Today, we went on the Phet website to work on Circuit Construction. We made parallel and series circuits. Our circuit:

Then, Mr. Finley wrote some questions on the board that we had to finish or it would be homework. Here are the questions:

1. Draw your circuit.

2. Identify which one in series and which are parallel.( say why )

3. Describe the electron motion near the battery, in the part with fewer light, in the part with more lights.

4. Why does this happen?

The science that we learned in what we did today was this: We learned that to make a parallel circuit, you have to have the bulbs parallel to each other, like in math. The bottom part of the picture shows this parallel circuit. We also learned that when one battery goes out to 3 or more bulbs, the light from the bulbs will be more dull than a battery going to one or two bulbs.

We learned this by analyzing our circuits and answering the questions. We also learned this by discussing it within our groups.

It's important to know this because if you decide to become an electrician or someone who works with circuits and lights, you will need to know how to connect certain wires with batteries and how to make different types of circuits. Without this understanding of circuit construction, you won't be able to do your job.

Here's the website/activity that we did today in class:

Circuit Construction

-EP

Circuit Review

Today we started by going over the homework.
For the first lab or sim:
A hand causes an open circuit
Metals causes an closed circuit
Metals' have electrons that want to move
Our bodys have electrons but they don't want to move

electrons- things that circle around atoms

When we rub a ballon/ plastic parachute against somebodys hair, what happens?
- a transfer of electrons

Why does the hair stick up straight?
- Persons hair has alot of electrons, ballon none, so ballon or plastic parachute was attracted to the hair because it had a different charge. The hairs repel each other beecause they have the same charge. Zak got all of the electrons because we rubbed the plastic against his hair.

Why does the lightbulb light?
-The battery pushes the electrons through the wire
- It goes into the filament
- The filamwnt gets gets warmer through the electrons and releases light

What happened to the electron motion with 2 wires and 1 battery?
They electrons moved really really fast, that it made the battery lit up in fire.

When you add a lightbulb, what happens?
The lightbulb transforms the kinetic energy from the electrons into the light energy.

When you hold a piece of black paper close to a light bulb it gets hot because light energy was transfered into internal energy.

Inside of the filament the elecrons are bumping against each other, creating the light.

Kathleen then used a hammer to break a light bulb. The filament and and based were then passed around to figure out where the two wires went to into the base.

Light Bulb Diagram:
3. filament
4. (green wire) allows electrons to enter the bulb
5. (blue wire) allows electrons to leave the bulb

The green wire goes to the bottom of the bulb and the blue wire goes to the metal.

We then watched a video.
Video notes: Vocab
Parrel Circuit- when there is an additional track and when one is blocked you can still use the other.
Series Circuit- when there is only one track
LED- light emitting diode
Direct Current- electrons are all going in the same direction (DC)

Then in middle of the video the bell rang, so we stopped.

Media :
Youtube Videos:
1. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apHkG4T6QHM - Series Circuit v. Parallel Circiut

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZjMuIHoBeg - DC v. AC (we don't need to know AC)

3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnMP1Uj2nz0 - How a filament works


Enjoy!

Homework for tonight is to study!
STUDY! STUDY! STUDY!
STUDY SESSION TOM. AT 7 AM!
TEST ON ENERGY IS TOM.
STUDY GUIDE ON FIN'S WEBPAGE:
http://www.npsd.k12.nj.us/20222069133223760/blank/browse.asp?A=383&BMDRN=2000&BCOB=0&C=59194

Personally I find that this electricty/ circuit stuff is pretty easy. The only thing that still confuses me is the many diferent circuits and current types. Also the difference between a current and a circuit is confusing. They said the definition for current in the video, but I was typing a different definition, and when I got to it, had forgotten the meaning and was typing the next one. I'll probably find out what it means when we watch the video some more on Wenesday, because we can't watch it on Tuesday due to our test.

DB

More Fun With Circuit Constructions!

Finley says he put a pair of his sunglasses in the "Bulldog Bonanza."

Next, we do a new activity problem on the PhET website on the Circuit Construction Kit (DC only version)

Finley tells us "to create a circuit with three or more lightbulbs to come up with a few different setups." and then to "draw the setups"

The following pictures shows an example of one setup that works.

As we add more and more lightbulbs to the circuit, they begin to diminish in glow. That is because the battery has to split the power between all the light bulbs.

The blue dots that are moving in the wires and the battery are electrons.

What we learned today is very important for scientists to know. It is the fundamentals of electrical science. It also applies to daily life a lot.

When an engineer is building something he is going to use batteries in, he needs to know how much power the battery will send out, so then he can correctly calculate the electrical current.

Also, Mr. Finley used an example of electrons to tell us that we encountered it before. When we get shocked by something, that is also called the transfer of electrons.

YZ

Circuit fun

Finley got random stuff for our bull dog buck tricky tray thing. In my opinion most of the stuff sounds stupid. Our test is on Tuesday next week.

People asked about internal energy in the beginning of class. Internal energy is when things warm up or cool down and is represented as triangle Uint. If it cools down it is considered negative internal energy.

