Unit Blog Reflection

      Throughout this unit I learned a wide range of things from inertia to constant velocity. The first thing in the unit we learned was Newton's 1st law of motion, which states, "An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an outside force." This was blended together with the concept of inertia when we did the hovercraft lab, which was very helpful in demonstrating both of these concepts.
      We also learned about net force and equilibrium during this unit, and net force is the total force acting on an object. Equilibrium is when all the forces acting on an object are balanced, and I discovered that the hovercraft was actually at equilibrium when it was moving. Another key part to net force and equilibrium is that the net force has to add up to 0N, or 0 newtons, in which force is measured in. This diagram was very helpful to me in understanding the concept of net force, in which the stronger force is greater than the weak force on the left, so the net force is to the left.
      The next thing we learned about was acceleration, which is defined as either a speed up or a slow down. The mathematical formula for acceleration is A=∆V/T, which means that acceleration is the change in velocity over the time. We also learned that speed is distance over time, which somewhat relates to acceleration. Speed is measured in m/s, and acceleration is measured in m/s^2.
      I haven't actually found too many things difficult during this unit, except at the beginning of the year, where I found it hard to remember the different units for velocity, acceleration, speed, force, and time. I overcame these difficulties by intensively studying the different units that corresponds with the terms.
      I found that doing the homework every night really helped me in understanding the concepts and also being on or ahead of time in the class. I also found that doing all of the blog posts well and very detailed helped me understand the topics better, because it is basically rewriting the information.
      My goal for next unit is to be more prepared for both open and closed note quizzes, because these small grades could greatly affect your overall grade in the long run. I haven't been doing that bad on the quizzes, but there is always room for improvement, especially for quizzes and also projects.
      One connection I have is to skateboarding, because it displays speed, acceleration, and velocity. I find that when I skate now, I think of all of the different information we have learned in physics so far. I found it interesting because I have never thought about skating in that way before.
      Lastly, this is a video that my group and I made demonstrating net force and equilibrium, and I find it very informative yet fun.