John Carter Final, Links, Requirements
Choose a piece of popular media, like Star Wars, and analyze 15 moments from the works where physics concepts are used/abused.
Analyze these moments for validity, plausibility, and mathematically say something about them.
For example, when Yoda raises Luke’s X-Wing from the swamp in Empire Strikes Back, how much energy must Yoda have used to accomplish the feat?
You must show your math, in other words, don’t just slap answers on a piece of paper. The interesting part is how you got those answers, and what assumptions you had to make about some of the silly situations characters find themselves in.
Your math must be typeset. Use this website.
If you need to capture video, use screencast-o-matic. You’ll need to allow Java applets to run on your computer.
You may turn in a paper, video with slides, video commentary, or get another format approved with Mr. Cornally.
This project is due January 7th. Not before and not after. You will present your best moment to the class.
Day 13: Back to the Future, Speedometer Fun
We’ve spent the past few days getting used to the interplay between acceleration and velocity.
Today we watched the hoverboard scene in Back to the Future II. Our goal was to calculate the acceleration and initial speed of Biff and Marty.
We also made graphs of Distance v. Time and Velocity v. Time from this video of my speedometer.
Day 10: Repping the Motion Equation, First Open Investigation
Today we will finish our first “problem” using the motion equation we derived form our labs.
We saw that constant velocity motion could be described with a line (d = vt + d0) and that acceleration could be described with (d = 0.5at^2)
We put the two together and added a “head start” factor:
d = 0.5at^2 + v_0t + d_0
Our problem involved Kyle defending his castle from invaders. The parameters were a 10 meter tall castle, 1 meter tall invaders, and a 1.3 second fall. We asked, “did Kyle drop the hot oil on them, or throw it down?”
Also, we will begin our first open investigations into 1D motion.
Followed by inclines and hoverpucks and bungess, oh my!
Day 9: Constant Velocity and Our Model of Motion, Quiz
We’re going to take a an assessment over the use of the free fall model and how it interplays with forces that either help of hinder the falling of the object. Use the constant acceleration problems to help you study.
We’re going to analyze the data from our hoverpucks and tumble buggies to figure out a model for constant velocity motion.
Day 8: Thruster Acceleration, Constant Velocity Pucks
We will calculate the additional acceleration given by our mentos rockets
- Nice Slow Motion of Parabola and Thruster
- Medium Bottle, Good Normal Time Run
- Good Slow Motion
- Good Run with a Small Bottle
- 2 Liter Bottle Normal Time
- Good Inverted Drop
- Good Small Bottle
We’ll use Logger Pro to analyze these videos. Don’t watch them in your browser; right click and download the file (Save As…)
Day 7: Mentos Thrusters
Let’s see if we can augment the acceleration due to gravity with Mentos thrusters.
We will drop powered bottles of Diet Coke from the bleachers to measure the change, if any, in acceleration.
Day 6: Discovering Acceleration
Today we discovered the the time to fall and the distance you call are not linearly related.
We derived the relationship involves a square, and that there is a magic constant (4.9) which is somehow related to the size of the Earth.
Each group presented their white boards. All groups indicated that there was no relationship (straight line of slope zero) for the t vs. mass plot.
Solon Physics 