We then went over the 8 homework.
Meteorite question
The meteorite would warm up when it gets close to earth. It also would get faster. The earth would make it go faster. So the system would be just the meteorite.
In the beginning it would Kinetic energy. It would not have Grav. P. Energy because the earth is not part of the system. You must have earth in your system in order to have grav. pot. e. The earth would do work on the system and as the end result you would have a lot of kintic and internal energy. if it actually hit the earth it would only have internal energy.

Sky diver question.
For the intial part of the bar chart we put just alot of grav. p. e. There was no work and for the final we had the same amount of grav. p. e. as kinetic energy and alittle bit of internal energy.

We then went on the PhET web site.
http://phet.colorado.edu/
We then clicked play with sims.
We then clicked on physics on the left hand side
We then went on circuit construction kit DC only.
We then ran the program and we lit the light bulb.
I messed around with systen and i noticed that the more batteries I put on the brighter the bulb. After connecting about 10 bulbs my wire blew up!!!!
We had to draw our circuit in our notebooks. Then we had to explain how to make a circuit work and describe what you see. Then we had to explain why the lightbulb lit up.

HW Comments on blogs, and finish ques. above.
YS

December 15,2010

wedsnday december 15, 2010

today was pretty much a review day. first we had to think about the following situations. we had to put them in order by the amount of energy in the end of A B and C. nobody got it right at first. Mr finley drew a dotted line through the inital and final states. the displacement of a and b are the same. A has the same amount of gravitational as B has the same amount of kinetic. - kathleen answered that correct. C has less energy because the displacement was smaller.



after we went over that problem, we went over the unit 8 problems. the the ramps cant be steep and have to meet the regulations 1:12.

Mr. Finley took a spring scale that measures newtons and showed us how it works.

Conner built a ramp using his books and a white board. a weight... .25 newtons just hanging in the air, .1 when he drags the weight across the white boars. less force is used but there is longer displacement.

we went over 8.4...


turn a mass into force, then turn 30 grams into .3 killogram
drawing a bar chart could help you.

foce * displacement = work
everyone did the problem

intiial- compressed
final-in the air 50j

how high?

if work = force * displacement

30g/1000 = .03kg * 10 ( to make newtons) =.3 n
50j=0.3 *xw= force
50 / 0.3= 166 2/3n

GP
homework... check activity paket. review!!!!! ps the website is down so make sure you get the homework before you leave class

December 9, 2010

today in class we reviewed the Energy Activity Sheet. People went up to the board and drew their bar charts and wrote their real-life situations down. Then we discussed why or why not the were right or wrong. We talked about ho when coming up with real-life situations that correspond with the bar charts make sure not to confuse the different energies. After that we got in to our groups to do the lesson 8 activity.

We also went over the pendulum activity that we did two days ago

MS

December 7, 2010

Today in class we learned that a crane, a slope , and a spiral staircase all can get an object from the floor to the same point with the same anount of work. For each one there is a different amount of force and displacement, but they all have the same amount of work. When we made a graph for each one they all looked the same.

After we did that we moved on to a pendulum problem. That was to see if you let it go at one point it would end up at same point on the otehr side, and it did. The other problem that we solved was what if we did the same thing but this time there was a poll that was in the middle. When we watched the video we saw that it would hit the poll and go to the same point.


mj

December 6, 2010

Today we are spending all our class time by playing the energy skate park game. These are the things we had to do.

a) Draw a picture of your track

b) Describe or draw your chosen initial and final states

c) Include your choice in system

d) Create three different representations (i.e. picture, bar chart, force/motion diagrams, number statement, graphs, etc) to demonstrate the changes that occurred during the process.

e) Is the skateboarding situation realistic in terms of the physics and energy?

This is what my group did..

Other Groups could have had different answers.

For example a different initial and finial state could be different, and the graph. Also explanations could be worded differently.

FC

12/3/10 Blog!

This unit in science, we're studying energy.


Normally, we begin class by going over the previous night's homework,but, there was no homework last night!


Finley began talking about a common mistake we've been making lately. He drew a picture of a hill that leads to a cliff at the bottom. It showed a car. The initial state of the car was it zooming down from the top of the hill and is labeled as having Kinetic and Gravitational Potential Energy. The final state shows the car in the air after flying off the hill and is labeled as having Gravitational Potential Energy. While it's true that the car in its final state does have Gravitational Potential Energy, it's lower than the initial state and therefore has less. Students usually use this situation as showing a gain of gravitational potential energy, when really, it doesn't.





Currently, we are working on an in-class activity involving an online simulation with a skateboarder. It shows a skateboarder on a ramp that we design in the location of our choosing (we picked Earth, fyi)

Here's a link to the activity: Skate Activity: http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/energy-skate-park


With the skateboard activity, we had to:

• draw a picture of our track
• describe our initial and final states
• include our choice of systems
• create different representations to show the changes that took place
• decide if the situation is realistic in terms of physics and energy

This turned out to be useful in grasping a better understanding in energy transfers and changes.

What we are learning is very vital to our understanding of science because Energy is Big! Every time we move, you have energy. Being able to know some different types of energy, how they apply to real-life situations, and what is means/does allows you to learn about what is really happening when something moves. If confused about any of the concepts, it is easy to review notes and see what something is. For example, if you don't know it there is any Kinetic energy used in a situation, look back to see exactly what kinetic energy is and see if it applies to what is being discussed.

The energy unit is definitely an important one!

