3-06-09

Today's Objectives for Mr. Mannings first period physics class were as follows: HW Check Demo Lab**
 * Daily Question

Handouts included The Centripetal Force Lab; Swingin' Nephew

Consider three types of rollers on a pair of parallel tracks; 1) a cylinder, 2) a pair of cups fastened at the narrow ends, and 3) a pair of cups fastened together at the wide ends. When rolling along the track, one is very unstable and rolls off the edge, Another is moderately stable for short distances the other is very stable and centers itself on the track. Which is which?
 * __Daily Question__**



After a brief discussion and a vote taken from the class, Mr. Manning performed this in front of the class. We found out the 1) the cylinder was moderately stable for short distances, 2) a pair of cups fastened at the narrow ends was very unstable and rolled right off the track, and 3) a pair of cups fastened together at the wide ends was the winner, being very stable and centering itself on the track.

Next Mr. Manning prepared to show us a demo. He pulled out a tiny battery powered car and showed us how it works, turning it on and watching how it moves straight across the table. He then attached the car to a weight by a string and turned the car on. The class watched as the car was forced to move in circled around the weight. Why did the car do this? This is because an inward force is now acting on the car because of the weight in the center of the table, forcing the car to move in circles.
 * __Demo__**

Last but not least towards the end of the period we began to read over our new lab, **Centripetal Force Lab; Swingin' Nephew.** Mr. Manning informed us that this was going to be a class lab. The goal is to find how much force is needed to keep the object in a circular path. In this lab there are three variables we will be working with, mass, raduis, and speed.
 * __Lab__**