LESSON REVIEW # 3B- - October 25, 2000 : To Ms. Woodlief...a dedicated High School Teacher at King Drew Magnet High School.
Cleophas Mike McAlpin......Tutor
Month End examination
Cleophas McAlpin…….Tutor
October 25, 2000
Our Tutoring Service will visit the Griffith Park Observatory on November 4, 2000. We will leave 19009 Laurel Park Road # 348 at 11:00 AM sharp. We will reinforce our recently acquired knowledge of the….Foucault Pendulum.
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"Hello out there! The giant Foucault pendulum marks the rotation of the Earth as it swings to and fro in the lobby of the Observatory. Many who stand and watch its slow movement and its knocking down of a row of “fingers” do not know, I am afraid, that the pendulum is marking the rotation of the Earth."
Our students will let all of them
know about Leon Foucault and his experiment in 1851. They will let all of
them know that it is possible to calculate the
acceleration
due to gravity
by making a “simple pendulum” such as this one. That acceleration,
G,
was found to be 9.8 meters/second2 or 32.2 feet/second2 by Jarrell, Cleasena, Sheena, Michael, Jeremiah
and Asia, Middle School and High School students, on this Wednesday afternoon in
our Free Tutoring session."
Physics can be made very simple by the application of simple machines. A simple
machine can be a
string
of a certain length and a
weight
of any amount. After all, the Period,
T, of a simple pendulum does not depend on the
weight
that is attached, but only on the
length of the string. The formula for calculating the acceleration due to
gravity or the Period is given by…
T =
2p
Ö
L/G
Where “T” is the time of
one oscillation of the pendulum and “L” is the length of the string, and
“G” is the acceleration due to gravity.
The
students measured a length of string (1.00-meter) and attached a weight to it.
Then they allowed the weight to swing to and fro, making an angle with the
vertical of no more than 30°.
They timed the swing (to and fro) and found it to be 2 seconds. That would make
“one tick” of
one
second and “one tock” of
one
second of a Grandfather’s Clock. Knowing “T” and “L” in the formula
makes it an exercise in Algebra to calculate “G”.
An
Algebra lesson followed the experiment. It dealt with finding
one
unknown in an equation when
two
are given. We took the
equation above
and squared each side to get rid of the radical. Then we input “L” and
“T” and solved for “G”. It was 9.8 meters/second2, just as
Foucault had predicted back in 1851!
Students
must understand that whatever you do to one side of an equation, you must do the
other. Asia’s homework dealt with such a postulation and I reminded her of
this as I assisted her with her Algebra homework. Such a problem as U- ( -5/7) =
2/3, can be solved by removing the parenthesis first. What is left is U+5/7 =
2/3. You then add –5/7 to
each
side of the
equation to eliminate the 5/7 from the left side of the equation. You are then
left with a fraction problem on the right of 2/3 – 5/7, as a value of “U”.
Asia worked many such problems and I let her know that all that is
required in such problems is to move the
numbers
to one side of the equation and the
letters to the other, always remembering to change the
sign
of the letters or numbers each time you move them across the
“=” sign. That would eliminate one step in the
solution.
We
learned how to eliminate the square root radical (Ö)
in an equation. We have been working with square roots as of late and this was
right down our alley. Can you find the square root of 50,000? The long-handed
way? It is a simple matter to grab a calculator, but calculators have
dead
batteries
sometimes. Our students
do not rely on calculators to do problems!
SAT Examination
questions must be answered correctly, calculators or no calculators!
Michael
and Jarrell began their homework from Banning High School as soon as they had
entered our “Family Room Classroom.”
They
pulled out Algebra books, Biology books, Spanish books and others and went to
work. It is pleasurable for me to watch them hard at work, without prompting.
They were joined by Asia, Cleasena, Jeremiah and Sheena. All of the students did
homework for most of the afternoon. I assisted them whenever they needed
assistance.
It is extremely gratifying for me to write about our educational experiences. It is extremely gratifying to know that Keyotta will turn in “The Foucault Pendulum” report to her science teacher for extra-credit at Long Beach Polytechnic High School. It is extremely gratifying to know that all of our 15-20 students are indeed….preparing themselves for the future.
It
is extremely gratifying to know that another student, Jason, age 17, 11th
grade is going to join our group on November 4, 2000. Welcome Jason. It is as I
explained to his mother; we are a
very intense
Tutoring Group.
Parents,
as well as
students,
must be willing to sacrifice and allow us to carry on this
intensity.
We are
not
for everyone. It is extremely gratifying to know that
most
teachers,
tutors, parents and students share my enthusiasm.
Teachers: Please make corrections and offer suggestions as you see fit. Send an e-mail to: cleophas9@aol.com Thank you.
Lesson Review follow-up of Pendulum on November 4, 2000 at the Griffith Observatory.