Online reading assignment: vector operations, projectile motion

Physics 205A, fall semester 2012
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

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.

The following questions were asked on reading textbook chapters and previewing a presentation on vector operations and projectile motion.

Selected/edited responses are given below.

Describe something you found interesting from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally interesting for you.

"Horizontal and vertical motion of something are independent of each other. It would seem that they directly effect each other and that their would some mathematical relation between the two, that they directly or inversely predict each other."

"The experiment with the ball falling straight down and one on arch being at same heights. I was surprised that the ball falling straight didn't reach the floor faster."

"Without air resistance horizontal acceleration does not affect the acceleration of gravity."

Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.

"I'm kinda sketchy on how to subtract vectors. Adding makes sense but subtracting is kinda vague."

"Why is horizontal velocity constant? And why is horizontal displacement equation only a regular velocity equation, inverted?"

Explain what will happen to the magnitude and/or direction of a vector that is multiplied by -1.

"Direction is flipped, or opposite, but magnitude remains the same. Uh-huh."

Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.

"It's been a while for trig functions, can we go over the basics? :)"

"Is there a sheet that we can print out with all the formulas that we have been using so far and the 'chain of pain?'" (Links to the constant acceleration motion equations and the "chain of pain" are found on the course website.)

"Please work out problem from start to finish instead of telling us what happens." (Come to posted office hours or make an appointment; ask questions just before/after lecture or via e-mail.)

"Do we ever get to play with gravity on a large scale in this class?" (Well, with small objects in laboratory this week.)