20131016

Online reading assignment: interesting Midterm 1 physics topics

Physics 205A, fall semester 2013
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

131016-interesting
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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/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 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, 73320
acceleration, momentum, impulse
displacement, angularvelocity, freebodydiagrams
graphs, projectilemotion, Newtonslaws
kineticenergy, potentialenergy Newtonslaws
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, tension
work, displacement, kinematics
forces, velocity, displacement
kinematics, friction, velocity, trigonometry
abstract, interesting, understandable
velocity, vectors, elasticity
Newtonslaws
kinematics, Newtonslaws, friction
Newtonslaws
velocity, speed, projectilemotion
projectilemotion, kinematics, inertia
vectors, forces, Newtonslaws
notthoroughlycovered
circularmotion friction forces
crazy confusing cool
forces, Newtonslaws, friction
work, tension, forces
mindblowing, enlightening, commonsense
Newtonslaws, circularmotion,
whoa, ahh, huh
Newtonslaws, static friction, velocity
forces work kineticenergy potentialenergy projectilemotion
freefall friction
projectilemotion, Newtonslaws, displacement vectors
acceleration friction circularmotion
velocity, projectilemotion, gravity
centripetalforce, Newtonslaws, velocity speed
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.
"static friction, because it can vary depending on the magnitude of the force being applied to it up to a certain maximum value"

"I like free fall motion problems because it makes so much sense to me."

"It's interesting how a graph can speak a thousand words."

"Circular Motion, it's very interesting how Newton's second law works."

"I thought projectile motion was the most interesting because of the fact that the horizontal velocity was independent of vertical velocity."

"I liked the pulley and the work problems, the concepts intrigued me."

"The amount of forces that can act upon a stationary object is what I found interesting because it can be more complicated than one might think."

"I found projectile motion to be the most interesting subject covered in this section. While every concept covered in this lecture is very much relatable to every-day life, projectile motion stands out from among the rest due to my love of sports, particularly football. Now I can't help but think of what the variables every time I a pass thrown or a field goal kicked on Sundays."

"The forces acting on an object. You never really think about everything that goes on at all times."

"the most interesting part for me is the problems that relate to real life situations"

"Rocket car, explosion was awesome and I loved that we could prove that he couldn't make it"

"U.C.M. I just thought it was cool"

"rocket car because explosion"

"the lab we did that calculated the velocity of a car to tip because I was in an accident that involved this."

"I really enjoyed learning about velocity (and average speed). To me this was the most interesting section because I hadn't really thought about it much before taking this class."

"I thought the conservation of energy was most interesting. I like how it explains that energy is never created or destroyed, but just transferred. We were able to apply these laws to many situations in class to help further see how this applies in real life."

"Newtons laws are interesting because I'm always thought about what they refer to its interesting because I can just see thought process he had and how it makes sense"

"Uniform circular motion. because i can know explain to a three year old in way too much detail why she feels like she is getting pulled of the round-a-bout at the playground."

"I feel the kinetic and static friction forces were ones that I was interested in because I never really thought about how static force is stronger than kinetic force."

"Friction forces, just the way they work is interesting."

"Circular motion because I've never really thought about the concept of it before."

"Pulleys, I'm interesting in the simple machines."

"I really enjoyed studying friction and the corresponding lab. I do a lot of rock climbing and the exercise we did in lab was extremely relevant to climbing equipment. Pretty much everything is great though, as it's relevant to everything in the whole world, duh, that's physics I guess."

"I find the problems, like the frog jumping from a surface and the quiz questions where an object is thrown to be most interesting. This can both be solved with mathematical equations as well as thought out logically to support the numerical value from calculations."

"Difference between displacement and total distance traveled."

"The most interesting subject in this midterm is newtons laws because they are pretty straight forward and not very hard to understand"

"I really found the subject that dealt with Newton's Laws to be the most interesting because it helped me understand that most other subjects involve these laws."

"However the most interesting yet also sometimes confusing subject covered in this midterm is newtons laws. I personally found newtons laws interesting because they are three basic laws which have a huge impact on multiple things and make physics easier. For example we can calculate the weight or a book on a table and by newtons first law we know that the normal force that the table is exerting on the book is equal to the weight force."

"Objects in free fall are interesting to me because the concepts for that motion were challenging to wrap my head around."

"I like the idea of friction mainly because I couldn't get it at first, but once I got it it was all good. Static friction force will be in any direction that keeps an object from starting to slide. Kinetic friction will again act in any direction as to stop the moving object from sliding. I get it."

"Projectile motion"

"Uniform Circular Motion is interesting to me because I have friends that are into 'drifting' and because I (used to) enjoy roller coasters. This was also one of the concepts that I found most difficult."

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