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