Reflection on Vectors and Projectile Motion Unit

As we prepare ourselves to take our test over the unit on vectors and projectile motion, taking a moment to reflect upon what all I learned is very helpful in my further understanding of the material. Although frustrated at many times throughout the unit, I have yet to fail to finally come to an understanding of the material. It took explanations from my piers and further explanations from Mrs. Gende, and in the end all of it was helpful and was proven so through the fact that my understanding of the material is now 10 fold from where I started.

Trigonemtry: I found trigonometry to be very easy overall. It didn't take much explaining for me, personally, because I went through all of this last year in geometry. All it requires is knowing "SOHCAHTOA" (the sides associated with sin, cos, and tan) and when to use each. Other than that, it's just putting it into your calculator.

Vectors: At first, I thought vectors to be easy. Simply using theta and the magnitude of the velocity, along with trigonemtry seemed easy. It was as easy as 1, 2, 3 in putting it into the calculator. However, as we moved on, these vectors got more complex. One had to add them together to find the resultant velocity and direction of the vector. It got confusing because of all the different angles and numbers involved, along with the long equations to find the resultants. After extensive practice though, I found that it's actually easy to find all of these. Single vectors is easy, but in vector addition you have to break it down. You find the single magnitude for all of the givens, including direction which is most of the time given, and then you find the resultant through pythagorean. The reason I was having trouble was because I was looking at everything as a whole, not looking at it as individual pieces like I should have. Once I learned to break it down and look at each piece individually, it became a lot less stressful.

Projectile motion without an angle: This to me was at first a lot of equations relating to time and distance, etc. Now, though, I see it's a lot of simple math, with just a lot of simple equations that are actually related to each other, they just look different. I had to see this before I could do this easily because I kept getting confused about how each equation came about, and because I'm a very logical thinker, it hendered my abilitiy to comprehend the rest. I had to know why everything was there before I could be fine with just plugging it in.

And finally, projectile motion with an angle: When first introduced, I viewed this as kind of a mixture of vectors and projectile motion. It was difficult to say the least, especially after having a week of not having any class time to review it. However, I went into Mrs. Gende and it was made much more clear that the projectile motion with an angle was essentially the same as vectors, with the added factor of additional things such as time and gravity. I had to understand vectors clearly before I could understand this, and that's why it helped to clarify how I needed to break down each "section" before moving on.

All of these sections of the chapter were confusing, yet the main part of everything in this chapter for me, is that I have to break down the problems into individual chunks, and then conjoin them. Vector addition helps me in finding how much force will be exerted in what direction, so in tug-of-war, I could in theory tell who wins. In general, not only did this chapter help me to learn to break down complicated problems better, but it taught me how to approach difficult situations in life. Sometimes you can't look at the big picture. Sometimes you have to sit down and think about everything before moving on, because if you don't, it becomes very easy to get overwhelmed in life. Who knew physics could teach you life lessons even?

Average velocity versus Average speed.... what?

In our project on kinematics, we had to make a comic strip and a tagxedo explaining a topic in kinematics. I chose to explain the difference between average velocity and average speed because that's what I had trouble with the most. In my comic, my good friend Jesús explains to me what it all means before the "fancy lady" Mrs. Gende gives us our test. The tagxedo is simply there to give a broadened outlook on what exactly kinematics is. Here are both of them. Enjoy!

My Success in Honors Physics This Year

Being successful in physics only takes 5 easy steps.

1. There's no time like class time.

Always be prepared for class, because that class only happens once. Every second of your time in that class period is valuable and shouldn't be wasted because you're unprepared. You get out of class what you put in it, and for this reason, if you want to be successful, you have to want to be successful each day in class.

2. Material is meant to be read, not just seen.

When notes are taken, or information is written on the website, pay attention to it! Don't just look at it as if it has no purpose. Everything in physics has a purpose and if you read everything that is presented, everything will be made a lot easier for you. Reading will lead to understanding, understanding will lead to learning, and learning leads to success.

3. Assign yourself to your assignments.

Always be prudent with your assignments. Don't just complete them as you go on, do them to learn and progress in the class.Use resources given to you to your advantage. It's up to you to make sure that everything gets done in an orderly fashion and that you understand all of it.

4. Solve your problems.

Everything in physics is based around problems, just as every other subject. Except in physics, you have so many paths that lead to solutions, you just have to become proficient in all of them. You must master all the technology one might use in solving problems. One must master all of the "lingo" in the class. Also, your problem solving skills are crucial. Physics is math oriented which means it's very logical. You have to step-by-step, use a logical path to find each solution. Also, graphing is a HUGE part of physics. In your graphs, you have to use your ruler, calculate the correct slope, and overall, DON'T EVER USE NAKED NUMBERS! Graphs can be your best friend or your worst enemy depending on how much attention you give them. Most importantly, you have to know enough to be able to check your answers to make sure you don't make a mistake.

5. Overall success

On the whole, physics is about organization, preparedness, and focus. If you possess these three things, success in physics becomes within arm's reach. Everything you need to succeed is available and all around you, however, it is up to you to use them to your advantage.