Online reading assignment question: confusing Midterm 2 physics topics

Physics 205A Reading Assignment 24, fall semester 2011
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

111127-Phys205A-Midterm2-confusing
http://www.flickr.com/photos/waiferx/6415132437/
Originally uploaded by Waifer X

Wordle.net tag cloud for confusing topics covered in Midterm 2, generated by responses from Physics 205A students at Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA (www.wordle.net/show/wrdl/4480072/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 confusing 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

leverarms, buoyancy, torque
flow, inertia, gravity, flow
fluids, SHM, waves
strings waves density
physics physics physics
torque, buoyancy, flow, leverarms, rotations
buoyancy, fluids, pressure
leverarms
formulas, collisions, inertia
energy density conservation, SHM, rotations, energy
everything
everything
studyguides flashcardquestions
buoyancy, momentum, leverarms
collisions, formulas
buoyancy, buoyancy, buoyancy
torque leverarms
fluids, waves, buoyancy
fluids, buoyancy, energy conservation
buoyancy, torque, energy conservation
difficult, unrelenting, complex
Zerg torque conservation
buoyancy impulse pendulum
impulse momentum, collisions, density
buoyancy, torque, flow
work, energy conservation, torque
everything, everything, ahhh :(
pressure, fluid flow, pressure
friction friction friction
energy, buoyancy, momentum
collisions
impulse momentum, buoyancy
buoyancy stress strain
statics, momentum, stress strain
density, buoyancy, Zerg
forces, leverarms, torque
leverarms, torque, friction collisions
stress strain energy rotations inertia
difficult confusing hard
rotations, expansion, pressure
standingwaves, momentum, conservation, fluids, flow
pressure, buoyancy, friction
waves frequency

Describe your most confusing 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.

"Torque because it doesn't make sense to me."

"inertia, confusing"

"Fluids. It was a very broad chapter and I didn't master any part of it very well. The equations and math confuse me."

"waves, its a very odd concept for me to grasp"

"word problems"

"torque. too many weird values and parts- what the heck is a lever arm? what is an r perp? why does the T for torque look like it is sitting down?"

"Buoyancy was difficult to understand probably because I missed the lectures."

"Drawing lever arms, and knowing which lines are which."

"Trying to remember how to apply all of the different formulas is difficult for me."

"Torque because I'm still confused on determining forces and magnitude acting on the objects."

"torques"

"physics is confusion"

"Uelas and Krot"

"wave nature because i have no time the past two weeks:("

"Momentum is the most confusing subject to me on this upcoming midterm because the questions regarding momentum always are the hardest to decipher."

"I understand most of it, but it takes to long to solve a problem in a timed test setting so I need to practice more."

"Lever arms are still very confusing for me because I always seem to miss one step."

"For whatever reason I've always had more trouble with static fluids than dynamic fluids. But both subjects can be confusing at times."

"fluid, don't even know how to start it, and for other problems just sometimes don't know what is 0 and know what cancel out"

"Buoyancy and Perfectly Inelastic collisions. Instead of going over the basic concepts with flashcard questions for most of the time in class, I believe that we should do more problems in class because when we do problems we learn the basic concepts as well."

"Standing waves are most confusing because i'm having trouble comprehending resonant frequencies."

"The problems that are more complicated (like 7.43) usually mess my up. anything beyond a 'plug and chug' usually takes allot of practice for me to make sure I dont get hung up on anything. As for the zerg, they're just jerks."

"I guess i was having trouble with drawing the force diagrams accurately for these problems"

"collisions and energy conservation was the most confusing."

"buoyancy, i didnt learn it ever"

"While I feel like I understand the concept of torque, sometimes I have trouble finding r perp correctly especially when you have angles that require you to use sin, cos, tan to complete the problem."

"lever arms."

"Pressure, I just didn't get enough explanation of the equations"

"Fluid Physics - I don't know; that whole 'buoyancy' thing still irks me."

"bouyant forces, it is confusing because i haven't spent the necessary time to cover the material like i would like to."

"The problem we went over in class 7.44, WHAT THE HELLLLLLLL (P)"

"lever arms, i cant ever draw the line of motion"

"Nothing!"

"motionless, things without motion does not make sense"

"Energy conservation, mostly because we did not use it as much."

"Torques, I get really frustrated with the right hand rule."

"friction with perfectly elastic situations."

"Kinetic rotational inertia was difficult because my algebra is weak and i have trouble moving around mathematical symbols on either side of the equation such."

"Waves because there are a lot variables"

"my main problem is all circluar motion and rotational stuff because I have a hard time calculating it"

"I still can't grasp my mind around how a object/material will resonate at a certain frequency."

"bouyancy is kind of difficult to understand at first but when it is understood it is more interesting than hard"

"The most confusing part is remembering what all the variables are used for what and what their SI units are."