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| This is my tagxedo that I created with all of the important words the were a part of our unit. |
In the latter part of our first trimester, and beginning the second trimester, we have learned about Newton's first, second, and third laws of motion. Basically, we learned when an object is in translation equilibrium, how to find vector sums, that when one object exerts force on another, the second object exerts an equal force in the opposite direction, and finally, that if there is any net force on an object, then it will have an acceleration.
In the first law of motion, I started off with it with a pretty solid understanding of it. However, as one can imagine, as we got into harder problems involving more complicated processes it became more difficult. We began to look at problems with multiple angles in which I would have to make sure to include each cos and sin to assure that I don't miss a step. It is all a lot of breaking down each individual force, and making a logical equation that is based on the forces acting on the x and y axises. This was definitely the most difficult part because I had to incorporate the different angles and a lot of the time it just all got jumbled up. I finally found the key and that was to, as it was in my previous post on vectors and projectile motion, to once again break everything down. This is the only way I could solve this problems. However it took me longer, but in the long run, I eventually got faster and was able to just take things step-by-step-by-step.
In the second law of motion, the law that we have just recently begun in this new trimester, I so far have a complete and total understanding of it. This is essentially how forces affect the amount of acceleration an object has, leading to the amount of velocity it gains or loses. My sole weakness of this law is mastering the problems in which I have to slow down and replace things such as "Fg" with "mg" and so on and so forth. In general though, this is quite an easy unit/law for me. I simply have to, in my head, think of what parts of the equation I have and don't have, leading to which parts of it I need to find or replace with information I already have.
Finally, in Newton's third law of motion, the law states that any two objects in which object "A" is exerting force on object "B", object "B" exerts the same force on object "A" in the opposite direction. There is the action force and the equal but opposite force is the reaction force. This law didn't require a whole lot of problem solving, for it mainly just helped in my understanding of laws one and two. The third law is of paramount importance in the understanding of the other two, because without it, one wouldn't realize that forces Fg and Fn cancel each other out. This is because of N3L because these two forces acting on the same object constitute an action-reaction pair of forces.
Now, in putting all of these laws to problem, we learned about apparent weight, the forces in pulley systems, and friction. In apparent weight it took a hard thought process of making sure we were using the right forces when adding and subtracting based on if an elevator is moving up or down, etc. In our section on pulley systems, they were quite easy for me. It's like solving two problems, leading to two free-body-diagrams, which led to essentially solving for the same exact thing, just taking both objects into account. Finally, in our study of friction, we learned a lot about "Mu" It was really interesting to learn about why friction actually exists. I felt like applying the concept of N3L to this section made it easier because in N3L, there is an action and reaction pair, leading to equilibrium in the y-axis (in most cases). Similarly, friction and tension or applied force lead to somewhat of the same thing.
In conclusion, the study of the three laws of motion in our physic's class was a fun unit, for it revolves around what most people consider the "basis" of what they know as physics (one's knowledge of the physics in moving objects). For solving problems that I ran into, I had to evaluate the problem for which law it was based on, and how I could apply that law. Even when a problem seemed hard, I had to go back to the basics and remember equations that resulted in Fg, Ff, etc. These equations are what allowed me to substitute for what I needed, or at least substitute for something that would allow me to find another number.
Good bye for now, physics world.
