AP PHYSICS 1 – Introduction and Summer Homework 2016
Instructor: Ms. Fitzmaurice, Portable 6
Instructor Email: [email protected]
Instructor Phone: (978) 808 -7780
COURSE BASICS
Welcome to AP Physics 1 at Pittsburg High School!
The goals of this course are to
· Train you to think critically about problems from multiple
angles, gathering information and ideas from various sources.
· Train you to plan, execute, record, interpret, and refine your
own experiments.
· Develop your ability to communicate in the context of
technical subjects.
· Improve your ability to apply the mathematical skills you have
learned to real – life situations.
· Expose you to the rigor that will come with college science
classes.
· Help you earn a good (shoot for 5!) score on the AP Physics 1
Exam.
· Stretch, bruise, heal, and grow your brain in as many
directions as possible.
IMPORTANT DATES
This summer homework is designed to take roughly 20 hours in
total. I highly recommend that you start the physics summer
homework at the beginning of the summer and spend 1 – 2 hours on it
each week, especially if you are taking other AP classes. If you do
this, not only you will avoid the frantic end – of – summer rush,
but you will probably learn the material better. Physics, like many
other subjects, takes a while to “gel” in your brain.
· Before June 7th, 2016: There are a few things that you need to
do before you leave for the summer.
· Get your textbook from the library!
· Let me know if you do not have RELIABLE internet access at
your home! The structure of the class next year will require you to
watch online videos, take notes from those videos, and submit
homework answers into online forms. If you do not have reliable
home internet access, I will find a way to work around this, but it
is very important that I know how many students are in this
situation before we leave for the summer.
· By June 15th, 2016: Send me an email at
[email protected], so that I have your email address. I will
be sending out a brief survey via email about the previous
experiences, learning preferences, interests, and resources
available to students in the class. Before you send me the email,
read through this packet in its entirety, and let me know that you
have done so in the email. Feel free to introduce yourself and ask
me any questions you might have about the summer homework or the
course in general.
· By July 6th, 2015: There are a few things that you will need
over the course of the summer. Check your email during the week of
July 6th for:
· A google-form survey. It should take you less than 15 minutes
to complete, but will help me in my planning.
· Video lessons. All of the summer homework assigned is based
either on review material or material found in the first two
chapters of your textbook, some students struggle to learn from
textbooks alone. I will be providing video lessons to help you with
the topics in parts II, III, and IV of the summer homework.
· Your “socratic dialogue” partner and his or her email.
· By August 19th, 2016: Complete Parts I – IV of the summer
homework. All summer homework is due on the first day of class,
will be graded, and will count as your first test grade. Late
summer homework will lose 10% per day that it is late.
· First Week of School: We will spend a short time reviewing the
concepts (including the lab!) covered in your summer homework.
· August 24th, 2015: You will be tested on the material covered
in your summer homework (including the lab!).
SUMMER HOMEWORK OVERVIEW
In addition to the emails that you must submit over the summer,
there are five main parts to the AP Physics summer homework.
· Part I: Experimental Planning, Critical Thinking, and
Communication
· Part II: Math Review
· Geometry
· Algebra
· Linear Graphs: Physical meaning of slopes and areas
· Part III: Giancoli Chapter 1 – Introduction, Measurement,
Estimation
· Part IV: Giancoli Chapter 2 – Describing Motion: Kinematics in
One Dimension
· Part V: Argumentation
Part I: Experimental Planning, Execution, and Communication
One of the main objectives of AP Physics 1 is that students
develop in their ability to plan, execute, and communicate the
results of scientific experiments. Some of you may already be
comfortable with these skills, but many of you will find them
challenging at first. This summer, you will complete your first
laboratory experiment, as detailed below.
Goal: The goal of this lab is for you to estimate as precisely
as possible how long it would take a penny to sink to the bottom of
the deepest part of the ocean.
Materials:
·
1
· Penny
· Quarter
· String
· Whatever else you think you need (Don’t go out and buy a lot
of things! Use what you have lying around your home!)
