11/3 Shah

           On this relaxed morning of Thursday November 3, 2011, we did not have anything to turn in since it was the first day after exams. However, due to Coats-Haan unparalleled grading speed, our exams were waiting for us in our folders.
            As we sat down, we were overwhelmed with various papers and packets, including the blue bonus sheet for 2^nd quarter, a fci diagnostic (which is homework), and a farewell sheet. Yes, today was the last day we spent with our team from first quarter. We all wrote thoughtful comments about our team members, cherishing our last few moments with them. As we began to get new seats, Coats-Haan said she was about to cry because of Jeff, Charlie, Ethan, and Trevor’s group. They had a little team huddle thing going before they split.
            After we all settled down in our new seats, Coats-Haan gave instructions on the inertia ball activity we had to do in class today. We would be maneuvering a heavy bowling ball through a course that looked somewhat like a tootsie roll. The goal was to move the ball along the path as quickly as possible without 1) knocking the ball off the path 2) hitting the surrounding 2 liter pop bottles 3) touching the ball with your foot or 4) overshooting the box in the end, all while attempting to get the fastest time.
            After a plethora of students attempted this difficult task, Jeff ended with the fasted time of 36 seconds, Alexis had the slowest time of 96 seconds, and Carlie had the greatest penalty time of 24 seconds.
            Random fact of the day: so today in physics history votes were counted electronically for the first time in the U.S. presidential election in 1964 and the largest road accident in history occurred when a tanker in Afghanistan overturned and killed 176 people (although I don’t understand how the second fact correlates with physics).
            For homework tonight, we had to complete the fci diagnostic test, a relatively short 30 multiple choice question test. However, remember to answer using 1-5 instead of a-e, because the packet was set up weird and it’s just too time consuming to change it.
            For the question of the day: We had to apply a force to keep the bowling ball on the inertia ball track in the beginning to get the ball to initially move, when we were turning the corners, and at when we needed to slow down or stop the ball.