Sunday, May 19, 2013

Week 31 Reflection

I was not here for a lot of the important things that we learned about light this week.  From reading Geoffrey's blog I know now that we learned about the electromagnetic spectrum (I actually do remember being taught this).  We also learned that humans can see only three colors which are red, green and blue.  We also learned about how light refracts and reflects through and off of surfaces.

The electromagnetic spectrum consists of the longest waves to the smallest waves.  It goes radio, microwaves, infrared, visible, ultraviolet, x rays and finally gamma rays.  We only see a tiny fraction of the entire electromagnetic spectrum. 

According to Geoffrey's blog, we can only see blue, red and green.  But when you combine the colors, that's when you start to get the different hues and colors.  I also know that if something is in front of a light source, it will create a shadow because it is blocking the light waves from shining there.

Also from Geoffrey's blog light can refract and reflect.  When light refracts, it bends.  When light reflects, it bounces off of a surface.  Refraction mostly happens in water.

Sunday, May 12, 2013

Week 30 reflection

I missed three class periods this week because of AP tests and such.  So I can only talk about a few things for week 30.  What we did do this week is learn about sound waves.  We also went outside and did an experiment with the cement decorations outside to show how the waves bounce off and amplify.

We learned that the speed of sound is about 356 meters per second ( I think I may be wrong but that's what I thought it was).  We saw that distance affected when you saw the sound and when you heard it.  We watched a video where Steve Elliot was clapping wood blocks together and was walking backwards.  The farther he got down the field, the later the sound came after we saw him clap the blocks together.

The experiment that we did this week was we went outside to the cement decorations outside of the school and talked to them.  What happened was it amplified our voices and made sound like we were talking into a microphone.  We were told that when you talk into a space that can bounce the sound waves together, what you get is an amplifying affect that makes the sound louder.

I thought that this week I got what was being taught to me.  Even though I missed a majority of class this week, I feel like I still learned something.  I thought that the microphone experiment was cool because I didn't think that it would work.

Sunday, May 5, 2013

Week 29 Reflection

This week, we started a new unit on waves.  We learned about transverse and longitudinal waves.  Also how  those wave can either have measures of amplitude, frequency and wavelength or compression and rarefactions.  To demonstrate these measurements, we did an experiment with slinkies and we watched the energy go through them.

We learned that longitudinal waves are like slinkies.  The movement is in the same direction that the energy is being transferred.  Longitudinal waves go through compression (shrinking) and rarefaction (expanding).  You can see the compression and rarefaction in slinkies if you send a pulse of energy through them. 

Transverse waves are different from longitudinal waves in the way that their movement goes up and down while the energy goes straight through them.  These are the waves where you can measure things like amplitude and wavelength.

The experiment that we did this week was where we took slinkies and waved them side to side.  It created a transverse wave.  From that we measured the period for one wave to go through the slinky. 
We could even measure the amplitude if we wanted to because we could see how big the wave got.

I think I did alright this week.  I get most of what we've been taught about waves so I figure that I'm in good shape.