Physics

  Labs
Term 1:

  The Golf Ball Lab: In this lab, using a strobe light, a digital camera, and a golf ball, we determined the acceleration due to gravity. The digital camera was used to take a long-exposure picture of the golf ball falling with the strobe illuminating it every 1/15 of a second. The resulting picture was analyzed, and by measuring and graphing how far the ball traveled between each blink of the strobe, the acceleration due to gravity was calculated.

  Distance / Velocity Graph Lab: In this lab, we used a distance-measuring device and a computer graphing program to attempt to replicate a set of pre-drawn distance vs. time and velocity vs. time graphs. The distance-measuring device measured the distance from itself to an object, and the computer converted this information to a graph, of both distance vs. time and velocity vs. time.

  Marble Projectile Lab: In this lab, we graphed the parabolic motion of a marble falling at a constant forward velocity off of the end of a ramp.  We then used this information to determine an equation that predicts the motion of the ball, and to calculate information about gravity and velocity.

Term 2:

  Friction and Incline lab: This was a two-part lab.  In the first part, we confirmed that the angle of the slope on which an object rests varies via a sine function with the net downhill force on that object, negating frictional effects.  For the second part of the lab, we measured the static and dynamic coefficicients of friction on a number of different surfaces, and we showed that the static coefficient, m_static, varies with the tangent of the angle to which the surface must be raised for the object to start to slide.
  In simpler terms, we tested and graphed the downhill force of a cart on a ramp at different angles, and we figured out how it can be easier or harder to push objects across different surfaces.

  Cookie Lab: In this lab, we determined the amount of force necesary to separate the two halves of a cream-filled cookie.

  Spring Lab: In this lab, we calculated the constant k of a spring, and used that constant, in addition to other data such as the spring's mass, to describe the spring's motion as a projectile in several different circumstances, including determining how to launch the spring a given distance as a projectile and how to launch it so to keep it in the air for a given duration of time.

Term 3:

  Modern Computer Physics paper (download PDF): This is a large research paper describing some of the physics behind the workings of a modern computer

Term 4:

  The Guitar Lab: This is an ongoing lab, in which we design and build an electric guitar, including all of the circuitry and electromagnetic hardware necesary for the guitar to work.