This week, we learned more about centripital force and now how it affects planets. We learned how the planets orbit around the sun and how our moon also orbits the sun but gets pulled back by the earth. The movement of the planets is just like how things on earth move in a circle on earth.
I know that centripital force is when somethings acceleration is going towards the center of the circle but their inertia wants them to travel tangent to the circle. This is why you get the circular pattern. This is because it is now traveling in between those to directions.
The same kind of thing is happening to the planets right now. As we orbit around the sun, we are being pulled in by it, but are inertia wants it to travel tangential to the orbit. The moons orbit is a little weird because it is orbiting around the sun but it also gets pulled by the earth. So it resembles a car that is constantly trying to pass another car.
We looked at a demonstration of the planets and the moons motion on the computer. That demonstration really helped me learn what the orbit looked like. I believe that I get all thats being taught right now so I don't have any questions yet.
Tuesday, February 19, 2013
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Week 18 Reflection
This week we learned about centripital force. Centripital force is an unbalanced force that is pulling towards the center. An object wants to keep going in the direction that it's headed but it is constantly being pulled towards the center by another force. Thats why if you spin a yo yo around your finger and then you let it go, it will fly in the direction it wants to go.
We demonstrated centripital force by tying up a car that moves in one direction at a constant speed to a pole that was always pulling on it. The car wanted to go straight but it couldn't because of the string that was attached to the pole. But when Mr. Abud cut the string, the car went in a straight direction.
We also demonstrated this by swinging a ball with a string and letting it go. When Mr. Abud let it go when it reached the south position, it flew west. When he let it go in the north position, it flew east. This demonstrated centripital force really well.
We did an experiment where we took a stopper attached to some weights and had a PVC pipe in between them and had to time a full period. A period is one full revolution of the stopper. We also had to measure the radius. All these measurements were to see how fast it went each revolution.
I believe that this week went well. I understand most of what was taught to me. I'm not too sure how I did on the assesment because I wasn't familiar with everything.
We demonstrated centripital force by tying up a car that moves in one direction at a constant speed to a pole that was always pulling on it. The car wanted to go straight but it couldn't because of the string that was attached to the pole. But when Mr. Abud cut the string, the car went in a straight direction.
We also demonstrated this by swinging a ball with a string and letting it go. When Mr. Abud let it go when it reached the south position, it flew west. When he let it go in the north position, it flew east. This demonstrated centripital force really well.
We did an experiment where we took a stopper attached to some weights and had a PVC pipe in between them and had to time a full period. A period is one full revolution of the stopper. We also had to measure the radius. All these measurements were to see how fast it went each revolution.
I believe that this week went well. I understand most of what was taught to me. I'm not too sure how I did on the assesment because I wasn't familiar with everything.
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