Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Newton's Universe
Second Course on Force, Motion, and Energy
Summer 2009
Name:
Your electronic journal consists of all the files in the folder “JournalItems” on the flash
drive. It is primarily for you and your own long term use.
We ask you to use this document, “ajournal” to record your work in the course. At the
end of the course we will ask to see it, and all the additional files that you generate as part
of the course assignments.
Table of contents:
Chapter 1 Motion
Chapter 2 Force
Chapter 3 Acceleration
Chapter 4 The Law of Force and Acceleration
Chapter 5 Simple Machines
Chapter 6 Potential Energy and Kinetic Energy
Chapter 7 Vibration
Chapter 8 What Floats Your Boat?
Once again this year, the little journal icon appears in the course every time
you are to make a journal entry. We ask you to answer every prompt.
We’ve listed below (in italics) all the prompts from the course. Type directly into this
file under each appropriate header. Answers to the prompts are the minimum that we
expect you to enter. Feel free to include any and all additional information that you will
find helpful in the future. You can also add images and graphs by electronically copying
and pasting in this document.
Each time you make entries in this journal file, save it on the flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’, where you find it originally. As a backup we also suggest that
you save it occasionally in another file location on your computer, but the copy we will
want to see is the one on your flash drive.
While we do not require it, you might want to create a folder within your the folder
“JournalItems” to hold copies of all your email communication with the course instructor
– your answers to the end of chapter questions and the instructor’s response and/or follow
up questions. This would make an even more complete record for you long term.
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Chapter 1 Motion
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
chapter1_1.gmbl
chapter1_2.xls
logger lite file, rolling ball
Excel page for “Stop the train!”
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Explore: Detecting Motion (how to use the Go!Motion sensor)
There is no specific journal entry for this activity; just work through the explorations on
the course page.
Activity 1-1 Pendulum Motion
Enter some general notes on your experience with the the Go!Motion and the pendulum
Activity 1-2 Uniform Motion
Discuss the difference (if any) between your calculated velocity, and the Go!Motion
velocity.
How does changing the starting position of the ball affect its velocity?
Activity 1-3 Stop the Train!
Complete the excel sheet Chapter1_2.xls.
1. For the trains travelling toward each other
At what distance from X will the trains collide?
How much time (relative to when the first train started) is there to stop the trains?
If the train from X started at 10AM, what time will the collision occur?
2. For the trains travelling in the same direction, with the trains from X overtaking the
train from Y
At what distance from X will the trains collide?
How much time (relative to when the first train started) is there to stop the trains?
If the train from X started at 10AM, what time will the collision occur?
Chapter 2 Force
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
chapter2_1.xls
chapter2_2.xls
Excel file for rubber band scale
Excel file, table for friction force data
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Explore: Rubber Band Scale
Complete the excel sheet Chapter2_1.xls.
How much does the spring scale in your kit weigh?
Activity 2-1 Friction Forces
Complete the excel sheet Chapter2_2.xls.
Items 5 and 6. Predict how hard you will have to pull on the piece of paper to cause it to
slide out from under the block at constant speed. Then try the experiment, and explain the
result.
Summarize your results of the Friction Forces Activity
Activity 2-2 Law of Interaction and Law of Inertia
No specific journal entry for this activity, just work through the questions on the course
page.
Chapter 3 Acceleration
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
Chapter3_1.gmbl Ball on ramp “Rolling Down Hill Again”
Chapter3_2.gmbl Loggerlite file for activity 3-2, “Falling For You”, bouncing ball
Chapter3_3.xls Excel file for juggler
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Explore: Soup Delivery
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
7. What does the bubble tell you about the motion of the level? How is this related to
how you are pushing on it?
Activity 3-1 Rolling Downhill, Again
3. What effect does the steepness of the slope have on acceleration?
Explain, how are the different forces on the ball at different slopes related to the
acceleration of the ball?
Activity 3-2 Falling for You
Use the file Chapter3_2.gmbl to do this activity
1. What do the "U" shaped curves and the spikes represent?
2. Change the display to show the velocity. Explain the resulting pattern. In general
terms: Where is the velocity positive, and where is it negative? Where is it large, and
where is it small?
3. What is the largest positive acceleration of the falling ball? When does it have this
acceleration?
4. Is the motion of the coffee filter better described as increasing velocity or constant
velocity?
Activity 3-3 The Juggler’s trick
Complete the excel sheet Chapter3_3.xls.
1. What's the minimum upward speed of the ball when leaving the juggler's hand in
order for it to go up at least 10 meters?
2. What reaction time must the assistant have in order to catch the ball? (How much
time lapses between when the ball it thrown and when it reaches the top of its arc at
about 10 meters?
Chapter 4 The Law of Force and Acceleration
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder
“JournalItemsFolder.)
chapter4_2.gmbl
chapter4_1.gmbl
a logger lite file set up for activity “Towed Truck”
a logger lite file set up for “Sliding downhill”, the sliding block
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Activity 4-1 Towed Truck
Complete the logger lite file chapter4.2, and calculate the acceleration.
