This just in...

If you thought that particle physics was in a dry spell, here is an article to show you that couldn't be further from the truth.

Peace,
Mr. C

Livescience.com: Neutrino Experiment Reveals (Again) That Something Is Missing from Our Universe.
https://www.livescience.com/neutrino-mass-experiment-katrin-early-results.html

This week in modern physics

A good "layman's" article about CERN below...

Good work this week, AP-ers.  For the upcoming week, we should finish chapter 29 early on.  Look for updated Webassign due dates.  Also, we will most likely have our next "counter" this week, and it will be about the photoelectric effect.

Enjoy the weekend, and be ready to keep up the good work come Monday.

Onward!
Mr. C

The Washington Post: At the Large Hadron Collider, a peek at the future of science.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/travel/at-the-large-hadron-collider-a-peek-at-the-future-of-science/2019/09/19/9dcea608-d59c-11e9-9610-fb56c5522e1c_story.html

Little things mean a lot

WIRED: Physicists Finally Nail the Proton’s Size, and Hope Dies. https://www.wired.com/story/physicists-finally-nail-the-protons-size-and-hope-dies/

Thought this might interest some of you.  Make sure you are ready for our first quiz tomorrow, and..
Keep on physics-ing!

First Full Week

Once again, nice work this week, gang!

A quick look at the syllabus will show that we were scheduled to get through Chapters 28 and 29.  That was excessively ambitious.  We are mostly done with Chapter 28, so I will count that as a partial victory.  A closer look at the syllabus will show that there is a "slush" week of Modern Physics review and testing at the end of September.  I feel fairly confident that we should be able to use that time, and complete our Modern Physics work by the end of the month.  That should keep us on track for being strongly prepared for the AP exam in May.

We will have our first assessment of the term next week.  We will have a free-response "counter" on Tuesday, September 17th.  The topics for this assessment will be material from Chapter 9 of our text, or Relativity and directly related topics.  You may make a formula sheet of your own for this quiz, and also, you should be prepared to use a calculator as needed.

Keep up the good work gang.  Check WebAssign for revised due dates, and...

Keep on physics-ing!
--Mr. C

Mission (almost) accomplished!

Great work in our first week back, AP-ers!

I was hoping quite fervently that we could get through relativity this week, and we basically did that.  Well done!  As will always be the case, there are some aspects which we breezed past, or maybe covered, but not very thoroughly.  Such is life.  You may have something to look forward to in college now! 😄

Anyway, I think you should have all the info you need to complete the Chapter 9 problems in WebAssign.  Remember, I have extended the deadline to Monday at midnight.  There is still time to ask questions, as needed, after the weekend.

Also, as promised, links to relevant videos about relativity are included below.  If you have time, they are well worth the watch.

We will have a short quiz on relativity next week (more details when we reconvene), and we will also try to move into the next area of Modern Physics where we will discuss atomic and subatomic topics.  Enjoy your weekend, and...

Keep on physics-ing!
--Mr. C

Fabric of the Cosmos

Light Falls

AP, day 2

OK, not as much physics was accomplished on day 2, but we got some needed procedural things out of the way. 

Tomorrow (Thurs., Sept. 5), when we are back to full length blocks, we should be able to make some headway wrapping up time dilation.  We will also go over Einstein's 2 postulates of Special Relativity, and hopefully cover length contraction, and possibly Lorentz Transforms.

Great first day, AP-ers!

So, we got a good start on time dilation today.  Let's finish that up, and get going with the rest of Chapter 9 topics.  It would be great if we could get that stuff nailed down this week, and be ready to start more modern physics topics next week.

Onward...
--Mr. C