"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the life-long attempt to acquire it." — Albert Einstein
Physics Honors (1°, 3°, 6° & 7°) 3rd Quarter 2005-06
Most recent update March 14, 2006 12:08 PM
Schedule
AP Physics B Optional HW over X-mas break: Take this AP-B practice exam from 2001, but only do #s 1, 2, and 6; give yourself about 15 minutes per question, so 45 minutes total. Then, evaluate where you are, and finish the problems in their totality.
- Week of Friday, January 6th: Welcome Back
- Day 1
(Friday)
- Introduction to 2nd semester: Harmonic and Wave Motion ... Modern Physics ... Electricity and Magnetism ... Electric Circuits
- Cannady- Discuss Finals and Posting of Grades
- HW: Read Ch. 10-1 PPB, and see examples of Simple Harmonic Motion Pendulum, Mass-Spring System, and, for the daring, the double pendulum
- Day 1
(Friday)
- Week of Monday, January 9th: Simple Harmonic Motion
- Day 1 SHM
- Period and Frequency
- Demo- Pendulum and Mass-Spring System
- (Captain?) Hooke's Law
- HW: Ch 10 #s 1, 2a, 2b, 5 HW Packet A
- Check out this cute cartoon
- Day 2 SHM
- Calculating Period and Frequency
- Measure - Pendulum and Mass-Spring System using Range Finder
- Equations of Motion for SHM
- HW: Ch 10 #s 2c, 3, 4, 6 HW Packet A
- Day 3 SHM
- Grandfather Clock Lab
- HW: Ch 10 #s 8, 9, 10, 11 HW Packet A
- Day 4 SHM
- HW Quiz
- Grandfather Clock Lab
- Here's a link to how pendulum clocks work
- HW: Ch 10 #s 7, 12 HW Packet A
- Check out the hyperdrive!
- Week of Monday, January 16th: Waves and Sound
- Monday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day...
- Day 1 (Tuesday) Waves
- Wave Nomenclature
- Class-Activity - demonstrate wave properties using a slinky
- The Wave Equation: velocity = frequency x wavelength
- HW: Ch 11 #s 4, 7, 8, 12 HW Packet B
- Day 2 Superposition HW Packet A Due
- Wave Interference worksheet
- Demo with wave slider
- Standing wave on a string (coolest demo of the year!)
- HW: Ch 11 #s 10 read how standing waves form, if you want to get ahead read this. HW Packet B
- Day 3 Resonance on Stringed instruments
- Harmonics
- Shaker table
- Bridges and Stringed objects
- HW: Ch 11 #s 2, 5, 14, 15 HW Packet B
- Week of Monday, January 23th: Waves and Sound
- Day 1 Wind Instruments
- Air Density waves
- Harmonics in longitudinal waves
- Open at both ends vs. closed at one end.
- Demo: Break Glass!
- Demo: The flaming tube. (maybe even cooler!)
- HW: Ch 11 #s 1, 11, 16, 17 HW Packet C
- Day 2 Speed of sound HW Packet B Due
- warm-up: Draw the air in a wind instrument and below draw a graph of the density of air vs. location in the instrument.
- Speed of sound
- as it varies with temperature.
- with movement of source or observer (Doppler Effect / Red Shift)
- Picture of Edwin Hubble. "Good looking to a fault"?
- as it varies with temperature.
- Demo and video: Carl Sagan and description of Hubble's discovery from 'A Brief History of Nearly Everything'
- HW: Ch 11 #s 6, 18, 20, 21, 22 HW Packet C
- Day 3 Speed of Sound Lab
- Make a song with water-filled graduated cylinders
- HW: Ch 11 #s 9, 19, 23 HW Packet C
- Day 4 Musical Instruments
- Lab in classroom: Tuning fork lab to determine the speed of sound Beats
- HW: Work on Review Packet for test on Day 2 of next week This will not be collected
- Week of Monday, January30th: Waves, Sound and Light
- Day 1
- Prepare for test
- HW: Study -- if you're still having trouble, check out the Physics Classroom lessons on Sound
- Day 2
- TEST HW Packet C Due
- HW: Read about light.
- Day 3
- Lecture: Reflection of Light awesome site for lecture and review
- Includes Flat, Concave and Convex Mirrors
- Practice with Ray Diagrams
- HW: read Ch 17 in your book and read the Reflection of Light site linked above
- Day 4
- 1st period: Lecture: Reflection of Light continued // real & virtual images // Snell's law
- 3rd, 6th, and 7th periods: Lab -- In Class Practice with Mirrors
- HW: Ch 17 #s 7 (consult textbook), 18, 19 HW Packet D
- Week of Monday, Feburary 6th: Light Mirrors
- Day 1
- Warm-up -- Name a practical application of a concave and convex mirror.
