Here’s hoping we have a full week of school for the first time since before winter break! Obviously we are a bit behind last week’s objectives, but we’ll get a lot done this week. 🙂

This Week in AP Physics
First we will go over the Unit 8 Practice Problems, which are due on Monday. On Monday we will also conduct our unit 8 lab on Bernoulli’s equation. Depending on how that goes we may flow into Tuesday and test on Wednesday (pun!). However, I am hoping we can do the unit 8 test on Tuesday and begin unit 9 on thermal physics on Wednesday. Our first topic will be temperature and heat, and homework 1 will be due by Friday. Note: Your unit 8 lab report is due at the start of class next Tuesday, February 11, and it must be submitted to TurnItIn.com by 3:00 on that day.

This Week in Physics
We will continue to explore the conservation of momentum by completing our collisions experiment and analyzing data. (Your lab report will be due on Thursday, February 13 at the start of class, and it must be uploaded to TurnItIn.com by Friday, February 14 at 3:00.) Following analysis of the data in terms of the conservation of momentum, we will do new calculations with the data to analyze the role kinetic energy plays in the two types of collisions we ran. This will lead us into our next topic on the characteristics of different types of collisions. Notes on the following podcasts will be due as announced: Podcast 5 – Elastic Collisions part 1, Podcast 6 – Elastic Collisions part 2, Podcast 7 – Totally Inelastic Collisions part 1, Podcast 8 – Totally Inelastic Collisions part 2, and Podcast 9 – Inelastic Collisions. We may or may not get to assignment 3 this week.

This Week in Astronomy
As we complete our constellation mapping project, we will end our focus on star maps. Be sure to review Celestial Sphere Podcast 1 – Star Mapping as you prepare for the star mapping quiz, which will be announced mid-week. Our next topics will allow us to examine how and why the appearance of the night sky changes throughout the night and from one night to the next. If you’d like a preview, you can watch Celestial Sphere Podcast 2 – Celestial Equator and Celestial North Pole, although we’ll be covering the material in class.

Cool Science of the Week
We all know that life as we know it requires water. Therefore scientists search for it on other planets. This is difficult when it comes to exoplanets, or planets beyond our solar system. However, for the first time, scientists have found water on a rocky planet (or what’s left of the planet.) To some that suggests the conditions for life may have existed on that planet. What do you think about that? (P.S. Do you know where Earth got its water? Look it up! It’s wild!)