Aurora-Zehra

WEEK ONE:

I think we'll be studying about weight and gravity. We will learn things about physics.

Question: What is Physics? Question: How things balance on each other? (My answer) When we are trying to balance something we much check its weight so we can decide how to put it together with other things. It is more like the balance scale that Egyptians used in the old times.

We may learn about why astronauts sort of jump around and seem to float on the moon and have to wear spacesuits.

WEEK TWO:

Amelia`s dad came to our class and showed us how gravity and scale balancing works. I was very happy because I had already written about it the week before. My dad told me the story of Isaac Newton, a physicist and scientist from England who worked on many ideas to do with gravity and force. We talked about why an apple fall from a tree and also "Newton's Laws of Motion" which have many answers to the one of the quizzes on our class wikispaces. I also experimented with a soccer ball by dropping it on the floor and harder I dropped the ball the higher it came back up after hitting the floor which is how Newton said that to "every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" so the ball would come back with the same force and motion or speed with which I dropped it against the floor. We also experimented at home with a slice of bread, dropping it from a bit of height on the bread board and also doing to same with a square piece of a paper napkin and see the difference in the way they fell to the bread board. The slice of bread dropped down straight with a thump because it is heavier and the paper napkin square sort of flew side to side while falling gently to the board. It was because the slice of bread was heavier and the piece of the paper napkin and lighter and flatter.

WEEK THREE:

On the website there are two videos that have been put up by Miss Buttle. The first clip shows that something always happens when marbles hit the chords and it very controlled - the result is real good music. The same is true for the second clipping which is so cool because something is happening all the time with the machines being affected by the constant motions which is very very organized.

WEEK FOUR:

In class we have done some experiments to do with weight and gravity. We have made rockets and now are focusing on how to make a parachute that would come down slowly and land on the ground. We are also doing a lot of testing our idea.

Why is that some times things come down and and other times really fast?

I think the answer is that the weight and the air resistance play a big role. Also, when something heavy it will drop faster of because gravitational pull.

WEEK FIVE:

Making a parachute was very interesting. I liked doing the research and it was even more fun to try out the first model I made. I used one of the trolls as the "fellow" with the parachute and dropped him from the second floor tight through the stairwell of our apartment building. It worked really well and the fellow sailed down pretty comfortably. I could see how the top of the parachute sort of inflated as the parachute dropped and became more like an umbrella because the air resistance and it slowed down considerably as compared to if I were to drop the troll without it. Also, the troll landed without the thump as it would have if dropped like a stone. I am wondering if I make a much bigger parachute than the one I made and try the same troll - I think it will drop even slower because of greater air resistance.