2/24 Chao

I must have been in a very comatose state when I went home yesterday because I did my blog a day early. I’m still in a slight comatose state but, you know, things just happen.

Either way, today’s board with its purple message stated that we had keys waiting on our desks for our electrostatic force worksheets. #12 was a pretty difficult problem. That’s one to review in my opinion.

After answering some questions, especially regarding pesky #12, Coats-Haan gave us a teacher talk regarding the science courses we could take next year. Everyone should take Honors Anatomy because in her words, “Everyone needs to know about their own body.” Advice ranged from “I will not recommend anybody for Earth and Space Science” to being politically correct about a certain half of the kids in our grade that took Chemistry last year.

Then came the AP Physics talk. She stated that the class is very difficult and that mechanics, all the stuff we spent from August to February learning, would be covered in just a few short weeks when school started for us next year. Those that plan on taking AP that is. Tiger moms have some influence, I guess.

She emphasized that she did not want us to start the AP review packet until the weekend before school started. And she looked at me. Don’t worry, Coats-Haan. I may not be in a comatose state during those last few weeks of summer, but I certainly don’t have motivation to start review packets in May.

After the teacher talk session, we jumped into our next activity: the 12-page lab from pages 141 to 160. This lab is split up into several sections, each examining a certain aspect of electricity and circuits. We will be working on this lab during the next few weeks. Every exercise / homework problem must be done on a separate piece of paper. It is essential that we label our papers clearly.

We began section 1 by examining all of the different possible ways to light a light bulb with one bulb, one wire, and one battery. Then, we were supposed to start examining a flashlight. We learned that a circuit to light the light bulb is made when the light bulb is wrapped in wire and it is touching one end while the wire is touching the other end.

There is no homework this weekend but there is a quiz on Monday over Coulomb’s Law and other information regarding the worksheet we checked.

Question of the Day: What is your operational definition for a circuit?
My operational definition for a circuit would be first to obtain a battery or other form of stored electrical energy with a positive and negative end. Obtain metal wire since it conducts electricity easily. If the circuit is concerned with powering a certain device, attach the wire to the device. Have the device touch one end of the battery and have the rest of the wire touching the other end of the battery. I think this is the operational definition, although I’m not sure.