a slit in aluminum foil of thickness between .1 and .3 mm (maybe smaller?) and observed two clear minima (one on each side).

Update on diffraction experiment: We got a two slit experiment to work and the numbers came out well. We used two holes, as Young did circa 1790. It was necessary to use a mirror to triple the path disance in order to get fringes (bright and dark patterns) that we could measure easily.

Thu 9/24: Lab reports edit

Refraction lab
Make a sketch showing why a swimming pool looks shallow. Draw a sketch with the incident and refracted ray that demonstrates how light bends towards the normal when traveling from air (vacuum) into glass (water).
Lab reports
Your lab report counts for a large part of your lab grade. Extra credit is possible, but only if the effort is truly extraordinary. To get a top grade you need to be useful and do something that improves this course.
Ideas on how to be useful:
  1. Work with a team to ensure your efforts don't overlap with that of others. It's also easier for the instructor to consult with a group of people. Be sure to credit others for imput they gave you on your aspect of the project.
  2. Pick a specific goal. Do you want to write more multiple choice questions? Do you want to write a page for Wikiversity? Do you want to repair questions already in the quiz bank?
  3. Choose your project carefully, in consultation with the instructor. Get permission from your instructor if the project is not on this list.
  4. Focus on what needs to be done, not what is easy to do. Sometimes it's better to begin an important project and leave it unfinished than to complete a project that is not needed.

List of projects approved by the instructor edit

  • Write more multiple choice questions
  • Find a related topic concerning the Industrial Revolution that was not covered and start an essay on it that will appear in Wikiversity. Eventually we will want to add multiple choice questions. Keep in mind that this is a science course: Your topic should enhance people's understand of basic science. Ideas: How is steel made and why does it behave that way? How did basic science benefit from, or contribute to, the Industrial Revolution?
  • How has the article changed since this permalink, which was the page used to write this quiz

Mon 10/12: Computers edit

Tues 10/13 edit

Ray diagrams with converging lens from dev.physicslab.org

Did not cover today:

Blind spot edit

later

Bell's theorem and probability edit

will review a bit. did some of this.

Here is a useful application of Wikipedia
Bell's theorem uses the laws of probability to prove that what photons do is "impossible", unless photons have either telepathic skills or precognition (or both).
  • Does that mean that people can have such skills? That is a question for you to decide, but your instructor believes the answer is No, not because it would violate the laws of physics, but because honest researchers have looked and failed to find any evidence. And this lack of evidence has been repeated many times by many researchers, over a span of many years. (Just my opinion).

Mon 10/19 edit

later edit

Tue 10/27 edit

What is the coincidence? edit

from http://members.bitstream.net/~bunlion/bpi/EclSaros.html

By "coincidence", these cycles all repeat nearly exactly every 18+ years. This is because:

  • 223 Synodic Months = 6585 days, 7 hours, 43+ minutes,
  • 19 Draconic Years = 6585 days, 18 hours, 44+ minutes,
  • 239 Anomalistic Months = 6585 days, 12 hours, 53+ minutes.

Tue 11/3 edit

angels and demons (computers down)

Thu 10/5 edit

Global warming: Compare two graphs:

Tue 11/17 edit

Playing with circuits. The voltage divider.

 

Things you should think about edit

  1. Batteries and other sources of electrical power create something called a "voltage" between two wires.
  2. Energy is delivered to something called a "load". A load might be a motor, a heating element, or a light bulb. The symbol for volatage is called V or sometimes U. The units are also called "volts" with the symbol V. To avoid confusion, we will use the word "volts". V=9volts means that there are 9 volts between two wires.
  3. Every time a charge carrying particle (usually an electron) passes through the load, energy is delivered.
  4. Current, called I is measured in amps (often written A). I=3amps tells us that the current is 3 amps through a point in the wire.
  5. Current is directly proportional to the number of electrons flowing through a wire.
  6. In almost all cases, the current that flows into a load equals the current that flows out. This rule is true for any circuit you are likely to encounter.
  7. Power is IV or current times voltage.
  8. A voltage divider is a circuit designed to reduce the voltage. They are not the best way to do this because they waste energy and because the load reduces the voltage.
  9. All voltage sources drop in voltage if they draw current.

12/1 Tue: Why Bach sounds funny on the piano edit

Talks http://www.wright.edu/~guy.vandegrift/Talks/index.htm

natural 5/3 = 1.6667... http://www.wright.edu/~guy.vandegrift/Talks/cello.mp3
scientific 29/12 = 1.681793...http://www.wright.edu/~guy.vandegrift/Talks/piano.mp3

Caterpillar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITqv3ey3h50

as Bach wrote it http://www.wimmercello.com/images/bachs1a.gif

12/3 Thu: Beethoven and the Uncertainty Principle edit

Physics and Astronomy Labs/Heisenberg's uncertainty and Beethoven's fugue

Links at bottom edit