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Under Pressure Project
Within this project, we were tasked with creating a water pressure system that could run the fluid through various angles and heights, eventually coming out of one end at fast speeds. On our run-up to the AP Exam, we had one final concept to cover, Fluids and Pressure. Knowing that this topic was a newly added concept in this year's AP Physics 1 course, the teacher and students were beginning a fresh topic and project to display our knowledge and skills. As I was put into a group with three others, we planned to create a complex system that pushed water across all directions and dimensions, making our calculations more complicated and result more interesting.
To begin the project, we tested out various designs using the given PVC pipes and connectors supplied by the class. At this point, we relied entirely on our creativity and imagination to create a unique system, ignoring the calculations that would come out of it. With this in mind, we settled on a design utilizing various heights, connections angles, and directions at which the water moves (This can be seen on the powerpoint below...).
After completing our design and connections, we moved to calculating the pressure of our fluid at a number of points that we found to be most notable. The significance of these points were determined by changes in directions of flow, change in depth, and change in the sizes of piping. Using fluid conservation laws, we were able to determine the velocity at which the fluid was moving throughout the significant points in our system, which we could input into the complete formula for pressure alongside the depth to determine how much pressure was present at those points. Lastly, with these values and outputs, we presented our findings through a powerpoint that covered the detailed measurements and pressures at each point...
Content
Pressure - the force that is applied per unit of area of on object perpendicularly
Acting as the most relevant piece of our project, pressure was the main components of calculation, varying based on the depth the point was, the size of piping that determined velocity, and the pressure created by the atmosphere on an exposed part of the fluid
Velocity - he rate at which our car travelled a given distance in a certain amount of time, generally being one second
The velocity at which the fluid moved entirely relied on the size of the piping and its area, allowing the smaller areas to move water at faster speeds, and the larger areas to move water at slower speeds
Flow Rate - the amount of water that moves in a certain area after a specific amount of time
In the case of our system, the flow rate will always be the same. Despite there being varying areas and angles at which the water moves through, the amount of water that moves through those areas in a certain amount of time will always stay consistent. This is because the varying velocities will make up for the amount of water gained or lost by how big or small the piping is at that point
Projectile Motion - the motion an object experiences due to a combination of a vertical and horizontal force/velocity
In the case of our system, projectile motion was a kinematic calculation we added as an extra challenge as the end of our design. Once the fluid reaches the end of the piping, it is releases by the pressure from a small hole, pushing it out a high speeds as projectile motion. We were able to test and vary this result by changing the hole size, so that as the hole reduced in area, the water speed coming out would be faster
Reflection
This project served as a challenge towards the entire class and me personally, as we are introduced to a completely new concept in AP Physics I without any prior references. However, despite my concern for how much I would understand this unit and concept of pressure of fluids, I found this to be the simplest concept throughout all of AP Physics I. While the name and topics of this unit seemed difficult and frightening, I was able to quickly grasp to ideas an concepts used in each lesson. With this, I was able to display and develop many different traits, such as collaboration and critical thinking. Similar to the other units and projects, there was limited time to create a complete and effective presentation of our findings and values, which made collaboration and team organization critical. However, with my quick grasp of the concepts and applications, I was able to act as the leader in my group, organizing the powerpoint, presentation details and calculations among my group. In the end, we were able to compile all of these things and use speaking skills to display our unique design and support it with our calculations and explanations. In addition to presenting a well organized powerpoint, we also understood that the heavy calculations and explanations were not the critical piece of sharing our findings, which tested how effectively we were able to keep our audience's attention by quickly covered the necessary components and keeping a simple, crisp presentation for our class. On top of collaboration, critical thinking was a considerably large component of the logistical aspect of our project, especially in our calculations. As I mentioned previously, my quick grasp of the unit allowed me to assist others and organize the project; however, it also greatly helped in efficiently calculating and displaying the most significant pieces of our system's points. Beginning with the velocities of the fluid at each point, I found it best to back-track from our final release point, which we could measure with projectile motion, and use this velocity to calculate the others by knowing the conservation of fluid motion and speeds. This made the calculation of each pressure much simpler, as we measured the heights and inputted these values into the equation to finalize our finding. Lastly, critical thinking applied to more than just my project, but also my work in tests and exams. My ability to think outside the box on fluid concepts made it much easier to solve applications of them in my class, and I noticed this heavily as I scored my highest scores on this unit and found confidence in my answers to the AP exam questions relating to fluids. Considering all these factors, I included this project in my updated reflection because of the enjoyment I had doing this unit as well as the fact I was able to easily understand it, making me feel confident and good about myself whenever I came across a question relating to fluids and pressure.