KV

Elephant Jumping On Trampoline

Yesterday, me and my partner Emily finished up the energy packet. We had to answer questions about a kid named peter swinging. We had to calculate his energy, and force. After we finished that, we watched a video about an elephant jumping on a trampoline. We had to answer a series of questions, watch was, give 5 examples of energy that had been used. We had to make 3 representations such as bar charts, and number sentences. We had to state what was in the system, i said earth and elephant. The last was, can this be a real life situation according to energy.


DP

Josh C blog 11/29

We all worked on the bar chart packets. You should be able to read a problem and know how to make a proper bar chart representing that problem. make sure you label properly and know how to read it. in the packet, the K stands for Kinetic energy, the Ug stands for Gravitational Potential energy, the Us stands for Elastic Potential energy, the i stands for initial state, the f stands for final state, and the W stands for work. Making bar charts is an easy way to show a problem and understand it better.

November 28th, 2010 Working On Bar Charts

On Wednesday in class, we continued working on our real-life situation money, energy, and food bar chart packets. For each of the questions in the packets we had to come up with a bar chart that shows the initial state, a process, and a final state. These bar charts helped us to see what was going on over time and to compare initial and final states of the situation.

In my case, Yolanda, Yuji, Katie, and I were working on the energy packet. So our first question had to do with a girl on an elevator. She was on the bottom floor, she stepped inside the elevator and went up to the fourth floor. For this question my group had to draw a bar chart that had the initial energy, the process/work, and the final state. So our initial state was the energy that the elevator had on the bottom floor, which was zero jewels. Our process/work was the elevator going upwards. This involved an increase in both kinetic and gravitational potential energy. For the final states we had to include the increase in both types of energy. That's all there is to a bar chart.

The one area that I got tripped up on is the process portion of the chart. After working through the packet, I realized that the process is really just the work being done. Also, you don't have to include all of the types of energy, just the type that you're using because I included every type of energy we learned about when I only needed 2.

KS

November 23, 2010 - Raising the Bar

Today we were working on a packet entitled "Lesson 4: Raising the Bar". In this packet, it contained bar graphs dealing with real life problems, with money. "We can use charts to represent data by showing things happening over time, comparing, and contrasting.

But the idea is that the 'money' is doing work. There is an initial state, and a final state. For example, look at the graph at the top.

It show that there is a change in the initial and final. Compare this to being work; there can be positive or negative work. If the amount of money you're spending/taking away, that would be the 'negative work'. If the amount of money you're earning, that would be the 'positive work'. By showing the initial and final states, you put the before chart next to the after chart.

Now, think about how this is like doing work. Leave a comment if you want on how I can improve or what not, thans :]

CP

Monday, November 22, 2010

Today in class the first thing we did was switch seats. Then we split up into the Advanced and Regular track groups. The Advanced track went over the homework from a couple nights ago with the elevator problems. We discussed the answers to the problems. Most of them involved using the Work = Force * Displacement equation. Finley also told us that the displacement has to always be measured using the metric system. While we were doing this the Regular track was doing bar chart equations. After the Advanced track finished going over the homework we joined the Regular track and started to work on some of the Bar Chart questions.

Some of the questions we had to answer were how are Bar Charts used and my group said that they can easy represent data and clearly see the results. Another question was what does it show and we said it showed in our case money being transferred from one account to the other. The rest of the packet was pretty much just making Bar Charts. Here is a picture of what a bar chart looks like:

KM

None

No blog today, calendar pushed back a day. Took a "POP" quiz today. From now on, you can't correct questions that you left blank on your quizzes.

DB

Procceses

In class today, we discussed a process. Ex. $35 -> spend-> $25. Mr. Finley showed what a process was with money. He had $10 in his wallet, $20 on a gift card, and $5 in a hole in a ground. Also, he showed us how we can represent a process with a bar graph. Next, Mr. Finley checked our homework.

Our homework was to draw the initial and final state of someone lifting a box from the ground onto a table. He said that we should draw the very beginning and the very end for the initial and final state. When the box is on the ground, it has no energy. When it is on the table, the box has some energy. For the third part, the transformation was positive work to gravitational potential energy. For part D, Eugenia has to apply negative work to put the box on the table.

Next, we did a packet in our groups. The first question was, "How can we use charts to represent data?" My group's answer was that we can graph the data on the chart. The next question was to create a graph that shows you have $20 on a gift card, $0 in your pocket, and $60 in your bank account. Next, we had to graph if we take $20 out of the bank and put it in our pocket.

POP QUIZ TOMORROW!!!!!!!!

TR

Mechanical Energies November 16, 2010

In class, we were given whiteboards a

nd told to write the systems for the following situations:

1. A person is being dragged across a rug.

2. A hot air balloon rising up into the air.

3. Someone bouncing on a pogo stick.

4. A car going faster and faster.

The answers we came up with in our class discussion we

re:

#1 the system was the earth, person being dragged, and the rug.

#2 the system was the earth, hot air balloon.

#3 the system was the pogo stick.

#4 the system was the car.

Next we had to find the equation for work and what the negative signs means using the table

The equation is force * displacement = work

The negative sign means that you are applying a lot of opposite force.

After we did this we compared answers with two other groups. Our answers all agreed with each other.