Procedure Requirements:
Although as the year progresses our experiments will become more
and more open-ended, our initial experiments may include some
required procedural steps. In this experiment, you will be
measuring the amount of time that it takes for a penny to sink to
the bottom of different depths of water. In conducting your
experiment, you must include at least 10 (you may choose to do
more) different depths. However, the depths that you choose, the
manner in which you measure those depths, the manner in which you
obtain time measurements, and the mathematical techniques you use
to obtain an estimate is up to you.
Questions to Consider in Planning Your Experiment:
1. How will you measure time? What limitations are there on the
precision of your time measurements? How could you overcome some of
those limitations? (There are many ways to do this with very simple
technology.)
2. How will you measure the depth of the water?
3. How will you drop the penny?
4. What depths of water will you use and how will you retrieve
your penny?
5. How will you use your measurements to make an estimate? How
accurate or precise do you think that your estimate will be?
6. How many times will you measure the time it takes to sink at
each depth?
Data Table, Graphs, and Calculations:
An important part of scientific communication is organizing your
data into a manner in which it is easy to read. In this lab, I
expect you to represent your data both in a table and in a
scatterplot . You may you’re your data either on graph paper or on
a computer. These representations should also help you to use your
data to extrapolate how long the penny will take to sink to the
bottom of the ocean.
Depth of Water (m)
Time to the bottom (s)
Write-up: You will complete a full lab report. The parts of the
lab report are detailed below.
· Purpose – Students should clearly state the purpose of their
experiment in 1-3 sentences. Students may not copy the purpose of
the lab directly from the assignment sheet but must paraphrase the
lab in their own words.
· Approach – Students should summarize the approach that they
take in 1-3 sentences.
· Procedure and Narration – Students should explain what their
group did step – by – step. This explanation should include both
and explanation and a rationale behind any calculations. If you are
repeating the same calculation several times, you may give an
example calculation, rather than explaining the same thing 5 times.
This section should be written in paragraph form, rather than as a
list.
· Observations and Data – Students should record general
observations and summarize their data in a table or graph. All
tables and graphs should be introduced with a sentence or two. This
section should be 1-2 paragraphs in total.
· Analysis – Discuss your results. Do they make sense? Where
were there possibilities for experimental error. This section
should be 1-2 paragraphs in total.
· Conclusions and Future Work – Use your data to form a
conclusion, related to the purpose of the lab. Explain how you
could change your procedure to get better results if you had more
time. This section should be 1-2 paragraphs in total.
Part II: Math Review
(This part should take you about 3 hours.)
In AP physics, we will be using Algebra, Geometry, and a little
bit of Precalc on a daily basis. In order to refresh your memory in
these subjects, I will be asking you to do a bit of math review
over the summer.
Although you could do all of this in one sitting, my suggestion
is that you do one or two of these problems a day. (Each problem
should take between 30 s and 5 minutes.) That way, you will keep
the mathematical part of your brain awake throughout the
summer.
1. Being able to manipulate formulae to solve for a variable is
an extremely important skill in Physics. It is done to isolate a
single variable to make problem solving easier. You will be
accustomed to solving problems in this manner by the end of the
course. The formulae below are a few of the ones we will be using
during the course. Your task is to manipulate the variables
algebraically and solve for the variable indicated.
a. ______________
b. ,m = ______________
c. ______________
d. ______________
e. _______________
f. _______________
g. _______________
h. ________
i.
2. The geometry skills necessary in Physics involve being able
to calculate angles, find lengths of lines, and understand basic
geometric terms. Solve the following geometric problems using the
figures provided.
30o
C
67o
B
A
Figure C
Figure B
Figure A
a. In figure A, line B touches the circle at a single point.
Line A extends through the center of the circle.
i. What term can be used to describe line B in reference to the
circle? _______________
ii. How large is the angle between lines A and B?
_______________
iii. If the radius of the circle is 5.5 cm, what is the
circumference in meters? ____________
iv. If the radius of the circle is 5.5 cm, what is the area in
square meters? ______________
b. In figure B, what is the measure of angle C?
