Physics Day 2 (02/25/2009)

I began to wonder what exactly I was walking into when, on the second day of class, we were assigned homework that is the equivalent of the dreaded dm integrals we all did in Physics 4A. But then I remembered that physics is an objective science and, unlike its subjective counterparts philosophy and english, has a step-by-step mathematical process that, if followed correctly, will guarantee your success. (I wont get a C on my midterm because the teacher has differing opinons on the meaning of life.) Besides, Peter is always willing to help any of us with our homework, despite the fact that most of us have neglected his SI sessions recently. (Don't worry Peter, as I'm sure you're well aware, the class will come crawling to you for help come mid-semester after our first exam.)

Well, if you weren't in class, you missed out on your chance to purchase a notebook from Kara. You will need one for our upcoming project to record your daily progress and what have you. (Make sure it has graphing paper in it.) Kara will have them in class Monday, otherwise, get one for $1.80 at Staples.

During class we followed along pages 9 through 16 (1.6 to 2.9) in our 101 page packet. Yeah, I counted (three times, actually). Do you need a special stapler to use those INDUSTRIAL SIZED staples? hmmm...

Anywho... most important concept of the day was electric potential which can, in many ways, relate to gravitational potential energy. Electric fields are, indeed, conservative and therefore work done by an electric field is INDEPENDENT of the path taken. (This is key, folks)

Then we remembered that the only thing we love more than integrating, is integrating from inifinty. Yes, integrating FROM infinity. Remember how we used this trick for gravity? Yeah, now we use it to find the electric potential at a distance r from a point charge by integrating from inifinty to r. Remember, the electric (and gravitationa) potentials at inifinity are ZERO.

One last thing: When dealing with electrons and protons in an atom, we found their gravitational attraction to be SO small as compared to their electrical attraction, it is NEGLIGIBLE.

Now a little inspiration:

Somebody said that it couldnt be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That "maybe it couldnt," but he would be one
Who wouldnt say so till hed tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
That couldnt be done, and he did it.

With that being said, lets all get an A this semester!!!