Then we had to fill in this table.

Today in class I learned much more about systems because that was a topic that was a little confusing for me. I hope this blog helped teach you more about systems and mechanical energies.

-JM

November 12 2010 Period 2

First, in class we discussed on homework. We were given white boards. Each table was assigned a problem from the homework. Here is what we discussed in class.

The text in Red is the work done to the system

Group A- Someone Lifts Up a book- 10j+20j=30j



Group B-Pushing A Lawn Mower- 0j+5j=5j



Group C-A person Goes Bungy Jumping- 5j+20j= 25j



Group D-A car speeding down then going up a small ramp. Then it flies in the air- 40j+20j=60j



Finley-A person bouncing on a trampoline- 20j=20j No work



Group G- A rock climber starts falling down and his hands burn on the rope. 20j=20j No work


That took up all of class. A good link that I found to help. Use it if you are unclear about something
I hope the Blog helped.

ZK

Today at the beggining of class, Finley asked us to get out our homework from monday and soon proceded to ask us what we thought Potential Energy was. After talking in our groups, Finley asked us what potential meant and the answer was when someone or something has the power to do something. We then went back to our chalk smashing ability experiment and said when I lifted the book I gave it potential energy. We then started on a summary and then proceeded to answer questions about postive work process. After we went on to share our answers. The type of energy we would get is Internal Energy because of friction. We concluded that if the surface that the crate was dragged on no friction being created so to creat energy we need the surface. A good link is
http://jersey.uoregon.edu/vlab/PotentialEnergy/

Monday, November 08, 2010

First, our tables created a whiteboard filled with information on Energy.






One of the concepts Mr. Finley reminded us about was that, "Energy cannot be created, energy can only be transferred."

Types of Energy
Mechanical Energy- ex. chalk smashing ability or CSA
Light Energy- see information from the light unit
Chemical Energy- ex. Battery
Electric Energy- Electricity
Nuclear Energy

Changes In Energy
Lamp- Electric Energy to Light Energy
Battery, wire, and light bulb- Chemical Energy to Electric Energy to Light Energy

Our Main Focus On Energy This Unit: MECHANICAL ENERGY

Why was today's class important? Any confusion with anything? Advice?
The first important thing we did was review. Reviewing is very important. It helps us remember concepts that we may have forgotten in the past. It also helps clear up any confusion anyone may have concerning any topic.
Then, Mr. Finley talked about types of energy. This helped us understand what types of energy there were. He also said we would be focusing on Mechanical Energy. This would help us understand what we are learning.
Lastly, Mr. Finley told us to think of some situations where energy changes. This was important because it helped us understand that there are many situations when there are changes in the type of energy. The ones listed above are only a few very simple ones. Below are a few more.

-YZ

November 3, 2010

First, Finley checked our homework. He went around as usual to make sure everyone did it. Then, he called up four people to go up on the board and draw what they got.





1) 0J + 20J = 20J


2) 0J + 50J = 50J


3) 40J + -40J = 0J


4) 5J = 5J

Then we played a review game to review for the test.

Chalk Smashing Ability

We first reviewed from yesterday. We discussed that we needed a push or pull in other words a force. We also said that the directoin of the force and displacement had to be going in the same direction to have CSA (chalf smashing abilities).

Why does it matter to talk about both diplacement and force?

We said that it was both important because even if we give some things force it may not be able to be diplaced.

Ex. Yuji tried to push the table fixed to the ground. It didn't move and couldn't get CSA

Finley then forced the dictionary up but he diplaced the object sideways. The dictionary did not get CSA.

We then disucussed what happened with me pushing the desk and Finley displacing and forcing in a different direction.

For me pushing the table I couldn't diplace it because it was fixed to the floor. For the dictionary going in different directions the force and displacement was going in different ways so the dictionary could not get CSA.

We then experimented with this theory. We had Hleb as the chalk smashing machine and Daphnie was part of the Chalk Liberation Movement. Hleb pushed the cart at the chalk and Daphnie pushed the opposite direction to save it.

Here is the results

Hleb: 10 units of CSA

Daphne:-10 units of CSA

Daphne + Hleb: 0 units of CSA

So expressed as a number sentence 10-10=0
Yay! Daphnie saved the chalk!

We then did this again with Finley and Hleb and this time because Finley did not push as hard to stop the displacement the cart still got CSA. We now had to revisit the first hypothesis that force and displacement had to go the same way for a object to got CSA.

This is what we came up with.

New Hypothesis: When the force and displacement is going the same direction increases the CSA. When the displacement and force are going opposite directions the CSA decreases.

Finley then gave us another puzzling question.
Where did the CSA come from?

A good guess was that it came living things. This was disproved when Finley pushed a cart into another cart and gave it CSA. The cart had given the cart CSA.

We concluded that it came from a external source of energy.

We then defined work.
Work- when we transfer energy to or from another object or system.
We can either do positive or negative work on the system.
Ex. Daphnie did negative work to the cart when it was trying to gain CSA.

We then discussed what was initial state and final state.
Initial state: where it started
Final state: where it ended up after the work

Ex. Finley lifts book
Initial state: Sitting on table
Final state: In the air in Finley's hand

We now set about to try to show how much energy the book had and got after it was lifted.
We said that the book already had 10 units of energy. After it was picked up it had 30 units of energy. Finley had to do 20 units of work in order to achieve this.

