Physics: Pendulums

We worked on an assortment of pendulum problems this week. The packet starts with some problems that focus on using representations like free-body diagrams and energy bar charts to describe the motion of a pendulum. After that, we shifted to lots of algebra using the equation for the period of a pendulum. With the way our packet is set up, we don’t have students do much thinking or reasoning with the diagrams they sketch. I think with this unit, I’d like to revise our packet to get more emphasis on conceptual thinking about pendulums.

AP Physics 1: Final Projects

Students continued working on their final projects. The projects this year are heavy on calculations to describe scenes in movies or moves in video games. I usually have more projects that involve real-life data collection, but I think this is partly a factor of doing a a shorter project than usual since the AP Physics 1 test was so late this year, so students had less time to brainstorm and to carry out their projects. That said, I am having a lot of fun talking with students about their projects and hearing all the cool thinking they are doing.