- In-Class worksheet on Mirror Ray Diagrams (20 min)
- Lecture -- Refraction // Snell's Law (applet)
- HW: Ch 17 #s 10, 16, 17, 20 HW Packet D
- Day 2
- Mirror lab
- Lecture: begin lenses and refraction in double concave and convex lenses
- HW: Ch 17 #s 21, 22, 23, 24 HW Packet D
- Day 3
- Lecture: continue lenses and refraction in double concave and convex lenses
- Ray Diagrams for lenses worksheet
- HW: Ch 17 #s 14, 15, 26, 27 HW Packet D
- Day 4
- Lens Lab
- HW: Ch 17 #s 11 (consult text), 13 & 25 HW Packet D
- Also, check out Mr. Stecher's optics ray-diagram powerpoint lessons (it's easiest to right-click and download the two power point files called RAY DIAGRAMS)
- Week of Monday, Feburary 13th: Interference and Diffraction
- Day 1
- Here's a picture and some (major) hints to help you with Ch 17 # 17.
- HW Review from last week
- Today's material will not be tested on Day 2
- Demo: Online Ripple Tank -- exploring the wave nature of light
- Lecture: Two slit interference and diffraction
- HW: prepare for quiz on Day 2
- Day 2
- HW Packet D due in class
- Test on Ray Diagrams
- HW: Ch 17 #s 28, 29, 30, 32 HW Packet E
- Day 3
- Lecture: Two slit interference -- calculating the position of dots
- Laser Interference Lab (Day 1/2)
- Students taking AP Physics B: check out this site and get a check to Mr. Dworak by FRIDAY!!!
- HW: Read this website (all three pages) about two-slit interference of light, water, and matter (!)
- Day 4
- Mini-lecture: review of what we're doing using these sites: 1, 2, 3, 4
- Laser Interference Lab (Day 2/2) or special topic if we finish early
- Students taking AP Physics B: check out this site and get a check to Mr. Dworak by FRIDAY!!!
- HW: Read this brief page about experiments that demonstrate electron (matter!) interference
- Week of Tuesday, Feburary 21st: Quantum Mechanics (short week)
- Day 1
- Lecture: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in position & momentum
- Online: Explanation of Hydrogen Stability
- In-class problem: the hydrogen atom
- HW: Ch 24 #s 1, 2, 4 HW Packet F
- Day 2
- HW Packet E due (not in Mr. Cannady's classes)
- Lecture: Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in energy & time
- Demo: Schrodinger's Cat
- In-class problem: matter-antimatter virtual pairs
- HW: Ch 24 #s 3, 5 & read the text in Chapter 23 HW Packet F
- Day 3
- Lecture: Standard Model of Particle Physics
- HW: Ch 22 #s 1 through 11 (these are all pretty short) HW Packet F
- Week of Monday, Feburary 27th: Feynman Diagrams and Radioactivity (short week)
- Day 1
- Lecture: doing Feynman diagrams
- In-class work: Ch 23 #s 1 through 7 (practice!)
- HW: Ch 23 #s 8 through 12 HW Packet F
- Reading HW: important scientific investigations on Marshmallow Bunnies (just for fun)
- Day 2
- HW Packet F due
- Project from Hewitt: coin laboratory for half-life
- Lecture: half-life as a random process
- HW: read Ch 21 and do Ch 21 #s 1, 2, 3, 14, 16 HW Packet G
- Day 3
- Lecture: Half-life and radioactive carbon dating (Wikipedia: The Shroud of Turin)
- Work problems in class
- Lecture: atomic and thermonuclear weapons
- HW: Ch 21 #s 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 HW Packet G
Attention AP PHYSICS B test-takers:
Please stop by and visit Dr. Philhour in the physics office during midterm week to pick up a loaner copy of Barron's "How to Prepare for the AP Physics B Exam". I only have 13 copies of the book available for loan, so first-come, first-served. If you already have a study guide for the AP B exam, it will do fine -- you don't need this one. If I run out, you can always pick an AP Physics B practice book at any bookstore or online. Some important information: please save the date Saturday, April 29th, from 10 AM to 1 PM, when I will give you a practice exam under real exam conditions here at school.
- Week of Monday, March 6th: Midterm Week
- Day 1 (activity schedule)
- Radiation Design laboratory
- HW: midterm review: Ch 23 #s 13, 14, 15, 16 & 17 HW Packet G
- Day 2 (activity schedule)
- Midterm Exam
- will assess your understanding of material from the last 2.5 weeks: two-slit interference, Heisenberg uncertainty principle, Standard Model, Feynman diagrams, and radioactivity
Attention everyone! Interested in taking a week-long engineering course at Santa Clara University in August? Let us know and fill out an application -- we'll be happy to write you a letter of recommendation.
Attention all AP Physics B students: we would like to enter the PhysicsBowl 2006 competition, which will amount to some number of you taking a 45-minute multiple choice exam administered here at school in the first week of April. If you are interested in being a part of this competition, email BJP . I'm hoping to get about 10 of you -- the test is on all aspects of physics. Should be good practice for AP-B in any event.
AP Physics B exam HW: in your AP Physics B practice book, read the chapters related to 'Temperature and Heat', 'Thermodynamics and Kinetic Theory of Gases' and do the practice multiple choice and free-response problems in those sections. (In Barron's, these are Chapters 15 and 16) Answers are typically given at the end of the chapter. If you have any questions with the material, come see a physics teacher and ask! This is self-teaching, and it can be hard to do!
Coming up: electrostatics and magnetism, atomic energy levels, electric circuits