HW: Look on Finley's website

YS

its NOVEMBER!!!!! wow! (chalk smashing experiments)

11/1/10

As always, we checked the homework from over the weekend. Homework from October 27 to now. we were going to play a review game, but our questions were not to good. we weren't as creative as he wanted us to be. so, no review game.

we started talking about why we see a rainbow in white light. the speeds of the light are different. the ones that bent the most will be moving the slowest. the wave length would be the smallest.

why doesn't this happen with lasers? it is ONE focused wave length.
where else do we see this happening? rain... a rainbow... the light goes through a refracts at an angle off the humidity in the air. that creates a rainbow.

any questions about the dissection on Friday? Kevin- what was the blob jello stuff... answer-fluid that refracts the light.

ELECTRO MAGNETISM

forms of energy- x rays, microwaves...

Conner volunteered to pick up a dictionary and smash the piece of chalk on it. he put the book higher and dropped it onto the piece of chalk.. it got crushed...

displacement- moved, changed position by some amount
what is the direction that the book was placed in order to smash the chalk.. the book went up... Conner's force was up... so our displacement was up and the force of Conner was up. so as a result the book gained chalk smashing ability.

we did another observation
now we want to give the cart chalk smashing ability. chalk is now taped to the wall and molly has to push the cart towards the wall. and try to smash the chalk.

try 1- the wheels stick out too far and the cart cant touch the chalk.. now we have an assumption that we have to work through.

try 2- we taped the chalk to a brick taped to the door and molly tried it again and it worked.. the cart has smashing ability

(force = push or pull)

the bell rang and as usual we are late trying to finish up our class hopefully tomorrow we will try to finish up our experiments on the force and chalk smashing. - G.P.

10/28/10 Science Blog

We started out class with what we did yesterday (shining lasers through triangles).

Yesterday for homework we had played a game that had lasers and "light splitters" in it, so we tested that out by pointing the laser at a tip of the triangle. Instead of seeing the laser split in half, we got a line on the table, but only viable when the laser wasn't touching the triangle. After that we shone a flashlight at the triangle, and there was a strange figure. The shadow had a lighter and darker spot with small rainbows on either side. But from different angles, the shadow would change a little bit. When we shone the flashlight though the side instead of the top, the shadow was a dark rectangle and a smaller , bright one inside it.

After doing that, we were told to put the materials away and discussed the ideas and hypotheses.

Someone went to the board and drew a triangle with laser beams bouncing all around in it and two beams coming out. The flashlight discussion started with showing everybody the rainbows would appear. The colors were blue, yellow, red, orange, a bit of purple and green. We talked about why the light would emit a rainbow. one hypothesis was that the lights were getting weaker and weaker and eventually, the weaker light would create the color (defusesion of light). We said the rays were somewhat similar to bouncy balls, but it didn't follow the rule of refraction, so we came up with waves.

We looked at a picture of Newton's experiment that had a white light entering a triangular prism and coming out as a laser. We said some rays bend more than others to create the rainbow because the light was slowing.

Wensday 10-27-10

Today in class we went over the take home quiz. We reviewed how light bends towards the normal when it is travelling through a dense material and bends away from the normal when it goes into a less dense material. We also discussed when our test would be and studysession would be. After that we made an experiment to see where a laser would go if we shined it through a triangular prism. We also learned the definition of the words defuse and propagate their definitions are:

Defuse: When light bounces off an object in all directions.

Propagate: When light leaves a source.

We also discussed some types of light that our eyes can't see. Some off them are x-rays, ultraviolet rays, cosmic rays, gamma rays, and infrared rays.

.

-TJ

A few days ago in science class we learned that this will happen if we shine the laser pointer into a block of water.

Today in class we conducted an experiment to see what would happen if we shined the laser on a glass rectangular prism. We used a pole and a rubber band to keep the laser pointer in place while we shined it onto the rectangular prism. Before we conducted the experiment we developed a hypothesis. my hypothesis was that the laser will bend toward the normal because the prism is more dense than the air.

- Prediction

Period 1

Today in class, we learned more about how light bends. We drew some models of this in class that showed slower light waves and faster light waves.

<-----------This picture is our model of a faster light wave.

This is a picture of our model of a slower light wave. ------------->

Also, we decided that speed is the amount of distance

traveled in a certain amount of time.

Then, we watched a video on when you attach two slinkies together and then you shine a light

through the slinkies. I predicted that when the light meets where the two slinkies meet together, there will be some sort of shock or the light will stop for a second. We also decided that when it meets from less dense to more dense, the light will become faster, and when it goes from more dense to less dense, it will become slower. When we actually watched the video, as soon as the light reached where the slinkies met, the light bounced back, then finished. Here's the model we came up with for this.

This proved that my prediction was not confirmed because instead of stopping for a second, it bounced back, then started up again.

-E.P.

Period 1 Blog

We started our class by Looking at our Homework. Our Homework assignment was to answer this question "What is it like to walk through air, water, quicksand, and wall? And why?"

Now we're discussing what a particle is. A particle is small, tiny, microscopic things.