2. Compare the accelerations you calculated in Q1. By going from 2 washers to 4 you
doubled the force pulling on the truck. How did this affect the acceleration?
3. Keeping the pulling force constant (4 washers), change the truck mass, making it
larger and smaller. Observe how the acceleration changes (a qualitative observation -whether the acceleration becomes larger or smaller -- is sufficient).
Activity 4-2 Simulated Towed Truck
Do the virtual lab on the course page.
No journal entry required
Activity 4-3 Sliding Downhill
Complete loggerlite file chapter4.1
5. Determine the force needed to hold the wood block in place on the incline with the
round pencils under it serving as rollers.
6. Measure the force needed to drag the block up the incline at a constant slow speed
(without the rollers). This is larger than the downhill force you just measured in #5,
because there is an additional friction force that opposes the motion. According to your
measurements, how large is the friction force by itself?
7. When the block is sliding down hill, the friction force is the same size but points the
other way. Use all the information you have to predict the acceleration of the block as it
slides down the inclined board. Make use of
(Net force) = mass x acceleration.
8. Calculate the average acceleration from the LoggerLite velocity graph. Compare this
acceleration with your estimate in #7
Chapter 5 Simple Machines
There are no attached files for Chapter 5
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question).
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Activity 5-1 Inclined Ramp
Work through the Virtual Laboratory and then the numbered questions.
Summarize your work for items 1-3.
4. Calculate these energies - the energy needed to lift the cart and the energy coming
from lowering the weight - and compare them.
Activity 5-2 Exploring Levers
There is no journal entry required
Activity 5-3 Pulleys
There is no journal entry required
Chapter 6 Potential and Kinetic Energy
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
Chapter6_1.gmbl Loggerlite file, “Energy and the Falling Ball”, velocity of falling ball
chapter6_2.xls
Excel file for “Energy and the Falling Ball”, calculate ball energies
chapter6_3.xle Excel file for energy and towed truck; calculating energies
Chapter6_4.gmbl Loggerlite file for energy and towed truck
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Activity 6-1 Energy and the Falling Ball
Complete the excel sheet Chapter6_2.xls.
Describe the relationship that you discovered between kinetic and potential energy in
item 5 that produces most nearly constant values. What does this tell you about energy in
the falling ball system?
Activity 6-2 Energy and the “Towed Truck”
No journal entry needed.
Activity 6-3 Energy and the simulated Towed Truck
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
Complete the file chapter6_3.xls
From this file:
What does your graph tell you about the changes in kinetic energy and potential energy?
How is it similar to (and different from) the corresponding graph for the falling ball?
Activity 6-4 Storing Energy (This page follows the science content section)
Please write your report (with references) about different ways of storing energy and
save it on your flash drive as storing_energy_lastname.doc
Email your report now, as an attachment, to sciworks@pa.uky.edu; it’s part of the
chapter assessment.
Chapter 7 Vibration
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
Chapter7_1.gmbl Logger lite file for pendulum motion
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Activity 7-1 Pendulum
1. The period of the pendulum could depend (in different ways) on the mass of the bob
(which is different for each rock), the length of the string, and the amplitude. Test these
variables to see what effect each one has. Make big changes and only change one variable
at a time. Describe the effect of each variable.
2. Using what you learned in Q1, make a pendulum that has a period of 1 second, to
within 0.1 second. Save a version of the file Chapter7_1.gmbl with a graph showing the
results for this pendulum. Describe the important features of this pendulum.
3. Working from your file in item 2, adjust the graph display so that it shows position and
velocity plots at the same time (click on the Y axis label to find this option). Using
position graph to know where in the swing the bob is, you can read velocity for any point
in the swing. Where in the swing is the speed the highest? Where is the speed the lowest?
Use the concepts of kinetic and potential energy to explain this.
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Newton’s Universe Course 4
Force, Motion & Energy with Technology 2009 course journal
4. Now change the Y axis display to include position, velocity, and acceleration (you will
have to shrink the Y axis to see the peaks of the acceleration graph) Where in the swing is
the acceleration the largest? Use the Law of Force and Acceleration to explain this.
Activity 7-2 Mass and Spring
4. Use the Law of Force and Acceleration to explain why the period changes when you
change the mass on the end of the spring.
Chapter 8 Fluids (What Floats Your Boat?)
Course files needed in this chapter. (Find these in the flash drive folder “JournalItems”.)
chapter8_1.xls Excel file for activity 8-1
Answer the following journal questions (type directly below each question). Be sure
to save your completed versions of the above files on your flash drive in the folder
‘JournalItemsFolder’. These are part of your journal. Optional: You might want
to add the date to each file name when you save it.
Explore: Density
No journal entry needed.
Activity 8-1 Weighing Things Under Water
Save your completed excel file chapter8_1.xls including your data and graph.
5. What general statement can you make about how the weight of something changes
when it is placed under water?
Activity 8-2 Bottle Diver
Describe the diver that you made – and the key features that made it work successfully.
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