For Quiz 5 I will ask for revisions on #3, the final problem. There are some things I particularly want to see: a Newton’s Second Law analysis (do not use work and energy methods!), and careful justification of each equation you use (for instance, n=mg turns out to be true, but how do you know this is the case in this problem?). You need to draw a proper free-body diagram and use it in your solution.

To aid in the revisions (which I remind you are not merely corrections) I have developed a template you can use to guide your reasoning. This is in the program handouts for Physics on the fileshare as well as this post. Quiz 5 is also included in both locations. Use of this template is optional, but recommended if you are struggling with the format I am requesting for revisions.

If you have old quizzes (Quiz 2-4) and have not submitted revisions for those, please do feel free to submit them late. This is a great opportunity to demonstrate your learning and understanding, no matter your performance on the original quiz.

Download (DOCX, 15KB)

Download (PDF, 55KB)

I’m going to ask for revisions (with the full IDEA format) for part a of the first problem on Quiz 4. On 1c the question might have been clearer in multiple choice format. In such a format, the question would have read something like this:

Which of the following scenarios are consistent with your answer to part b? Select all that apply (there might be more than one):

1. Moving upward and slowing down
2. Moving upward and speeding up
3. Moving downward and slowing down
4. Moving downward and speeding up

If you are going to submit a correction to 1c your answer should be based on those choices.

Here is the quiz:

Download (DOCX, 19KB)

Tying up some loose ends from last week – the algebra for completing the solution to  the last problem in lecture Wednesday (using the three FBDs, one for each block) and answers to the two problems handed out in workshop Thursday.

Download (PDF, 399KB)

Download (PDF, 986KB)

Below is a “clean” copy of Quiz 3. I’ve decided the problem for revision will be the last question, #4

“A thrown rock has an initial velocity of 35 m/s directed at an angle 25 degrees above horizontal. What is its velocity 2.0 seconds later? Neglect air drag and note that the rock experiences a constant acceleration of 9.8 m/s² downward. (You may express this either in components or as a magnitude and direction.)”

Download (DOCX, 54KB)

Ordinarily I collect the revisions and corrections with the next quiz, but because this is going up late and because the next physics quiz is Tuesday, revisions will be due on Thursday this week.

Next week will be our second seminar from 9 – 11am on Thursday, Oct. 26. Schedule changes due to this and the Math Midterm are described here.

The readings for the seminar are on two topics, “Impostor Syndrome” and the ideas of fixed vs. growth mindsets.

• “No, You’re Not an Impostor”
• “Feel Like a Fraud?”
• “Mindsets” and “Inside the Mindsets”, excerpts from Dweck’s Mindset: The New Psychology of Success

We will hand out paper copies of these articles and book chapters in class Monday so that you can mark those with your annotations and questions, and have them available during Seminar (without people using electronic devices during the discussion).

Pre-Seminar Writing Assignment. Beyond reading the three pieces, we would like for you to respond in writing to the following prompts. Please type up your responses and bring them with you, along with the three reading handouts, to Seminar. Faculty will check these for completion and they will serve as your Seminar Entrance Ticket.

1. (not for class discussion) Which stories or experiences on the topic of a) impostor syndrome and b) fixed mindset vs. growth mindset are similar to your own? (This response is private; we will not require you to share this writing with anyone else.)
2. (for discussion) What was one specific element (or elements) of the readings on a) impostor syndrome and b) mindset theory that you found particularly striking or surprising? Why? This should be a story, experience, piece of data or research finding. Your typed response should quote, paraphrase, or summarize the element(s), indicate article and page, and describe why you chose it.
3. (for discussion) What have you heard or observed from classmates, friends, family, coworkers etc. that may indicate the impact of a) impostor syndrome and b) a fixed mindset in a way that is dis-empowering?
4. (for discussion) What could a) you (as students) and b) faculty do in response to such indications of a dis-empowering presence of either impostor syndrome or a fixed mindset, based on the theories presented in these readings?

A few students will be making up Quiz 3 Friday morning, so I will not be posting the “clean” copy of the quiz until tomorrow. I do want to make some remarks about the quiz itself as well as notecards and quiz preparation.

First, I think the first question was harder than I intended it to be, which is my fault. I suspect that this may have affected most students’ ability to do well on the remaining questions. Even so, my overall reaction is that I did not provide you as a class with sufficient preparation to succeed on this particular quiz. I shall try to do better; I’ve thought quite a bit about where I may have gone wrong and have some concrete ideas in mind for improvement on my part.

Second, I think many of you are having trouble working out in general how to prepare, particularly with regard to your notecards. I’d like to call your attention to two specific things that may help:

1. Chapter summaries. You should be able to identify in the chapter summaries the material we covered. I will generally assume you have and know how to work with equations and formulas listed in these summaries.
2. Physics is cumulative. Even if the quiz is on Chapter 3, the material in that chapter builds on Chapter 2. So for instance, the kinematic equations listed in Chapter 2 for motion with constant acceleration come into play again in Chapter 4 (and 5, and 6…). So you might also want to flip back a chapter or two for further pieces of information to add to your notecards. (Hopefully over time much of that will become second nature, particularly math skills like working with trigonometry to find vector components.)

Thank you all for your hard work on this challenging material. It’s a privilege to work with you!

It’s possible to use tools you learn in one part of the program to explore other parts of the program… here’s an example. In Problem 3.33 of Wolfson you should have generated parametric equations for x(t) and y(t) to describe the motion. After looking up how to build parametric plots in Desmos, I created an interactive graph of the solution, complete with sliders allowing you to adjust values for angles and accelerations (with conversions from degrees to the radians Desmos prefers for calculating sines and cosines built in).

Here you can see the power of doing your work symbolically. Once you enter the formulas, it’s really easy to explore how the results depend on various parameters. A solution obtained by early substitution of values would not be easy to translate into a computer tool like this.

Hi all,

I have now uploaded an example of a problem solved in the format required for Revisions in the (too-?) long post on physics quiz revisions from last week. You should peruse this before you finalize your quiz revisions (which are due 9 AM Wednesday). Remember that the revision should be written on a separate paper (or papers) from any (optional) corrections you make on other parts of the quiz. Both the revision and the original quiz (including any corrections you may choose to make) should be turned in Wednesday. Quiz corrections may be made either on the original quiz or on a separate document, as you choose.

As a reminder, your revision is essentially a solution, formatted along the lines of the IDEA problem solving strategy, to the following problem:

A sprinter runs a 100 meter race. Starting from rest, their acceleration is 4.5 m/s² for the first 2.5 seconds of the race, after which they run at a constant velocity the rest of the race. What will be the sprinter’s total time for the race?

Solutions to the Chapter 3 Physics homework

As it turns out, there are several notebook checks in the works soon… Please be aware of what you need to do for…

• Physics Lab: All Physics Lab Notebooks will be checked this week. Please bring your Physics Lab Notebook in Tuesday October 17 (field trip day). John will come by the chemistry lab to collect them. If you are not in the chemistry part of the program, please try to bring in your notebook before 10 AM (so we don’t need to take them along on the field trip).
• Chemistry Lab: Chemistry Lab Notebooks will be checked in Week 5; stay tuned for details.
• Math Problem Set Notebook check: Math Problem Set Notebooks will be spot checked during the Week 5 Midterm Exam as described in this post.