Wednesday

Periods 3-4, 8-9:

There will be research club during periods 5 (H322) and 6 (S305), as usual.

Please try to reach consensus on the HW set from last night. Any volunteers to come up would be wonderful!

After that, check out a few minute video about the basics of how a nuclear reactor works. It is a nice combination of relativity, power production, and everyday application of energy transfer.

And then you have a chance to work, digest and process what we have been doing, and get additional practice with the remaining problems on the board.


Period 6:

Yesterday we saw the clip of Apollo 13 launching and going into orbit around the earth. That means it was moving in a large circular path around the earth. We are doing the same around the sun right now. Check out two relevant ideas for this. First, a good introduction to circular motion and what we call centripetal force. Click on the one called Centripetal force and acceleration intuition. The second is an introduction to a projectile, which can be as simple as a ball rolling off a table or you throwing a ball.

Take notes on these two videos, because we will be combining the ideas to understand how lots of things work!

Finally, there is a three and a half minute video about why astronauts appear to be 'weightless' when they are in orbit, like we saw yesterday. Check it out! It is NOT because there is no gravity, but rather the fact that something in orbit is actually falling!