20171020

Online reading assignment: interesting Midterm 1 physics topics

Physics 205A, fall semester 2017
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

"2017-07 Phys 205A confusing"
Waifer X
flic.kr/p/ZC7p6g

Wordle.net tag cloud for interesting topics covered in Midterm 1, generated by responses from Physics 205A students at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA.

Students have a bi-weekly online reading assignment (hosted by SurveyMonkey.com), where they answer questions based on reading their textbook, material covered in previous lectures, opinion questions, and/or asking (anonymous) questions or making (anonymous) comments. Full credit is given for completing the online reading assignment before next week's lecture, regardless if whether their answers are correct/incorrect. Selected results/questions/comments are addressed by the instructor at the start of the following lecture.

List at least three words describing interesting subjects covered in class (up through this midterm). (Graded for completion.)

These raw responses were subsequently edited to consolidate related common subjects.
How forces act on objects, the effects it causes on each force and the interaction between those forces.
projectile motion, Newton's laws
I'm not sure what this is asking.
Centripetal, Newton's first law, displacement
Centripetal force, centrifugal force, elastic energy
Projectile motion and free fall calculations.
Newton's laws of motion
static friction force
friction, projectile motion , kinematics
Newton's laws, different types of forces, acceleration and speed, velocity, mass, momentum, weight
Anvil, Newton's laws, projectile
uniform circular motion, friction, and Newton's laws
challenging, exciting, new
acceleration is imense, projectile motion is now more calculated to me, precise force
acceleration, pulleys, stiction
Newton's laws, velocity, accleration
Newton's laws, Uniform Circular Motion, and friction.
newton laws projectile motion
force, direction, magnitude
Projectile motion and motion graphs
Circular motion phenomena
Newton's laws, force, suspension
Distance vs. displacement, centripetal force, Newton's laws
Vectors, kinetic and static friction, Uniform circular motion
Describe your most interesting subject, and briefly explain why this subject confused you. (Graded for completion.)

The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Maybe uniform circular motion, because it is harder to understand compared to all the other subjects, the forces act differently."

"I like projectile motion problems because it is like a puzzle and the problems are concrete."

"None is particularly that interesting."

"Calculus chain of pain."

"Centripetal force is the most interesting as I never once thought there was a pull towards the center of any circular motion."

"Projectile motion because I ride mountain bikes and use this conceptually every time I jump down a trail."

"Projectile motion, because it’s real life applications are interesting."

"Newton's laws were the most interesting because they apply to other classes that I am taking."

"Projectile motion because it can be applied to everyday life."

"I find it interesting that things hit the ground at the same time when one is dropped versus the other being horizontally moved somehow. not always the case im sure but its interesting. I go to the range with my grandpa and shoot guns and for some reason it makes me think of bullets and when they will hit the ground in a way. Not exactly the same type of thing im sure but yeah. The most interesting subject for me in this class so far is anything that has a strong, easily perceptible application to a real-world situation. Abstract mathematical physics problems are not only boring to me, they become useless when I don't really learn them - which is what happens when it is difficult to translate what is happening in the equation/problem to real life."

"Newton's second law of uniform circular motion is pretty interesting to me because it's not as intuitive as some other concepts."

"I found that the labs were very interesting, but that's about it."

"Learning that it takes more force to get something moving than it does to keep it moving was interesting because I had never thought about it that way before."

"The most interesting subject to me so far is projectile motion. The idea of an object free falling and eventually reaching a constant terminal velocity was hard to grasp for a second. It was interesting to think that if you free fell from a certain height, even a mile higher you would not hit the ground any harder."

"Stiction is by far the most interesting aspect of this unit for me. Different materials have different static friction coefficients, which relates directly to molecular bonding and partial charges."

"I think the using the forces were most interesting to me because I like the idea of biomechanics."

"I think that uniform circular motion was the most interesting because it is one of those things I never really thought about how it worked before and now it makes sense."

"I personally like projectile motion because the ability to calculate the path of a thrown object is very helpful as a programmer with an interest in games."

"I thought that uniform circular motion was fascinating; something that I was able to observe in the real world was finally explained. The practice problem involving water in a bucket was especially interesting, as it tied net force and normal force together in a new way that was especially great for a visual learner like myself."

"I feel like the projectile motion will be the most interesting to me, because my brain works on seeing things that way. I am currently learning how to fly airplanes and this is one thing that we constantly have to take into consideration especially as we are climbing to avoid obstacles or coming in to land."

"Circular motion, because its applicable in many real-life situations."

"I find suspension and the forces that are involved in suspension to be interesting. I think the reason is because I am highly afraid of elevators so it's interesting to see how they work regarding physics."

"I thought the discussion of Newton's laws was very interesting. I only briefly learned about them in high school but once I got to learn about them in depth, it was very interesting."

"Vectors--due to a failure in the online enrollement system, I finished all my engineering classes before doing any physics, I loved working on vectors and tension."

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