The tutor gets started with projectiles. Consider the following question: A golf ball is hit over level ground at 55m/s with angle of elevation 27°. Find the vertical and horizontal components of its velocity. Solution: We draw a diagram of …
Physics: projectile motion: finding the horizontal and vertical components of velocity Read more »
The tutor covers a simple, yet powerful feature of the Texas Instruments TI-30xa. Using the memory can save time in multi-step calculations. With the TI-30xa, here’s how: Enter the number you want to store on the display. (It can also …
Calculator usage: using the memory on the TI-30xa Read more »
The tutor begins an exploration of the changing feasibility of solar energy. There is a graph provided by Scientific American that shows the Watts one might get for $100 from solar cells by year. As they point out, it’s a …
The tutor illuminates a very plain, yet critical, concept from physics. Average velocity has the following definition: vave=displacement/time Displacement means your change in position. (Read more about the difference between distance and displacement in my post here.) Travelling straight-line, displacement …
The tutor’s casual observation leads to a discussion about evaporation. Last Saturday, my children and I had a water fight in the back yard. We filled two buckets (one for each side) from which to replenish our water guns. Looking …
The tutor begins a series on the idea of a human-powered household. It’s not a new concept, that human energy could be harnessed to produce electricity. However, the specific numbers aren’t always discussed. The exercise bike says I can burn …
With Einstein’s e=mc2, the tutor investigates an old claim. When I was a kid, a friend of mine told me you can travel around the earth, not just once, but seven times, on the energy contained in a grain of …
Likely, we’ve all heard this question posed: Would a penny dropped from…kill you? The tutor answers. Recently I was asked if a penny dropped from the Eiffel Tower could kill someone below. It’s a familiar question. Sometimes the penny …
Having returned from a long day trip, the tutor shares some reflections about driving. I’m not much of a driver, yet sometimes I have to be. Yesterday my son had a dance competition in Victoria, which I’d say is about …
In high school, the tutor had a calculator much like the TI-30XA. For scientific notation, there’s probably none better. What some people call the “normal” way to write a number, is also known as “float”. So 1.35×10-3 is 0.00135 in …
Scientific notation: toggling back and forth on the TI-30XA Read more »