Workshop module 1 - Physics 113, Fall 1999

Workshop module 1 - Physics 113, Fall 1999

You want to describe the instantaneous condition of the room around you for a scientific publication … call the magazine Good Laboratories and Gardens. How would you describe it?

You've just had a big meal and you want to figure out if you have room left to eat a brownie. The brownie in question has been measured to be 2.3 cm x 4.622 cm x 4.544 cm. What is the volume of the brownie?

You are in a car at a stoplight (headed in the +x direction). When the light turns green you accelerate and then coast at constant velocity down the block until you see the stoplight in front of you has turned red. You decelerate constantly and come to a stop in front of the next light. Qualitatively, graph the car position (instantaneous) as a function of time, the car (instantaneous) velocity as a function of time, the car (instantaneous) velocity as a function of position, the car (instantaneous) acceleration as a function of time, the car (instantaneous) acceleration as a function of position. What is the average velocity? What is the average acceleration? What is the average position?

Young and Freedman 2-66

You are on the roof of the physics building, 46.0 m above the ground. Your physics professor, who is 1.8 m tall, is walking alongside the building at a constant speed of 1.20 m/s. If you wish to drop an egg on your professor's head, where should the professor be when you release the egg? Assume the egg is in free fall (i.e., you can ignore air resistance). (Actual experimentation is discouraged.)

If time, do:

Consider a car sitting still at t=0. Define x=0 at the point where the car is sitting. Now the car accelerates according to a(t)=2t-1 m/s². What is the speed of the car after 10 seconds? What is the position of the car?

What is your concept of time and space? Is there one big, universal spatial "reference frame" for the universe? Is time measured here is the same as that measured on Alpha Centauri is the same as that measured by Mario Andretti zipping by on a rocket ship???