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PHY 122
Your 'collaborative labs' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
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2/8/13 4:00PM
I'm sorry that this is late. I thought that I had submitted it a couple of weeks ago. I apologize for the oversight.
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You will participate during the semester in two series of collaborative lab activities.
The first is designed to be relatively painless, and to begin to develop a degree of teamwork and collaboration.
These activities are designed for teams of four individuals, each with a specific function:
The designer will come up with the idea for the activity and will specify for other team members how the activity is to be conducted.
The experimenter will follow the designer's instructions to set up the experiment and collect data.
The analyzer will analyze the data.
The interpreter will describe what the results mean.
For each series of activities, you will participate in four different investigations, one as designer, another as experimenter, another as analyzer and another as interpreter.
As each investigation progresses, you will follow the work of your fellow team members.
Please summarize the above, as best you can, in your own words:
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Collaborative labs will be undertaken by a group of four, with each acting as a designer, experimenter, analyzer, and interpreter for one of four experiments.
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The first series of activities will be spread out over the first half of the semester, the second series over the second half of the semester.
The first series will be based on systems you have seen in the Key Systems videos.
You will begin by describing at least three ideas for investigations related to the Key Systems videos. Valid ideas will ultimately be developed proposals, each of which will describe a question that could be investigated and tested using simple materials such as those seen in the videos. You will eventually develop three proposals, one of which will be chosen for an investigation. You will be the designer for that investigation.
At this point we're just beginning to explore ideas for the first series of investigations. Your instructor will work with you to further develop your ideas, and perhaps to explore other related possibilities.
Right now you don't have a wide variety of experimental techniques available to you, so this first series of investigations will be relatively simple.
List below three ideas for things you think might be fairly easy to test, based on the systems you have seen so far.
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Use a series of experiments to develop a rough but semi-accurate mathematical model to estimate the distance the pendulum needs to be from the wall to ensure it hits at the same time as the washer for an arbitrary height (or vice versa).
Using the two magnets from the Physics 1 kit, determine the effect of the magnetic fields on a steel ball rolling down an incline.
Using a stack of dominos, a steel ball, and an incline, determine the height of the incline and speed of the ball to separate the individual dominos from the stack.
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Discuss your first idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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Instead of using guesswork to determine the height from the table and distance from the wall the pendulum and washer would have to be, we would use a series of experiments to collect data at varying heights. We would then analyze the data to determine the relationship between height and distance so that we could formulate a model that would be accurate for any height or distance from the wall. The only required items would be the pendulum components and an extra washer.
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Discuss your second idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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Setup the incline just as in the experiment, but replace the marble with a steel ball. Using a pair of magnets placed on either side of the incline, we would use the TIMER program to determine the decrease in speed caused by their magnetic fields, a what distance the magnets no longer cause any appreciable slowdown, and at what point will the attraction be too great for the ball to resist attaching itself to the magnets. The experiment would require a ramp, magnets, steel ball, something to elevate the starting point of the incline, and the TIMER program.
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Discuss your third idea. How do you think it might be tested? What sort of items do you think might be required? How do you think your idea might be tested?
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Using a short stack of dominos, use an incline and a small steel ball to setup an experiment where the ball will crash into the stack. To begin with, the experiment would target the top-most domino and we could determine the required velocity and then KE to dislodge the domino. Afterwards, we would continue to raise the height of the incline and target the lower dominos for the same purpose. The experiment would require dominos, inline, steel ball, TIMER program to compute velocity, and the mass of the ball.
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Your instructor is trying to gauge the typical time spent by students on these activities. Please answer the following question as accurately as you can, understanding that your answer will be used only for the stated purpose and has no bearing on your grades:
Approximately how long did it take you to complete this activity?
30min.
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Great. I like all these ideas.
I especially like the second one. It would require a nonmagnetic track, but I could easily enough get one to the experimenter in your group.
I'll have to consider my options for grouping participants, and this could affect which of your three suggestions I choose.
I'll get back to everyong on this within a couple of days.
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