Physics is a taught by Mr. Ellis that goes over the AP Physics curriculum and more. We have the choice of learning calculus physics with the algebra lessons and I am currently working on doing so. Compared to my prior physics classes, this one is much more challenging and many of the problems are much more complicated. While arguably one of the hardest classes at MAMS, many of the assignments are “low-risk” and the grading is primarily based on effort. Mr. Ellis consistently encourages us to seek help from our peers to solve problems and learn the content.
This assignment was to create a full report that detailed our steps and math to solve the projectile motion problem shown. At this point, we were only taught/allowed to use kinematics. While most assignments in physics are collaborative, for this assignment each student got different values for each of the variables that can be seen on the paper. That meant that while we could help each other out with general methods, we could not help to check the final answer or sub-answers. I actually really enjoyed doing this problem because it really made me think of what steps my brain skips over or combines together that needs to be included separately in a full solution description.
This is the penny drop lab done in class for the kinematics unit. For this lab, the class was split into groups of 3 and designed our own method for dropping a penny and timing how long it took to fall to the ground. This data was used to ultimately attempt to find the acceleration due to gravity. As part of part of the course Mr. Ellis teaches us how to use excel to analyze data. Some graphs and tables that originate from excel can be seen in the lab report document given. In the report there is a also analyses of the data, how error could have been made, and future extensions.