Science Methods II Week 4

 The big question addressed in lab, and a description of what you did.

    What affects the period (period= time for a swing to go back and forth once) of a swing? 

We taped a pencil onto the edge of the table and tied a string to the end of the pencil sticking off the end of the table. We tied an undone paper clip to the other end of the string. We then put one washer on the paper clip. We let go of the washer at the same height of the table. We let it swing for 15 seconds. We recorded the amount of periods of the swing in that time. We then added a washer and repeated. We did this until we had four washers on the paper clip. We found that the periods were the same for each weight. In conclusion, weight does not affect the period of a swing. This is because gravity pulls harder on more massive objects and more massive objects take more time to accelerate. These effects exactly cancel. 

 A description of what you learned in Thursday's lecture.

    In Thursday’s lecture we talked about what affects the period of a swing. We talked about weight of the swing and length of the swing. We found that weight does not affect the period of a swing, but length does. We also talked about Newton’s first law which is without an external force, a motion will maintain it’s speed and motion. 

Answer questions about the weekly textbook reading:

1. 1. What did you learn? Potential energy: the energy held by an object that gives it capacity to do work. Kinetic energy: the energy of an object due to motion. 
   2. What was most helpful? The wrecking ball example! I love when every day/common objects are used to explain more complex concepts. 
   3. What do you need more information on? I still feel like I am confused with slides and how when they are half way down the slide their gravitational pull is less? I don’t even know if that is true, but I am confused on that part. 
   4. What questions/concerns/comments do have? None right now