Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Tides


This Video explains tides well: It especially is helpful with the parts about forces on the earth with vectors and explanation. It also has a really cool demonstration of the tides in the program he has. The forces are the most confusing in terms of where the force is in relation to the core and the water on the surface and this video helps with that.



Because the moon is closer to the sun it is the force causing the tides not the sun even thought the sun has more mass and is pulling harder on the earth. The Earth has a tidal bulge around it that is created by the moon and it creates high tides on each side of the moon and low tides on the adjacent sides.  The tides are caused by a difference in force from the moon because the distance is different at the two points relative to the center of the moon. There are six hours between each low and high tide ad 12 between high tides and 12 between low tides.So, there are two low tides and two high tides each day.
There are different kinds of tides according to where the sun is relative to the moon and earth. If the sun is in line with the moon and earth it is called spring tides and it makes the high tides higher and the low tides lower. If the sun is not in line it israther during a quarter phase of orbit, it is called a neap tide.
http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/north-carolina/nags-head

http://www.tides4fishing.com/us/north-carolina/nags-head

Right now the tides are low, but they will be high very soon. 
It is in between but soon it will be neap tides.






Friday, November 7, 2014

Newton's Third Law Resource

The Physics Classroom link on Newton's Third Law:

This source was really helpful in strengthening my understanding of Newton's Third Law. It provides a very conclusive summary of the Law and it's meaning. It would be especially helpful in making the general idea and the abstract of the concept more concrete.

The site also includes examples and sample problems that you can try out and check your answer. I find these really helpful because often I read the text and think I retain the info, but the questions could reveal I don't.

This page on action and reaction pairs is helpful in understanding examples of the law and what they mean for actual objects. It also includes practice questions.