Hello,
I feel like I am getting better at working the graphs. Sometimes I think I understand it better when you go over it, but when i have to do it on my own I'm not as clear. Could you give some extra problems for force vs. position and velocity vs. time graphs that we could work at home if we want to?
When working with graphs of this nature, you will generally be trying to interpret the slope and area of a trapezoid or a series of trapezoids.
For each trapezoid you need to ask yourself a series of questions:
What is the rise along the top of the trapezoid? What is the run?
What is the average 'altitude' of the trapezoid? What is its width?
You divide the rise by the run to get the slope.
You multiply average altitude by width to get the area.
Then you ask the interpretation questions:
What does the rise between two points of the graph represent?
What does the run between two points of the graph represent?
what does the average altitude of the trapezoid in question represent?
what does the width of the trapezoid in question represent?
What does it mean to multiply the quantity represented by the average altitude by the quantity represented by the width? This is the meaning of the area.
What does it mean to divide the quantity represented by the rise by the quantity represented by the run? This is the meaning of the slope.
If you go to the Fall 05 page and click on
questions submitted but not yet linked to a class meeting
you'll see a series of 8 such problems. I'll be glad to critique your answers to all or some of those problems. Just answer and submit.