______________
c. In figure C, what is the measure of angle ? _____________
x
y
40o
θ
d. The diagram above shows an object sitting on a ramp. A
coordinate axis has been included for reference and is tilted along
the x-axis. The diagram is not drawn to scale. This is a common
diagram in Physics when dealing with objects on sloped surfaces.
How large is angle?
e. One of the first concepts we will be dealing with involves
using graphs to describe the motion of objects. One aspect of these
graphs that you will become accustomed to hearing is referred to as
“the area under the curve.” This refers to the area of the
geometric shape created by the graph. Using this graph, calculate
the following:
A
4
20
12
i. What is the area under the curve? _____________
ii. What is the slope of section A? _______________
B
iii. What is the slope of section B? _______________
3. Using the generic triangle to the right, Right Triangle
Trigonometry and Pythagorean Theorem solve the following. Your
calculator must be in degree mode.
a. = 55o and c = 32 m, solve for a and b.
_______________ _______________
b. = 45o and a = 15 m/s, solve for b & c.
_______________ _______________
c. b = 17.8 m and = 65o, solve for a & c.
______________ ________________
4. Graphing – For each of the sets of data below,
a. Graph the data points on the grid below. (Make sure you
include a title, scale, and units!)
b. Draw a line of best fit for those data points.
c. Calculate the slope, area under the curve, and intercept of
the line of best fit.
Data Set 1: (Graph Weight vs. Length)
Slope:_________
Area:__________
Intercept:_______
Data Set 2: (Graph m vs. P)
Slope:_________
Area:__________
Intercept:___
Parts III & IV: Chapters 1 & 2 in GIANCOLI
Reading a Physics Textbook:
“Listening to recordings won’t teach you to play piano (though
it can help), and reading a textbook won’t teach you physics
(though it can help) . . . I urge you to read with a pencil (not a
highlighter).” ~D.V. Schroeder
Parts III and IV consist of reading (some of) the first two
chapters in your textbook and doing problems from each chapter. I
suggest reading each section on a different day and treating it as
one night’s worth of homework, rather than trying to cram several
sections into one day. Going through the sections in this way
allows your brain a little bit of time to process. Although I will
not require that you take notes in any particular way, I do require
that you take notes when you read and your notes will be collected
as part of the summer homework. I have provided an example of the
quality of notes that I expect.
Read the section before trying to do any of the problems and
then go back to the text as necessary when you are doing the
problems. Finally, do not try to read the textbook as quickly as
you would read an English or History Textbook! Read the text slowly
and make sure that you understand what you are reading.
Writing Problems Up “Nicely”:
In most college science classes, you will be required to turn in
problem sets on a weekly basis, rather than having nightly
homework. In these classes, you will be required to write your
problem sets up in very particular ways. Furthermore, AP graders
(and I) will assign more partial credit for answers that are
understandable and that clearly demonstrate an understanding of the
problem.
For your summer homework and for the formal problem sets that
you do in my class, I will require that you write problems up
“nicely,” and 10% of your score on those problem sets will consist
of “style points.”
“Nicely” written problems must include:
· A rephrasing of the problem statement in your own words.
· An explanation for any steps that are not basic algebra.
· Complete sentences.
An example of a “nicely” written problem can be found after my
example of notes.
Example Videos:
Example Videos and Video lessons will be sent out on July 6th,
2014. These are not mandatory, but last year I found that many
students had trouble learning “just” from the book. Please note
that these videos are not a replacement for reading and taking
notes from the book. Instead, use them as an extra resource if you
are having trouble with the assigned problems after you have tried
to learn from the book.
Part III Sections: (This should take you roughly 5 hours.)
Read the following sections and do the problems listed
below.
Section 1 – 4: Measurement and Uncertainty; Significant
Figures
1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9
Section 1 – 5: Units, Standards and the SI System
Section 1 – 6: Converting Units
12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23
Section 1 – 7: Order of Magnitude: Rapid Estimating
24, 25, 27, 28
Section 1 – 8: Dimensions and Dimensional Analysis
32
Part IV Sections: (This should take you roughly 5 - 7
hours.)
Read the following sections and do the problems listed
below.
