A completely useless day for the few juniors who showed up for class. Since it was also a "weather reserve day" which was reinstated due to the October snowstorm, attendance was down in general. At least we enjoyed bagels in the morning and pizza in the afternoon (my...
Today I got my class roster for next year's AP Physics C course. It's all boys, again. Although this year I had one girl and 14 boys, the previous two years have been all male. And the year before that was just two girls. It wasn't always this way. For a number of years...
How long is a sound wave? What is the relationship between the wavelength of sound from a Boomwacker and the length of the tube? (Rather than telling students that the wavelength is double the tube length, they are going to figure it out themselves.) Part one: Determine...
(download) Click here to download: VIDEO0295.3gp (12.84 MB) Not satisfied with the paper strip "conveyer belt" I suggested students use, one group wanted to make a real conveyer belt for yesterday's investigation...
It's downright impossible to use slinkies to find the relationship between wave frequency, speed, and wavelength. (Well, unless you use standing waves, but that muddies rather than clarifies the physics at hand.) But the relationship between candy frequency, conveyer...
Today was the AP Physics trip to Six Flags New England. It was the best year yet. Kids showed up on time, no traffic on the way there, short waits for rides, all-you-can-eat lunch buffet, the whole group stayed together the entire time, and Twisty's ice cream on the way...
The AP Economics exam threw a wrench in my original plan for College-Prep Physics today. So we decided to enjoy the nice weather and go outside to determine the speed of sound. In the video, Ryan is clapping wood blocks together at a rate of 2 claps per second (1/2 second...
(download) Click here to download: VIDEO0296.3gp (4.42 MB) Got the idea from this video. The water has baking soda added to increase conductivity (seems to work better than salt). However, I wasn't getting quite...
(download) Click here to download: CIMG0695b.mov (33.9 MB) One of the few evil tricks I do.... I tell the kids I'm going to administer a hearing test. If they can still hear the tuning fork after I've stopped it...
