paper in physics course

Final Papers for Physics 141

This semester we have been studying motion. We first studied free fall and other translational motion. Then we added in conservation laws, followed by rotation. Next, we will be considering the motion of large numbers of particles, called thermal motion. We have illustrated this with a variety of examples in the homeworks, but most of them were rather contrived. In a some cases (CSI:Valpo) we did make connections to “every-day-life”, even though physics affects everything we do.

Now that you’ve spent (nearly) a whole semester studying physics, it’s time for you to start thinking about how physics affects “life in the real world”. This is what the final paper is about: I want you to choose some topic, discuss how physics relates to it, and solve an example problem illustrating how physics relates.

To help you out, I’m giving some examples below; however, you are NOT permitted to use any of these examples:

• Ski-jumping: A student could discuss about how once the skiier was airborne, he or she is in free fall. Then, the student could review the gold medal winning jump from 2012 winter Olympics; by estimating the length & angle of the jump, and timing how long the skiier was in the ramp, the student could calculate the maximum height above the ramp the skiier reached.

• Flywheel buses: A student researched some buses in Switzerland that were powered by flywheels; using the mass and radius of the flywheels, this student calculated how much rotational energy they stored, and the maximum theoretical distance the buses could go.

Here are the details: You MAY work with up to one other person and submit a joint paper together. Most complete papers are about two pages long. You should first introduce your topic and discuss how physics applies to it. Then, you should set up a numerical problem (such as finding the maximum distance of the bus or the maximum height of skiier). You should then solve the problem, explaining the important steps. (For the skiier example, you might say something like “The vertical velocity of the skiier is given by vy = v0y −gt, and the skiier reaches her maximum height when this is zero. Using the value for v0y found above, this happens at time...”)

Your papers are due on the last day of class. If you have any questions, please be sure to let me know.

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