Section 2 – 1: Reference Frames and Displacement
Section 2 – 2: Average Velocity
Section 2 – 3: Instantaneous Velocity
1, 3, 4, 7, 9, 11, 13
Section 2 – 4: Acceleration
16, 17, 19
Section 2 – 5: Motion at Constant Acceleration
Section 2 – 6: Solving Problems
21, 23, 24, 27, 29, 31
Part V: Argumentation
Although much of this class will consist of solving problems
that ultimately have a “correct answer,” it is important to
remember that in practice, science is the pursuit of open – ended
questions and puzzles. There are no “correct steps” to most of
science. Scientists have to guess and fumble their way to the
answers that they are looking for, using their intuition. Often,
they don’t take the most efficient route to their findings and at
the cutting edge (and further back from the cutting edge than you
might expect), there are no definite “right answers.” Discoveries
are challenged, scrutinized, and argued for and against, and
through iterations of struggle, better and better ideas are
developed.
Throughout the year, you will experience this in the context of
labs, debates, challenge questions, and essays. Always keep in mind
that even if an idea or argument is partially incorrect, there is
probably something valuable in that idea or argument. It is
probable that many of the “misconceptions” that you will hold over
the course of the year were once held to be “correct” by the
scientific community as a whole.
To get you used to the idea of fumbling around for an answer,
making and defending an arguments, and presenting counter-arguments
to differing opinions, you will engage one of your classmates in a
Socratic Dialogue. The goal of this exercise is for you to practice
your debate, not for you to come to the correct answer. For each of
the prompts below, you will be engaged with another student from
the class.
Procedure (for each question):
1. The first person to send the other the email gets to choose
his or her own answer. In the first email, the writer will indicate
his or her choice and explain the reasoning behind their
choice.
2. The second person will respond with an alternate choice, will
defend that choice, and a pose a question or challenge to the first
person.
3. The first person will respond to the question or challenge
and pose a counter question or challenge.
4. Repeat step 3 until each person has sent 3 emails.
Prompt 1: Dropping a Cow from an Airplane
An airplane is flying along at high speed. At some point in time
the airplane drops a cow out of the doors. The picture on the right
shows several possible trajectory’s of the cow.
· Explain which path the cow will take as it falls to the ground
and why you think this is the case.
Prompt 2: The Slide
Your little cousin is playing on the playground. He wants to
pick the slide that will allow him to have the greatest speed by
the time he gets to the bottom. Assuming that there is no friction
between your cousin and the slide, which of the slides shown below
should he pick?
Feel free to email me if you have any questions about the
homework or the course.
Have a great summer!
- Ms. Fitzmaurice
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C2008M3
In an experiment to determine the spring constant of an elastic
cord of length 0.60 m, a student hangs the cord from a rod as
represented above and then attaches a variety of weights to the
cord. For each weight, the student allows the weight to hang in
equilibrium and then measures the entire length of the cord. The
data are recorded in the table below:
(a) Use the data to plot a graph of weight versus length on the
axes below. Sketch a best-fit straight line through the data.
(b) Use the best-fit line you sketched in part (a) to determine
an experimental value for the spring constant k of the cord.
The student now attaches an object of unknown mass m to the cord
and holds the object adjacent to the point at which the top of the
cord is tied to the rod, as shown. When the object is released from
rest, it falls 1.5 m before stopping and turning around. Assume
that air resistance is negligible. (c) Calculate the value of the
unknown mass m of the object. (d) i. Determine the magnitude of the
force in the cord when the when the mass reaches the equilibrium
position. ii. Determine the amount the cord has stretched when the
mass reaches the equilibrium position. iii. Calculate the speed of
the object at the equilibrium position iv. Is the speed in part iii
above the maximum speed, explain your answer.
309
C2008M3
In an experiment to determine the spring constant of an elastic
cord of length 0.60
m, a student hangs the cord from a rod as represented above and
then attaches a
variety of weights to the cord. For each weight, the student
allows the weight to
hang in equilibrium and then measures the entire length of the
cord. The data are
recorded in the table below:
(a) Use the data to plot a graph of weight versus length on the
axes below. Sketch a best-fit straight line through
the data.
