Conveners
Morning Session 2B
- Rachele Dominguez (Randolph-Macon College)
- Kent Yagi (University of Virginia)
We are used to seeing variations in size and proportions among humans and animals, often without thinking much of it. What limits their sizes? Why is it that the tallest man or woman is not taller than 8 feet? And, while at it, why aren’t more of them? What challenges would a much taller person (or shorter) face in their day-to-day living? What about efficiency – how does food consumption...
For many students, “calculus” is an intimidating word, while at the same time they find 1D motion with uniform acceleration to be intuitive and easy to visualize. Using a spreadsheet creates an opportunity to demystify this math connection for all students while adding a new skill and enhanced capability to the physics curriculum. Solving for any single unknown in a 1D motion problem is...
I will describe a new course offered in the Physics Department at the University of Virginia. It satisfies the basic computing requirement for physics and astrophysics (as well as several other major/minor requirements at the university). However, it is a general-education course, and as such, it does not focus on examples from the physical sciences. Instead, it focuses on the foundation of...
This presentation is a continuation of one I gave on April 1, 2022 on the velocity triangle and the Brehme Angle as a graphical solution to problems in Special Relativity. This presentation applies those concepts to a body undergoing uniform linear acceleration, to determine that linear acceleration is rotary motion in four dimensions. The simple graphical solution satisfies the classical...
