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Conceptual Physics text needed
The Conceptual Physics book that we have looks like this image from an Amazon customer, but without the "media update" banner. My son is planning to take AP Physics next year, but he has never had a...
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Physics C curriculum
I’ll be homeschooling my son and one other student in Physics this year, using the Matter and Interactions book. My copy of the book just arrived, and now I have to put together a schedule for getting...
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Quick response from Bruce Sherwood
I sent an e-mail to the authors of the Matter and Interactions book (Ruth Chabay and Bruce Sherwood) to get the password for the auxiliary material for teachers. Within three hours Bruce Sherwood had...
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Physics class progress
The physics class that I’m doing with my son and another home schooler is going a bit slowly. The other student couldn’t make it again this week (Stanford early admission deadlines, and he needed the...
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Physics Lab 3
The Physics Lab 2 post and Physics class progress described some experiments we were going to do this week with the ultrasonic range finder(s). What we actually did, after spending a fair amount of...
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Tracker Video Analysis and Modeling Tool tested
On Friday in our physics lab, we tested using Tracker Video Analysis and Modeling Tool for Physics Education from Cabrillo College, the local community college. We’re using version 4.50 which seems to...
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Physics Lab 4: spring constants
I had assigned the following lab assignment for this Friday, when I’ll be away in Washington, DC: Analyze the balldrop clips (in .mov format). For calibration, the distance we measured between the top...
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Physics Lab 4: spring constants continued
In Physics Lab 4: spring constants, I assigned a lab exercise to be done while I was away in Washington, DC, measuring a dozen different springs, getting spring constants for each, and trying to...
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Physics update
We’re falling a bit behind on the physics course. I was hoping we’d finish Chapter 3 this week, but one student has only done the problems and programs for Chapter 1 and read Chapter 2, and the other...
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Tracker video analysis tool fixes
As I reported in Tracker Video Analysis and Modeling Tool tested, we’re using version 4.50 of the Tracker Video Analysis and Modeling Tool for Physics Education from Cabrillo College, the local...
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Physics homework with dominoes
Almost a month ago, in post Physics Lab 3, I assigned the following homework Read Chapter 3. Work problems 3.P.36, 3.P.40, 3.P.43, 3.P.46, 3.P.52, 3.P.65, 3.P.72. Do computational problem 3.P.76. Note...
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Vernier Video Physics for the iPad 2
I have recently blogged about Tracker for analyzing videos of physics lab experiments. I like this approach to low-resolution measurement in classes, because it provides much better data than most...
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Physics homework (Chapter 4)
Physics homework for (re)read Chapter 4. Work problems 4.P.44 Also, look up copper’s density, atomic weight, and Young’s modulus on the web and add copper to the list. This should repeat the...
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Slinky lab
In the Physics homework (Chapter 4) post, I mentioned one lab I wanted to do: Compression waves in a Slinky. We want to measure stiffness and mass as well as the speed of compression waves. That way...
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Young’s modulus lab in physics
In Physics homework (Chapter 4) I proposed 3 labs to do with Chapter 4 of Matter and Interactions. Last week we did the Slinky Lab (though students have not done the computational simulation of the...
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More on the slinky and the speed of sound
The Slinky Lab post got an interesting pingback from Engineering Failures » Secrets of the ‘Levitating’ Slinky, which describes the curious phenomenon that happens when you suspend a slinky vertically,...
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Fields from nowhere
Greg Jacobs, in his post Just the basics, not the sources, of electric, magnetic fields, suggests that when teaching about electrical and magnetic fields, it is best to teach the effect of a uniform...
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Speed of sound lab writeup
The speed-of-sound lab we did on 30 Dec 2011 went pretty well after all. Coil (about 0.5H) with refrigerator magnet on top. Magnet is stuck to the core of the coil just by its own magnetism. I used a...
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Physics homework (Chapter 5)
Chapter 5 in Matter and Interactions is the one in which they finally introduce the derivative of momentum, though they are very careful to say that is not an identity but a statement of causation: the...
