This problem was introduced to us in our projectile motion unit, and I really enjoyed it because of how it was multiple stages, so it required a lot of concentration, organization, and persistence. For this problem, every student was given the same problem with different variables: a rocket is launched in the sky, its parachute is deployed at a certain height, and then it blows back in the opposite direction. This problem could essentially be split up into three different stages, but the challenging part was keeping track of all the variables and staying organized Overall, this problem was very challenging because of the organizational aspect and the focus it required, but it was very satisfying to get the correct answer after so much work.
For this lab, we were challenged to design and conduct a lab of our choosing related to dynamics, and then write up the lab report on just one page. I found this lab really engaging because of how much creative freedom we were given to design a lab as simple or complex as we wanted. For my group’s lab, we decided to experiment with how a change in incline would affect the acceleration of a modified Atwood’s machine. The purpose of having our lab report just one page was to teach us how to keep our work concise and emphasize our most important findings. I found it was much harder than I thought it would be to condense my work, but this showed me how to prioritize my results and organize them better.