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Online reading assignment: motion

Physics 205A, fall semester 2013
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 the reading textbook chapters (Giambattista/Richardson/Richardson, Physics, 2/e, Chs. 2.2-2.5) and previewing a flipped class presentation on (constant acceleration) 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.
"I thought the chain of pain was pretty interesting, because you really do experience it everyday, and I like the 'learn it, know it, live it' quote you put along with it."

"The calculus chain of pain was interesting to me because I feel like the calculus approach to physics is a little easier to understand than the non-calculus chain of pain. That one legitimately hurt my brain."

"How the connection between this part of physics and calculus are so closely related."

Describe something you found confusing from the assigned textbook reading or presentation preview, and explain why this was personally confusing for you.
"The calculus relations, I'm sure if it was explained I would understand, but I haven't seen too much calculus."

"Knowing exactly what scenarios require what plan of attack--as in when to go for the area, slope, etc. I'm just having a difficult time picturing scenarios in my head."

"The constant acceleration equations are a bit confusing. But in time, after applying them to problems, I think they might make more sense."

Briefly describe the difference(s) between a chord slope and a tangent slope on a graph.
"A chord slope goes through two different points through a line on a graph, while a tangent slope only goes through one."

"Chord slope gives you an average over time and a tangent slope give you an instantaneous value."

The __________ gives the displacement of an object.
chord slope of an x(t) graph.   ***** [5]
tangent slope of an x(t) graph.   **** [4]
chord slope of a vx(t) graph.   ***** [5]
tangent slope of a vx(t) graph.   ******** [8]
area under a vx(t) graph.   *************************** [27]
area under an ax(t) graph.  [0]
(None of the above choices.)  [1]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  ***** [6]

The chord slope of a vx(t) graph gives the __________ of an object.
displacement.   ** [2]
position.   ** [2]
change in (instantaneous) velocity.   **** [4]
(instantaneous) velocity.  **** [4]
average velocity.   ************************ [24]
(instantaneous) acceleration.   ** [2]
average acceleration.   ************ [12]
(None of the above choices.)  [0]
(Unsure/guessing/lost/help!)  ****** [6]

Ask the instructor an anonymous question, or make a comment. Selected questions/comments may be discussed in class.
"I'd like more clarification on tangent and chord slopes." (I'll make sure to bring up that point in class. Or set of two points, that is.)

"Can we do some problems--please, all the subtle differences in the equations get confusing." (Sure. But be careful of what you ask for.)

"Please go over the (calculus) equations in this section. For those of us who haven't taken calculus, or at least for me, it looks like gibberish. Thanks!" (Even after taking calculus, those equations still looks like gibberish to me.)

"Is there a better way to find the displacement of ∆x than counting the amount of boxes underneath the line on a graph?" (You could directly integrate the functional equation of the graph, or you could break up and calculate the area underneath as rectangles and/or triangles. Maybe counting boxes is not so bad, after all.)

"Do you have to answer all of the questions? Even the ones without stars next to them?" (The starred questions are mandatory; as long as you answer substantively for most of the unstarred questions, you'll get most or all of the credit for completing the assignment.)

"Is there any good way besides memorization to go about learning all these slopes and what they provide?" (Uh, yes. It's called calculus.)

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