Online reading assignment question: interesting Midterm 1 physics topics

Physics 205A Midterm 1 Survey, fall semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

111011-interestingwordle
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waiferx/6232208889/
Originally uploaded by Waifer X

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 (http://www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4220590/Untitled).

Students have a 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.)

[Responses have been edited to consolidate related common subjects.]

Student responses
Sections 70854, 70855

normalforce, friction
vectors, forces, velocity
projectilemotion, displacement, distance
motion, Newtonslaws, velocity
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, friction
angularspeed, vectors
freefall, Newtonslaws, forces, friction
friction, circularmotion, projectilemotion
useful, applicable, inductive
circularmotion, Newtonslaws, pulleys
velocity, acceleration, angularspeed
acceleration, forces, velocity
instantaneous, trajectory, radians
vectors, forces weight, normalforce, appliedforce, Newtonslaws
kineticenergy potentialenergy
kinematics, kinetics, mechanics
equations, hard, friction
kinematics, vectors, predictions
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, friction
formulas understanding concepts generalknowledge
projectilemotion friction
SIunits, velocity, normalforce
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, displacement
projectilemotion forces
letsdeconstructreality
friction, instantaneousvelocity, Newtonslaws
displacement, forces, friction
freefall, circularmotion, friction
motion, Newtonslaws, projectilemotion
friction, projectilemotion, Newtonslaws
motion, forces, friction
motion, velocity, acceleration
horizontalmotion, freebodydiagrams, forces, circularmotion
friction projectilemotion scales Newtonslaws
interesting, difficult, confusing
friction, angularacceleration, Newtonslaws
forces, gravity, projectilemotion, velocity, motion
Newtonslaws projectilemotion friction
Newtonslaws, radialacceleration, circularmotion, netforce

Describe your most interesting subject, and briefly explain why this subject interested you. (Graded for completion.)

The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.

"Force is the most interesting subject to me because if Ipicture whats happening, and understanding the forces that happen makes it interesting."

'i find vectors interesting because its a lot of trigonometry and i really like trig."

"Motion in a plane/projectile motion. Using vectors was easy and helpful so I understood this section the most."

"I have been going through a tough time, so nothing really sticks out"

"static, kinetic forces, projectile motion"

"vectors interest me because they are simple and I understand them"

"newtons forces were easy to understand and visualize."

"projectile motion, because i understood it the most."

"Newton's laws of motion are most interesting to me. Lately I've been applying these ideas to everyday objects like 'how much force should I exert on a shopping cart pointing up hill with 50 pounds of groceries...' and things of that nature"

"I think centripetal force is interesting to me because it's something I never fully understood before."

"Velocity because i never really understood the difference between that and speed."

"static friction because it is trying to keep me stuck"

"Projectiles because it is the common and viewable action of physics."

"I enjoy Motion in a plane, mainly because I struggled with the concept before but now I'm very proficient with it. When finding the change in (x) or distance from a projectile I always had issues understanding the change in time for that equation for some reason I always felt that the change in time would be different from the (Y) equations, Once I realized what I needed to do things became much simpler. And visualization is key."

"Uniform circular motion, I find it interesting because it relates to multiple things that spin."

"Mechanics by far. As an engineering student this is a huge part of my life and has always been extremely interesting."

"the projectile motion, becuz with some of the parts we are given, we can figure out the other parts by using the equations"

"Kinematics. Predict where objects land."

"I thought projectile motion was the most interesting subject most likely because i understand it fairly well."

"forces, and all the laws that apply to them. this helped me better under stand how stuff works in physics"

"projectile motion was the most interesting to me because I could easily picture what was going on in the situations and I felt comfortable with it."

"normal forces. they help describe the mechanics behind running"

"Projectile motion. This interests me because I just find it really fun and fascinating to work out problems (unfortunately not necessarily correctly) and see how the formulas can be applied to so many different situations because it really exhibits how the world we live in is so uniform even when it seems to have so much variety."

"projectile motion because you can apply it to a lot of things in everyday life"

"Motion on a plane: I like that projectile motion can be broken down into two different components that are fairly easily managed"

"The motion of projectiles is interesting to me because I never knew all the components involved into an object in motion. It explains situations very clearly in daily life you would not think about."

"I was most interest in the Newtons law: my dad used to apply then to "girl drama" i had when i was younger and so i had already learned them and could apply them to most things."

"most of the stuff that i found interesting was the stuff i could grasp. displacement vs distance, friction, ect."

"Projectile Motion, it's interesting"

"Friction I think i interesting. I never realized there were two types of friction, static is stiction until it becomes unstuck then it turns into kinetic friction, crazy how friction has two forms."

"Forces. The study of forces has helped me to better grasp the way the physical universe operates around me, with forces always acting on objects."

"I really like the concept of projectile motion, I think it interests me because I understand it the most."

"horizontal motion I find most interesting because it seems like the easiest part of the material covered."

"Kinetic and Static Friction was the most interesting because in hindsight it makes sense that an object gets easier to push at a constant rate than it does to get it started but before this class it wasn't something i thought of."

"finding the distance a projectile will go if thrown at a certain angle and initial velocity because i play a lot of ball sports so it involves life experiences"

"I thought static and kinetic friction were the most interesting aspect because i could easily relate that to real life."

"I find projectile motion to be very interesting. It is a very clear example of how our mathematics can precisely predict and explain our model of reality."

"projectile motion interested me when we took that video and broke down what we knew and figured out about how far the men were from the explosion"

"How forces balance each other out."