The reason we need to know what a particle is, is because in air, water, quicksand, and the wall there are particles. This can help us figure out how it's like to walk through these items.

We can't walk through a wall because it has too many particles and less space, so you cant walk through.

The difference from walking through air and water is, water will take longer then walking trough air.

Hypothesis: The light slows down as it hits the water, thus causing it to bend and change its direction.

-Francesca

Period 1 10/20/10 Blog!!

Today in class...

First, we took attendance.


Next, Finley checked the homework. Our homework was to re-watch the video we saw in class. In the video, there is a laser. A block filled with water and nothing else is held up to the laser. When the laser hits the side of the block, the line no longer remains straight. Instead, the ray bends. Here is a link to the video: http://paer.rutgers.edu/pt3/movies/refraction.mov



We had to look for and discuss patterns:


Observations we made about the video-

• when the light hit the block it was no longer straight


• a faint ray was following the law of reflection and bounced off the block side


• some thought the light should not bend, but go straight

Did this activity follow the bouncy ball model (when the light hits an object, it bounces off at the same angle that it was shown) ? Why or why not? Why is the light doing this?

The light could slow down.

To figure this out, a student ran at Fin. When he approached Fin, he slowed down and tried to avoid him. When the collided, Fin pushed the student back.

Another example we used was if there was a bouncy ball launcher aimed at the water, and the water is pushing up, the ball would bounce back up and change paths. Although it should get pushed up, bounce off the water at equal angles (which it does a little bit), completely stop, go straight down in an unchanged path, or go down but get pushed up slightly, the ball actually got pushed down and rose back up.

The bending of the light inside the water and outside of the water are the same because it goes down and back up at the same angle. Why might this be happening?

Maybe water bends light because there could be some particles that change the light or the water could be more dense and is doing something to the light.

The light reflects off, but the bent line is not bouncing off at the same angle. So, part of this experiment works with the model, and part doesn't.

For homework tonight we have to compare these 4 scenarios: What is it like for YOU to walk through these things?

1. Air
2. Water
3. Quicksand
4. Wall

My advice for understanding today's lesson! For starters, the important thing we thought about today was why the light did what it did when hitting the water block. Finding the reason why is the hardest part. To figure it out, we have to consider the materials being used and all the different variables that are in play. If we combine new and old things we've learned, we can figure this out.

?

As for the homework, think about the density of the different items. Try to find a pattern by picturing yourself walking through the substances.


Hope this helps!

KV

10/19/10 Period 1

Today we reviewed what we did in class and for homework on Friday and the worksheet for Monday; the target practice. On Friday we went over what were some objects that were transparent, opaque and translucent

Transparent: some examples are windows, beaker and a petri dish

Opaque:floor, table, wall or a person.

Translucent: fishtank

AR

Period 1, with Sub

We read a reading about Huygens Vs. Newton in the fight for light and particles. The worksheet we did was drawing laser rays to a mirror, to targets. Also drawing reflections to the targets from other objects. Then we had to draw a ray to a mirror into Kenny's eyes. :) Sorry Kenny, we do still love you.

-Danielle, i hope i don't have to blog tomorrow :p

We had a sub. We had a pop quiz. Ask Mr. Finley for it. That is all!

October 12, 2010 Lasers and Reflections (Period 1)

Today we started with more trials of our experiment of seeing if lasers reflect off of the mirror at the same angle as they were shot. We needed to make a prediction on what would happen when the laser was shot through the protractor onto to the mirror and see where it reflected. Hleb, Thomas, and I came up with the prediction that the laser should reflect off of the mirror at the same angle as the laser was shot. After doing 8 trials with the mirror and protactor we determined that when the laser is shot through the protractor it reflected off the mirror at the same angle that they were shot at. When shot at 10 degrees, the laser was reflected at 10 degrees. When the laser was shot at 20 degrees. it reflected at 20 degrees and so on. These experiments lead to the confirmation of our hypothesis that lasers reflect off of a mirror at the same angle as they were shot.

(A picture of what I saw when I shot the laser through the protractor onto the mirror)



Later, Finley talked to us about a couple of things on our lab reports. Remember that there are no claculations necessary for today's lab. Then we talked about uncertainty, which is one half of the smallest increment, something else to think about for taday's lab report.

We walked out of class today with a proven hypothesis of lasers reflect off of a mirror at the same angle as they are shot and some things to consider for our lab reports tonight with uncertainty and no calculations.

KS

October 11, 2010 - Playing with Lasers and Mirrors [ Period 1 ]

Today, we first started off by taking attendence. Then, we got started on the experiment. Our main question: "When a laser hits off the mirror, is angle A and B equivilent? We began to find out. Students experimented with a laser and mirror (most of which, were using a protractor too.) to see what happens when a laser bounces off a mirror/protracter, and to test their hypothesis. Of course the protractor was clear. I noticed a group of people were testing with the fish tank It appears as if when they put the mirror behind the fish tank, and point the laser to it, the laser kind of goes into an angle. If I draw a picture, you might have a better understanding of what I am talking about. It is what I saw.