Physics of *Sports?*
Within this project, we were tasked with representing momentum and collisions in sports. Using two or more interacting components, we experimented with and analyzed collisions between these objects, allowing us to determine initial and resulting velocities, accelerations and forces. To begin the project, we decided on the sport we would be experimenting with, which we finalized to be NASCAR and racing. This made it especially more simple to implement collisions and analyze momentum, as we focused on the collisions between hot wheel cars and clay balls.
In the concept of momentum, we considered two types of collisions, elastic and inelastic collisions, which both had effects on how we conducted our experiment. For our elastic collision, we experimented with direct collisions between the car and clay-less balls. These were considered to be elastic due to the opposing motion that would occur after the collision, as the car would move in an opposite direction while the stationary ball would be pushed forward. On the other hand, the inelastic collision would result when the car came into impact with a clay-covered ball, resulting in a sharing motion and system of both the ball and car moving in the positive direction. For all of these collisions, the resulting motion was determined by initial velocities of both the ball and car, assuming that momentum was conserved in our experiment.
Lastly, we were able to record all of our findings, experimenting with different scenarios where the ball is moving or stationary, and the car is traveling at various speeds to determine the resulting motion and velocities of the two objects. To present our findings, we organized a detail PowerPoint that includes diagrams and calculations to represent and share our experimental procedures and results...
Content
Momentum - the product of mass and velocity that guides an object with both magnitude and direction as a scalar quantity
The momentum of our car and ball were critical to determine what the resulting motion of our system would be. In some situations, the ball was held stationary, which is considered to have no velocity and, therefore, no momentum. However, in all of our experiments, the car was in motion, meaning it had some value of momentum. In term of the car, we used the same mass for every scenario, meaning the varying velocities determined how much momentum it had, while the moving ball varied largely in mass as we used different balls
Conservation of Momentum - the concept that momentum in a system between multiple objects is conservation and the sum of momentums are equal when considering the before and after, which is represented by the equation mv + mv = mv + mv
In our experiment, we considered momentum to be conserved. This allowed our calculations and applications to be more consistent and simple. However, in the real world, momentum cannot be conserved due to external forces such as friction and air resistance
Elastic Collisions - the interaction between two or more objects that involves a conservation of both kinetic energy and momentum
While elastic collisions cannot be attained in the real world due to external forces, we considered the clay-less collisions to be elastic due to the direct change in motion, which allows nearly full transfer of kinetic energy
Inelastic Collision - the interaction between two or more objects that involves a conservation of momentum, but does not conserve kinetic energy
Inelastic collisions are the only collision that occurs in the real world; however, for our experiment, we only considered the clay-covered collisions to be inelastic, making it a more consistent variable
Reflection
This project pushed a simple topic into a more complicated project and experiment, making it challenging to analyze and compile into a presentation. However, this allowed me to develop certain skills that can applied to my life. Similar to the fluids and pressure project, I greatly used and developed team collaboration and creativity to desplay my learning through this project. In terms of teamwork, I was put into a new group that I have not worked with before, challenging my communication and coordination throughout the project. However, similar to the other projects, I took this as an opportunity to assist in my leadership skills, organizing the presentation and helping my classmates with their scripts and powerpoint details. Furthermore, I was able to lead the calculations, as I explained much of the concepts with my group, making sure everyone was on track with each other. In addition to my team collaboration, the experimental design process of this project tested my creativity. After taking a sport to build our experiment off of, we relied heavily on our creativity and thinking outside the box to make the proper procedures to test the conservation of momentum and collision concepts. We were able to incorporate challenges into this by creating more versions of our collisions in order to have more variety in our project and challenge our critical thinking in calculations. Overall, this unit seemed like a simplistic project; however, we stretched this by challenging ourselves, making the project more unique and interesting. This unit also served as a difficult one for myself, which allowed me to grow greatly, especially on the calculations and applications aspect in tests and quizzes. Now, I feel I have mastered the concept of momentum and feel very confident with my performance and answers on questions relating to momentum and collisions on the AP Exam, showing my growth in this class.
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