Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA
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Wordle.net tag cloud for confusing 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/7179392/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, 73320
centripetalforce, Newtonslaws workDescribe your most confusing subject, and briefly explain why this subject confused you. (Graded for completion.)
projectilemotion. graphs, work
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, vectors
work, energy N3 Newtonslaws
friction, N3 Newtonslaws
impulse, friction, netforce freebodydiagrams
centripetalmotion, friction
Newtonslaws, forces normalforce weight, vectors, circularmotion.
confusing, different, logical.
irritating, irritating, frustrating
tension, magnitude, friction
friction, motion
tension, magnitude, friction
tangent flowchart
forces, Newtonslaws, projectilemotion
Newtonslaws, friction, forces
vectors, displacement, gravity
mostofit
centripetalforce, netforce, normalforce, circularmotion
terrible hard yuck
N3 Newtonslaws
N3 Newtonslaws, forces, weight
mindblowing
circularmotion, graphs, problemsolving
dimensionalanalysis, projectilemotion, N2 Newtonslaws
netforce, tangentialvelocity
circularmotion
energyconservation
N3 Newtonslaws, tension normalforce, circularmotion
circularmotion freebodydiagrams
elevator, velocity, gravity
freebodydiagrams, circularmotion, vectors
The following are all of the student responses to this question, verbatim and unedited.
"Determining magnitude of displacement vs distance traveled from time vs. velocity graphs and other sorts of graphs- I thought I understood it but was looking at my old quizzes and I got a few of those questions wrong"
"I thought the transfer energy balance equations were difficult because there was no set formula or rules to go by. I feel like you could go wrong at any step in the problem!"
"Newton's Laws and Projectile motion were very confusing to me. It's hard to grasp which number is what in the problem and which equation to put them in."
"Newton's third law and how to add every force acting upon the object."
"Newton's third law was the most confusing subject covered in this midterm because it had many different aspects and it was confusing to me how it was applied."
"Impulse, I didn't understand the concept the way it was presented in the book."
"When dealing with both vertical and horizontal aspects of an object moving things can get confusing for me. Sometimes I'm unsure of what equations to use and what to solve for."
"The most confusing subject covered in this section has to be Newton's laws. For some reason it took me forever to get a firm grasp on what situations are covered by which laws, in particular the first and third laws due to their similarities. A second close runner-up was uniform and non-unifrom circular motion."
"Projectile motion. I don't understand how to bring in the x and y components into an equation."
"the kinematic equations"
"Roller coaster problem"
"I still don't really understand projectile motion and how to solve for something revolving around projectile motion. The long equations we are given really throw me off and make it confusing to me. I have to further study this subject before Wednesday."
"Trying to determine all the forces that are involved acting on an object is very confusing for me. If you cannot figure out all the forces, then typically you cannot solve the problem, and that makes me very frustrated."
"I was confused with vectors a lot before I focused and read the book"
"Force i dont generally understand why things stay where they are or why they dont."
"I was really confused on that car going upside-down and all the forces acting on the car."
"Uniform circular motion"
"Newtons 3rd law because i have a really hard time grasping the concept of it."
"POF-OST-ITO does not seem to sync with explanations I've seen elsewhere."
"I find uniform circular motion and forces involved confusing because I get confused on forces and the direction they must face. I am also confused on how Newton's First and Third Laws can state that two of these forces are the same, yet Newton's second law describes uniform circular motion."
"Newton's law 1 & 2, where it asks if speed is constant, but the car is accelerating. How is speed constant??"
"The most confusing subject in the mid term seems to be the portion using sin, cos, and tan because I'm still a little confused at to what parts go to what part of the triangle"
"The most confusing subject for me that will be covered on the midterm would have to be that of circular motion (both uniform and non-uniform) because the radial acceleration was a bit difficult to understand."
"The most confusing thing for me covered in this midterm is not necessarily a subject that was covered but I had and have a tough time solving problems because I do not know all of the terms or equation symbols and how to use the equations due to me missing the first couple of days."
""
"Newton's three laws: conceptually, I think I understand the definition. Then, when asked about a new situation, I realize other things (less related to Newton's laws) such as which forces are acting on each object, are causing confusion for me."
"I think not drawing the FBDs were the most difficult part of material on the midterm. I thought I understood friction force on an object until I started drawing the FBDs. I understood friction better with the diagrams. Also, u.c.m. was a difficult to understand w/o drawing the FBDs for all of the forces acting on the giving object in motion."
"Equations"
"I had a hard time with vectors and applying them to the word problems because my trigonometry is a bit rusty. I haven't taken that class since high school some 6+ years ago."
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