People, though, were playing and being somewhat foolish with lasers and pointing them to the wall and ceiling. Now this may be off topic, but, when the laser hit the ceiling light, the light spread out. As in, the one point would show, but then a glow of light would with a clearer red (kind of like transparency, you could still see the ceiling light) than the one point. This only went for when the lights were turn off. Our subsitute said we should do at least three trials, which most groups did, and we gave a little time for the people who didn't do three trials. When we turned the lights on, people began to write up what they saw, and gave back all the lasers and mirrors.


Tables discussed their hypothesis together, which caused some heated discussions at some tables. Afterwards, we discussed as a whole class if the statement was true, that laser A and B were notequivilent. A couple of groups thought no, they are not equivilent. At the end, groups wrote up their conculsions in their own opinion, but help from their groups.


Fun fact: Did you know that the laser was invented in New Providence? I bet you didn't. Our morning substitute was just so awesome to let us on this fun fact.


CP

Lasers and Mirrors -Period 1

Today in class we discussed our homework which was how an image would look in the back of your eye. We drew a ray diagram and we saw that all rays cross right as they go into the pupil, which was just like our cardboard experiment. The light rays, instead of crossing at the whole in the cardboard, cross at the pupil. The other part of our homework was how does your brain process the image and we learned that in the brain, the image gets flipped so that we see it right side up.

We also discussed why different colors affect the laser. We cam to the conclusion that some colors absorb more light and some colors reflect more. But then we had an idea. What does the light look like on different surfaces? So we got a mirror to see what would happen with the laser on it. My group saw that you can see the light in the mirror but you could also see it on some other object just as clearly because the light is reflected off of the mirror. Conor also had a good idea. His idea was that i you point the laser at a 35 degree angle onto the mirror, it will reflect off at a 35 degree angle so that the two angle would be congruent. The Finley told us that even though our hypothesis worked with a flat mirror, will it work with a curved mirror? Finley had another question for us which was does the laser hit more that one point on the mirror? Yolanda had a good idea that if we hit the laser at any point on the curved mirror, that it would work just like a flat mirror and reflect the laser off at the same angle just like a flat mirror. We all eventually agreed on that and Finley also told us that the laser only hits one place on the mirror. After that Finley gave us a new vocabulary word, normal. He said that the normal is perpendicular to the line that the laser is reflecting off of. So our conclusion for the class was that light bounces off of a mirror at the same angle that you pointed the laser, no matter if the mirror is flat or curved.

KM

Period 1

Today in class we light up a candle and put it next to the wall, we drew a ray diagram of where the light was going to go. We drew the rays of where the rays from the candle were going. We wrote on the board that the light went from the candle and went everywhere and it bounced off the wall and towards us. This happend because there was light shining off the wall from the candle that we could see.

Next we had the light and a piece of cardboard, there was a hole in the piece of cardboard. When the candle was shining there was a dot on the wall from the candle through the cardboard. The dot was the image of the candle uside down. We drew up how this happend with the rays from the light. Every table in the class had a different idea of how the candle was upside down when it went through the little hole through the cardboard. We said that the light from the bottom went through the hole and went to the top of the shadow on the wall.

Absorbing Lasers and Experiment Assumptions -Period 1

Today, we pointed lasers at different materials to for different in the way it reflects and if there is a difference, then why. We found out that the walls and floors "cling more too light, and meetal and laminated paper, reflected it more. We then also figured out that the color of the laser piont colored different when it was on a black background and on a white background. We then decided thatthe black absorbed the light. Then we still had to figure out what happened when the laser got pointed on the wall. We decided to come back on that later.

Then Mr. Finley told us that our experiment on Friday had gave data that he had never seen before. We then tried to figure out his assumption that he made.

We made three guesses:

• The size of the light bulb
• We all had the lights on at the same time
• The type of the light bulb

The type of the light bulb did affect the experiment. When we did the experiment again with a normal light bulb the light did spread out everywhere, and ther was no circle on the ceiling. When we used the flood light there was a circle on the ceiling. This makes sense because a flood light is made to send all the light out in one direction.

We then went over the homework. We started by drawing our idea. Ryan went up and drew his idea. His drawing showed the light bulb with a few rays coming out. We then a

sked ourselves what was wrong with Ryan's drawing, if there was anything wrong. We decided that, yes, there was something wrong . There should be an infinite amount of rays coming out of one spot on the light bulb, and an infinite amount of rays coming out of the ligh

t bulb.Then Mr Finley, and the class changed it to the light bulb having an infinite amounts of rays coming out it, and an infinite amount of rays coming out every spot on the light bulb.

We then reminded ourselves

what we did on Friday, which was we tried to find out how many rays came out of one spot on the light bulb. Mr. Finley

also pointed out that if we drew curved lines on our quiz in the near future we would lose points, because we have tested this and know that they are straight. Then we asked ourselves what is happening when we move the cardboard closer to the wa

ll. We decided it became more concentrated. Why is it

more concentrated? Because there is less space for it .

We also got our quizzes back today. We were told that we have to work on our scientific writing a bit more. There are different kinds of letters on your quiz, next to your answers. These correspond with the rubric you can find online under the tab Course Information on Mr Finley's teacher webpage.

DB

Period 1 - Light

For homework last night, we had to design an experiment including a lightbulb, a socket, an exacto knife, a piece of cardboard, and a wall. The three hypotheses we came up with in class were, one ray fans out, the light will spread out everywhere, and it varies for the various bulb strengths. My group decided to test the second hypothesis. We put the light bulb into the socket, and cut a hole in the cardboard with the knife. We turned the light on and put the carboard over it. The results were that the light fanned out. The hypthesis was proved.