(b) Use the best-fit line you sketched in part (a) to determine
an experimental value for the spring constant k of the
cord.
The student now attaches an object of unknown mass m to the cord
and holds the
object adjacent to the point at which the top of the cord is
tied to the rod, as shown.
When the object is released from rest, it falls 1.5 m before
stopping and turning
around. Assume that air resistance is negligible.
(c) Calculate the value of the unknown mass m of the object.
(d) i. Determine the magnitude of the force in the cord when the
when the mass
reaches the equilibrium position.
ii. Determine the amount the cord has stretched when the mass
reaches the
equilibrium position.
iii. Calculate the speed of the object at the equilibrium
position
iv. Is the speed in part iii above the maximum speed, explain
your answer.
309
\ 2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above.
A small disk of mass m1 on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical plastic tube. An
object of mass m2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while
another student measures the period P.
gmrm
P2
12 that relates P and m2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2, where m1
= 0.012 kg and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below,
can be used to compute an experimental value for g.
m2 0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g? c. On the grid
below, plot the quantities determined in part (b), label the axes,
and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
\
2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above. A
small disk of mass m
1
on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical
plastic tube. An object of mass m
2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the
disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while another
student measures the period P.
gm
rm
P
2
1
2
that relates P and m
2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2
, where m
1
= 0.012 kg
and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below, can be used
to compute an experimental value for g.
m
2
0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g?
c. On the grid below, plot the quantities determined in part
(b), label the axes, and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
\ 2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above.
A small disk of mass m1 on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical plastic tube. An
object of mass m2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while
another student measures the period P.
gmrm
P2
12 that relates P and m2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2, where m1
= 0.012 kg and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below,
can be used to compute an experimental value for g.
m2 0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g? c. On the grid
below, plot the quantities determined in part (b), label the axes,
and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
\
2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above. A
small disk of mass m
1
on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical
plastic tube. An object of mass m
2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the
disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while another
student measures the period P.
gm
rm
P
2
1
2
that relates P and m
2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2
, where m
1
= 0.012 kg
and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below, can be used
to compute an experimental value for g.
m
2
0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g?
c. On the grid below, plot the quantities determined in part
(b), label the axes, and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
\ 2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above.
A small disk of mass m1 on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical plastic tube. An
object of mass m2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while
another student measures the period P.
gmrm
P2
12 that relates P and m2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2, where m1
= 0.012 kg and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below,
can be used to compute an experimental value for g.
m2 0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g? c. On the grid
below, plot the quantities determined in part (b), label the axes,
and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
\
2009Bb1 An experiment is performed using the apparatus above. A
small disk of mass m
1
on a frictionless table is
attached to one end of a string. The string passes through a
hole in the table and an attached narrow, vertical
plastic tube. An object of mass m
2
a. Derive the equation
is hung at the other end of the string. A student holding the
tube makes the
disk rotate in a circle of constant radius r, while another
student measures the period P.
gm
rm
P
2
1
2
that relates P and m
2
The procedure is repeated, and the period P is determined for
four different values of m
.
2
, where m
1
= 0.012 kg
and r = 0.80 m. The data, which are presented below, can be used
to compute an experimental value for g.
m
2
0.020 (kg) 0.040 0.060 0.080
P (s) 1.40 1.05 0.80 0.75
b. What quantities should be graphed to yield a straight line
with a slope that could be used to determine g?
c. On the grid below, plot the quantities determined in part
(b), label the axes, and draw the best-fit line to the
data. You may use the blank rows above to record any values you
may need to calculate.
d. Use your graph to calculate the experimental value of g.
100
10/25/10 8 Physics 121
A young girl wishes to select one of the (frictionless)
playground slides illustrated below to give her the greatest
possible speed when she reaches the ground. Which one should she
choose?
10/25/10
8
Physics 121
A young girl wishes to select one of the
(frictionless) playground slides illustrated below to
give her the greatest possible speed when she
reaches the ground. Which one should she choose?