Mrs. Chase, our patient and thoughtful physics teacher, aspires to cover up the knowledge gaps within each student as soon as possible. Ranging from the slightest mathematical error to not understanding the application of a concept, Mrs. Chase works to ensure that each student is in a position to succeed in our class. In the class, we follow the AP Physics C Mechanics and AP Physics C Electricity and Magnetism, but we also go far beyond these basic concepts. So far this year, we covered kinematics, dynamics, energy, momentum, and circular motion. Thankfully, Mrs. Chase works toward creating unique experiences for each class to meet with a multitude of learners because she emphasizes the growth and development of each student. Overall, physics, although challenging at times, is taught cohesively and understandably by Mrs. Chase.
The objective is of this lab to find the acceleration of a cart traveling on an inclined plane. The cart was released on an inclined plane from various distances away from a photogate sensor, which will measured the velocity of the cart as it passes through it. The slope of a linearized graph of the distance traveled and velocity data was used to find the acceleration of the cart. The angle of the inclined plane was changed and the whole experiment was run multiple times to find the acceleration of the cart at the new angle.
During our second unit of physics, dynamics, Mrs. Chase challenged us to create our own lab which proves something that we were taught in class (ex: surface area does not affect force from friction) or another inquiry we had on dynamics. My group decided to investigate if the accelerations would be the same for 2 masses on different inclines which are connected to a string via a third mass. Theoretically, we proved that the acceleration would be the same and then we designed an experiment to test our theory.