Physics 3020: Heat, light, and sound is a course that examines the basics concepts of physics. It includes discussions of heat, motion, velocity, and temperature. This course is not intended to go very much in depth, but to provide knowledge necessary for an elementary school teacher.
One major concept of the course was the study of the description of motion. The objectives for this lesson include speed vs. velocity, acceleration, and free fall. Speed refers to how fast something is moving. It is categorized as scalar quantity because of its numerical value. For example, the average speed limit in a school zone is 25 mph. Velocity, on the other hand, is the description of both the speed and the direction of the object. It is categorized as a vector quantity because it is speed in a given direction. For example, the coffee shop is 5m. north. When there is a change in velocity, we call this acceleration. A large acceleration tells you that the velocity is high in motion. A small acceleration tells you that the velocity is slowing down. However, an acceleration of 0 tells you that the velocity remains constant. Elaborating on this, free …show more content…
In this course we spent quite some time studying the third law of motion. This law focuses on the forces and interactions in the everyday world. Force always occurs in pairs. One cannot exist without the other. When you push on a wall, for example, the wall pushes back on you. According to Newton's third law, “ for every action, there is an opposite and equal reaction.” Meaning that the action and reaction forces occur at the same time. Let’s say that you are driving down the road and a huge bug strikes your windshield. The bug hits the car and the car hits the bug. It is easy to think that the car would have the greater force on the bug, but in reality, the forces are equal in accordance to newton's third law of