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Newton’s measurement of g
The motor for the circular pendulum mounted on a ceiling beam, with a short string attached. In Chapter 5 of Matter and Interactions, the authors describe an experiment that Newton did to measure , the...
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More on pendulums
In Newton’s measurement of g, I described a failed experiment to measure g with a motorized circular pendulum. Further experimentation on my own lead me to adopt for this week’s lab the standard...
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Pendulum lab went well
In today’s lab we derived the formula for the period of a simple pendulum (assuming the small-angle approximation), , then measured both circular and simple pendulums. For the circular pendulum we...
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Physics homework chapter 8
Chapter 8 of Matter and Interactions is a fairly lightweight introduction to quantized energy, so there is not much that we can do in the way of experiments or computation. About the only “experiment”...
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Friction lab writeup
For the past two meetings, I’ve had the students design and carry out their own lab on dry friction. In the first meeting, they decided what variables they wanted to vary and how they would vary them,...
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Physics homework chapter 9
Chapter 9 of Matter and Interactions is a return to mechanical energy after Chapter 8′s detour into quantized energy. Chapter 8 is needed somewhere, but it seemed to be an interruption where it is. I...
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Physics lab for chapter 8 but not 9?
Chapter 9 of Matter and Interactions is a return to mechanical energy after Chapter 8′s detour into quantized energy. I wanted for us to come up with a lab experiment for this chapter—perhaps something...
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Physics homework chapter 10
Chapter 10 of Matter and Interactions is on collisions, both Newtonian and relativistic. Let’s do a few problems for each type: 10P13, 10P22, 10P23, 10P30, 10P34, 10P35, 10P37. It would be good to do...
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San Leandro fund-raising for AP Physics
According to a Patch article, Advanced Physics Class $8,500 Away – San Leandro, CA Patch, an anonymous donor contributed $10,000 if the community could match it, in order to fund $20,000 worth of...
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Pressure and volume lab
I decided to do a lab out of order of the textbook today. There were two reasons for this: I had just gotten a bunch of physics toys that I had ordered from Arbor Scientific. I wanted the students to...
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Physics homework chapter 11
Chapter 11 of Matter and Interactions is angular momentum, finishing up the triumvirate of conservation laws (momentum, energy, and angular momentum). I’ve not come up with any labs to do, and with...
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AP exam time
This week and next are AP exam time. One of my blog posts related to the exams (2011 AP Exam Score Distribution), has gotten about 1000 views in the past week, making it my most-viewed post ever with...
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Advanced Placement for talent development
Since we are in the middle of AP testing for this year, it is timely that Hoagies’ Gifted has just posted Dr. Joyce VanTassel-Baska’s keynote speech from August 2000: The Role of Advanced Placement in...
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Physics homework chapter 12
Chapter 12 of Matter and Interactions is entropy and temperature. I’ve not come up with any labs I really want us to do for Chapter 12, and with class cancelled next week (June 15) I’m not sure when...
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Reporting bugs in books and web sites
Yesterday, while working problems in Chapter 12 of Matter and Interactions (about entropy and temperature),my son and I each found a bug. The one I found was in the book, the one he found was in...
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Physics C: E&M curriculum for year and Chapter 13 homework
I’ll be homeschooling my son in calculus-based physics again this year, using the Matter and Interactions book. The school year has started for him, so now I have to put together a schedule for...
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Chapter 14 homework
We’re already almost a week behind in physics, having intended to finish Chapter 13 last week, and instead finishing up the homework for tomorrow. We’ve both read Chapter 14, which is a short chapter...
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Chapter 14 done
We’re a week behind already, because we did not get any of the Chapter 14 homework done during the trip to Boulder, but we did finally get Chapter 14 done today. The twelve problems I assigned for...
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2014 AP Exam Score Distributions
Once again this year, I’m posting a pointer to 2014 AP Exam Score Distributions: Total Registration has compiled the following scores from Tweets that the College Board’s head of AP, Trevor Packer, has...
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