Unit 1 Blog

Newton's 1st Law

In this first blog, we talked alot about Newton's First Law (which is an object moving or at rest will remain moving or at rest unless acted on by an outside force). In talking about this we opened up by first doing a project entitled the Hovercraft. In this project, we pushed a hovercraft that had 0N of friction to the ground and watched as it moved forward with a constant velocity. This followed Newton's 1st Law because when at rest it would not go anywhere but once we added force to the hovercraft, it continued to move forward without any variation of its speed. When Sean Wrinkle stopped the hovercraft, he was acting as the outside force to this whole law. So he caused it to go in a different direction. 

 

Acceleration vs. Velocity

 In talking about the speed of something however, we can't go on further without explaining the difference between acceleration and velocity. Acceleration is defined as the rate of change of velocity over the amount of time it took to change (written as a = Change in V/T). While velocity is the rate of speed in which something happens (written as v = D/T). An object can have a constant acceleration, and that is when it steadily increases its acceleration by the same number each second or so.

 Acceleration in this picture would be if this truck continually accelerated each second by 2 m/s^2. If something had been going through a constant velocity it wouldn't be speeding up nor slowing down. It would stay at the same speed meaning it is an equilibrium. The formula for constant acceleration is d=1/2 at^2 while the formula for constant velocity is V= d/t.

Equilibrium and Inertia

An equilibrium is a state of rest or balance due to the equal action of opposing forces. So a car at rest, or an object that is traveling with a constant velocity would be an equilibrium. Inertia, is the property of matter by which it retains its state of rest or its velocity along a straight line so long as it is not acted upon by an external force. An example of this is if a boulder was rolling down a hill and you wanted to stop it, you would struggle and because it wants to remain rolling.

 Formulas:

v = at (acceleration)
a = Δv/t (acceleration)
d = 1/2 at2 (distance = 1/2 acceleration squared)
v = d/t (constant velocity)

y = mx + b (slope of a line)

Difficulties As Well As Goals:

So far in physics class, I have struggled with fully understanding the concept of acceleration. I seem to struggle with the fact that if an object goes around a curb with a constant speed it is accelerating. In the beginning I seemed to struggle because we learned earlier that if something is at a constant velocity, it has an acceleration of 0m/s^2. It wasn't this concept I struggled with however, it was understanding that speed doesn't directly mean velocity. I feel that I need to improve my study habits and turning things in on time in order to increase my grade and understanding of things in class. This would be one of my goals for the class, improving the way I study and turning my assignments in on time for the remainder of the year.

My Lab Video: