Blog reflection
In this unit I learned about Newton’s second law, as it pertains to throwing objects in the air and telling their speed ,acceleration and how far they have gone. If an object is thrown straight upwards (neglecting air resistance) it will decrease in velocity by ten m/s for every second, due to that being the pull of gravity. If you throw an object upwards at an angle, it’s velocity is the product of the equation a squared + b squared = c squared, with “a” and “b” being your vertical and horizontal velocities, respectively. I also learned about how vertical distance is the only thing that affects how long you fall for, no matter how fast an object is going it will still hit the ground at the same time as an identical object dropped at the same moment. You can determine how long an object spends in the air by using the D=1/2 A(t squared) formula, and substitute gravity for “a” and the distance for “D”. You can then find how far the object traveled horizontally with d=at. To introduce this concept, we were shown a video from the Mythbusters, who shot a bullet and dropped a bullet of the same caliber at the same time and watched in slow-motion as they hit the ground at the same time.
The thing that I found difficult about this was not the mathematics that we were doing, it was simply trying to get my head around the concepts that we were learning, such as “it doesn’t matter how fast something is going, vertical distance is all that matters when you a determining how long something falls for. I overcame these difficulties with looking at real world examples, and accepting them as the truth.
I do try to expend as much effort as I can in class, but I am distracted easily so it is difficult sometimes. My effort towards blog posts especially needs some work, as I often simply forget to do them.
I don’t think I am very persistent in trying to solve a problem in physics, if I don’t understand by my second or third reading then I will likely skip it and move to the next problem. I am fairly confident in physics at this point, due to the fact that I believe I understand all of the material that we go over. Taking time doing the problems is a bit difficult for me, as I do like to do them quickly and get them done so I can do other things, but that is a problem I could easily fix if I am making a large amount of careless mistakes.
My goal for the next unit is to make sure I have all of my blog posts in on time and to make sure to not have any work late. To accomplish this I will take more care in filling my planner, and also to take more care in looking over my planner every night before study hall, when I still have internet.
