Unit 1 Summary

Reflection

In the first unit of Physics, we have covered five major concepts pertaining to Newton's First Law. With each concept building on the one before, it was crucial to completely understand an idea so that you could recognize it in later concepts.

The first idea that we tackled was Inertia, and we saw it firsthand when we rode the hovercraft. Inertia is measured by mass, and is the word that sums up the idea of things liking to stay where they are. Newton's First Law states that, "An object in motion/at rest will stay in motion/at rest unless acted on by an outside force." When we rode the hovercraft, it was already in motion, so it stayed that way until an outside force (a classmate) stopped me.
In this video, the toy car is pushed and is moving and remains in motion until it hits the phone (outside force).

The second concept that we discovered in Unit 1 was the relationship between Net Force and Equilibrium. Net Force is the total amount of force (measured in Newtons) put on an object. If unequal amounts of force are being put on an object from different sides, the difference between the two force values would equal the Net Force. If the Net Force = 0, then the object is at Equilibrium. One of the things that was interesting to me is that an object can be in Equilibrium while at rest, but also when it was moving at constant velocity.
This picture shows the two different force values yielding a net force of 20 N.



The third concept we discussed was Velocity and Acceleration. Velocity is the speed of an object going strictly in one direction. V is shown by using vectors (arrows) that show which way the force is going. The most common unit of measurement for V is meters per second which is written as m/s.
Building off of Velocity, the other way to show speed is Acceleration. Acceleration can be measured in varying directions and is measured in m/s^2. The formula to find A is the (change in velocity) divided by (time), and there are three ways to change the Acceleration: Change in direction, increase in speed, and decrease in speed.
Both of these forms of speed can be constant, where they have two formulas to show each the "how fast" and "how far" of an equation.

Constant V                      Constant A

How Far                                         d=vt                                 d=1/2at^2

How Fast                                        v=d/t                                v=at

Lastly, we worked on taking information from graphs and putting the information into one of the equations shown above. The y-axis value is seen as the (y) in the y=mx+b equation. The x-axis value represents the (x) in the equation, and the (b) is ignored for right now. Another helpful hint when transferring data is that m(slope)=1/2 acceleration. In most instances, the "How Far" equation was used, and all of the other variables were given except for the 1/2a, but it can be substituted by the slope.

Connections

When the unit first started, I anticipated that I would see physics in my everyday life to some extent, but I notice it much more than I thought I would. For example, I saw Net Force when I was watching the football game last week. David and Kokayi both went to tackle someone, and Kokayi had more force. He moved the three of them (Kokayi, opponent, David) in the direction he was going because he was already going in that direction and he had more force than David.

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