We kicked off 2020 with a two-day week. Even with the short week, my students fell pretty easily back into classroom routines.

AP Physics 1: Projectile Video Analysis

I like wrapping up linear mechanics with projectiles since its an opportunity to apply pieces of just about everything we’ve learned so far this year. We spent a day on a problem from Michael Lerner representing an orange in free-fall a bunch of different ways. Then, we did some video analysis of tennis balls. In the past, we’ve had to go to a computer lab to do video analysis, so I provided students with a video. This year, since laptop carts are a more practical option, I had each group record their own video. I’m hoping that comparing graphs from different videos will lead to a richer discussion when we have the board meeting next week.

Physics: Cart Catching

To introduce momentum, we did a lab from Scott Lotze, the other physics teacher at Tartan, and had students catch a cart at the bottom of the ramp, then find as many ways as possible to make the cart harder to catch. This lead to an operational definition of momentum and nicely illustrated that both mass and velocity of the cart matter. A few groups tried the plunger carts and noticed they are usually easier to catch, which lead nicely into impulse on Friday.