Week three of fourth quarter!

This Week in AP Physics
We will take a big electric circuits quiz on Monday in which you’ll be given an FRQ to complete in a limited amount of time. The FRQ can cover anything from this unit except for capacitors. We will do homework 3 for Tuesday and will then cruise through Unit 12: Magnetism and Electromagnetism. Be sure to work your review practice sets using the review workbook for units 3 & unit 4 which are due on Thursday. One month to go! 🙂
(P.S. On Tuesday during 3rd period you will attend a meeting with all AP students to fill out the paperwork for your tests.)

This Week in Physics
If you’re in third period, you will do the awesome Electric Fields Lab on Monday. If you’re in sixth period, you won’t…because you already did it, and doing it twice would be silly. On Monday/Tuesday we will finish covering the material in Podcast 6 – Electric Potential Energy and Podcast 7 – Electric Potential Energy Examples and will do assignment 4. The electrostatics unit test will be Wednesday. When announced, please begin the next unit on electric circuits by taking notes on Podcast 1 – Circuits and Current and Electric Circuits Podcast 2 – Resistance and Ohm’s Law. We may also do unit 8 assignment 1 by the end of the week.

This Week in Astronomy
We will continue with (and possibly finish) our unit on the moon. Those of you who did not finish Lunar Phasing Activity 2 should do so for Monday when we will debrief it and then thoroughly cover the phases of the moon, including their timings and alignments with Earth and the Sun. Expect a big quiz late in the week. Podcast 2 – Lunar Phases and their Appearances and Podcast 3 – The Phases and their Timings will help you prepare. Once we finish the quiz, we’ll explore the “lunology” of the moon. The unit test will be the week of April 21. Remember also that on Monday, April 21 the Unit 2 – Outdoor Lab is due. This requires you to go outside for many observations over a couple of weeks. Be sure to work on this regularly.

Cool Science of the Week
We’ve been exploring electrostatics in physics. Flames (and smoke) contain ions that can respond to electric fields. Check out this cool video demonstrating what happens to a candle flame when it’s exposed to a 20V potential difference between two oppositely-charged metal plates. You might also enjoy checking out the other videos from the same science video blog, Veritasium. (A big thanks to Rachel O. for pointing out this video!)