Week of 11/14

I had two students come into my office hours this week. One student had trouble with a change in linear momentum problem from the back of the textbook. The problem dealt with a ball bouncing on a flat, horizontal surface. The student had trouble visualizing changes in velocity, and I informed him that velocity in the x-direction doesn't change, whereas velocity in the y-direction has the same magnitude, but opposite signs.

Another student had a question about two objects inelastically colliding and then sliding up a ramp. I helped this student by demonstrating that an inelastic collision means the objects will hold together, so their velocity will be one and their masses will be combined. Then the problem could be thought of as a standard potential energy problem where all of the kinetic energy from the "single" object will be converted up the ramp into potential energy.

I had no students come to my office hours the week of 11/21 due to break.