Monday, January 14, 2008

1/10/08-Work and Energy

Today in class we learned about work and energy. Work is a force acting through a distance. It is also an energy relationship. The formula for work is Work= Force x Distance, or W=FD. Work is also equal to the change in total energy.
We were also introduced to a new formula for total energy: Et=KE+PE+Q. Therefore, Work equals change in PE+ change in KE+ change in Q.
Q is the symbol for internal energy. This is the total kinetic energy and the total potential energy of all the individual molecules and atoms. This includes chemical potential energy and nuclear potential energy.
I think that we need to spend less time in class on definitions and more time on problem examples, particularly the more challenging ones. I feel that we spend too much time going over similar easy problems and not concentrating on moderate to more difficult examples that appear on our quizzes.

1 comment:

Larry Wirth said...

Hi Chloe - Thank you for the feedback on how much time to spend on problem solutions. I've had similar feedback from others, and I intend to move toward more problem solutions in the second semester.

We have been moving fairly quickly since I arrived in November, and in the second semester we should be able to slow down the pace a bit which will allow more time for examples.

Please remember that the definitions are important, in that you need to know it before being able to work a problem.