Week 4

 This week in the lab, we discussed swings. My group's main focus revolved around the question, "How does the release angle affect the time it takes for the swing to move back and forth." We gathered our data by placing a washer on a string and attaching that to a stick. We then chose different angles and released the swing. We then timed how long it took the swing to hit the same spots three times in a row. We completed each angle three times and then found the average. Here are pictures from this week!

In this week's press book readings, I learned about pendulum basics and how a pendulum is a weight that swings back and forth due to gravity and momentum. Within this, there is something called the period of a pendulum, which is the period it takes for one swing to be complete. Some examples of pendulums include swings, grandfather clocks, wrecking balls, and more. It is helpful to understand this information and the connections to potential and kinetic energy when thinking about the principles of motion and energy. 

This week in the lecture, we discussed the info we discovered in the lab when looking at riders' weight on a swing and how it does not affect the period of a swing. We were then able to connect this to Newton's Laws. Connecting this to the first law, we watched a video of two people playing air hockey. We focused directly on the puck's path and how it reacted when hit by another force. We then discussed how larger masses are harder to accelerate than objects with less mass. This helped us come to the conclusion that gravity does not