During the class discussion, we talked about the results of our experiments. On the white board, Mr. Finley drew how the light fans out through the hole in the carboard. The main points of the discussion were that the the light on the wall is bigger than the hole in the cardboard. The other point that we discussed is that if there were no sides of the cardboard the light will go in all directions. The light will go all of the directions it can reach. Also, light on the wall as the surface gets farther away.

I found this link that explained the concept a little more: http://www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/CC/vision_background.php

TR

Period 1 - Laser Pointer

Today in class we are discussing what characteristic allows us to see things. We used laser pointers to help us figure these things out. The sun rays reflect off of you then bounce off into the lake or river. Then you see you reflection in the lake. These ideas are very important because they help us learn how you see things and how they reflect.


We also discussed the homework and realized the more light the smaller you pupil gets and the less light the bigger the pupil gets. We soon realized that many of our ideas were too complicated and we erased them. We decided that we could test the rest of our ideas. Then we found out that your eye could only take in so much light so when you look right at the sun that is why your eyes hurt. Mr. Finley brought up an idea about how much light do you think would come out of a little spot.


Below, there is a picture of a laser pointer. We used these during class to do experiments and make hypothesis and predictions. These also helped us figure out how light works and why we can't see the rays that travel in between the light source and the wall. I would have to say that if we didn't have those i would be pretty lost in most of the work we do in class.


Some confusing points in class we when we had class discussion. Although it helped sometimes it was a little hard to figure out what other people were explaining their ideas. When doing those you really have to listen and think outside of the box to understand what other class mates are talking about. I really think that was the only thing super confusing.




KQ

Period 1 Science

Yesterday, we came up with a hypothesis that light spreads out in every direction that it possibly is able to. We tested this experiment by shining the light in the corner at one wall and saw if the light would show up on the other wall. It did, so our hypothesis was supported.

We looked into this hypothesis further by watching a movie in class today. It was about light and the hypotheses we have been talking about. The children in the movie were talking about if they were in a dark room would they be able to see anything. The children all thought that they would be able to see something in the complete dark but they couldn't see anything. The girl in the video was trying to prove her hypothesis that she would be able to see the objects in the complete dark. After six minutes in the dark she could still not see anything but she continued to believe her hypothesis was correct.

This picture shows how the sun's rays of light spread out in many different directions. This picture supports our hypothesis that light spreads out in as many directions as possible.

Period 1 - Science

Today in class we discussed that light is a straight line. This feature is key. What can we use to represent light? Representation means to symbol something or to take it's place. We discussed that we can use straight lines to represent light. When we draw a straight line to represent a lasers light, it shows 3 key components. It shows the laser's path, is the path a straight line, and what does it hit. But, when we shine a real laser we can only see light on the wall and we can't see the light anywhere else. So how do we represent how eyes see the laser? Our hypothesis is that when we shine a laser at the wall, the light bounces everywhere unless it's power runs out or an object obstructs it's path. Human eyes are light receivers but not light creators. When we draw light hitting the wall, we want the arrow to come from the source and end at the wall. When want to represent humans seeing the light, we draw lines going from the wall to our eyes not arrows coming from humans hitting the wall. Our next question was what really happens when we put dust particles into the air. Our class discussed and said that when we put dust particles into the air, once the light hits the dust particle, the light will be able to bounce off the dust thus allowing us to see the light's path. Each dust particle is like a miniature wall. The light bounces off of it. This brought up yet another question. Does the light really go everywhere or only to our eyes? Then, we were assigned to bounce a laser on one side of a material near a corner and see if the light bounces off the wall onto the other piece of material. Our hypothesis is that the laser beam will bounce off any surface. We tested on wood, a television screen, the table, and a wall. It did bounce off the wood, the television, wall, and the table. I predict that when we bounce a laser off of the wood, it will show up on the other side of the wood. Our conclusion is that when we bounce a laser off any object near another object on an angle, a dim and faded light can bee seen on the other piece of wall. Did we make any assumptions though? I believe that an assumption we made was that we didn't test off every single material that we can test on. So, we should test this hypothesis with many different materials to see if we will get the same result as the result using only the objects we tested. As you can see, the lasers travel in perfectly straight lines. I chose this photo because it was interesting to see that the lasers are clearly visible even though the are not hitting a wall. We can see them in mid-air. So this can be one of two things. Either before the show, smoke or another form of dust was spread through the air or we found a different type of laser


ZK

Period 1 - Light Blog

What we did in class today is that we tested if we could see light before it hit its final destination. We did this by taking two chalkboard erasers and covering then with flower and hitting them togheter and then shining the light to see if it would go in a straiht line. This was the testing experiment we did. The hypothesis were that nothing would happen, light would reflect off partiles and show through the laser beams, and then only afflicted parts would show on laser and not be straight. After testing the experiment we found that the flower particles visible to light before it hit the wall and proved the second hypothesis right. By finding out this answer i conclude that light can be seen before the wall and that it does indeed travel in a staright line. But i also think if the light was less concentrated it would not go in a straight line and would bounce all over the place.

CV