Monday, February 17, 2014

Unit 5 Blog Reflection

What I learned this unit:

Work is a force applied over a distance.
Work= Force x Distance( force and distance must be parallel to have work)
Unit for work is in Joules (J)
Power = Work/Time
Unit for power is in Watts (J/s) or Horsepower (746 watts)
Kinetic Energy (KE) is the energy of movement and can be found with the equation KE= 1/2mv^2
Change in KE is equal to work.
Potential Energy is the energy an object has at some height and can be found with the equation PE=mgh
KE and PE are inversely related.
When an object is at rest it has no KE, but if at a height it has PE.
Energy is never created or destroyed, only transferred into something else (heat, sound etc...)
A simple machine is something that makes work easier, you are still doing the same work but it feels easier due to the fact that you use less force because of increased distance. 
Examples are Ramps, Levers, and Pulleys
Work in = Work out
Machine Efficiency= (Work out/Work in) x 100
In this unit, I had trouble with the concept of potential energy, but after a short time I mastered the idea.

My problem solving skills, effort, and learning:
My problems solving skills remained about the same as this unit went on, I simply started to see problems in a different way. My effort has been a bit elevated in this unit as I was working with concepts I had never seen before. My goal for next unit is to keep up strong effort and contribute more to the class. 
My previous goal of trying to work harder on having better effort has worked and I felt that I was trying harder in this unit than before.
This unit helps me understand another reason for why Newton's Cradle works. 

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Simple Machines Resource

This video was very helpful review as it applies exactly to what we have learned in class. This video was made by the creator of the textbooks that we use and therefore uses basically the exact terminology that we use in class. I would recommend this video for anyone who is just learning about simple machines or to anyone who wants to review.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Work and Power Resource

The above video provides a perfect example of work and power and the differences between them. This helps me understand the concepts because lifting weights is something I do every day. The only concept that they left out from the video was that the force and the distance must be parallel to be classified as work. But it does provide the basics of work= force x distance, and the fact that power is work over time.