11-01-10
Exams were returned from last Friday and students were reminded of the science notebook quiz on Wed 11-03-10. Students began to model atomic collisions by using a petri dish that contained two differently sized BBs and worked with the questions on pp. 114-116 in the text. How would you describe the velocity of the smaller mass BBs compared to the larger mass BBs when the dish was shaken? Can velocity change if only direction changes? Can momentum change if only the direction of a particle changes? Shaking the dish faster simulates higher energy (for instance raising the temperature of a substance). What does this do to the number of collisions?