Mr. Callahan's Classes » Mr. Callahan

Drawing With JavaScript

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 07 Dec 2016 17:57:14 +0000

JavaScript is the programming language of the web.

In honor of Computer Science Education Week we have a challenge:

Try using JavaScript to draw picture. The best drawing wins candy.

The sample page can be found here:

You can use JavaScript to draw a picture.

Falling From Space

Mr. Callahan — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 20:35:56 +0000

Today we're going to deal with a lot of data about falling.

It was gathered Felix Baumgartener fell from space to earth. On the screen will be lots of data to help us understand what was happening during this. Don’t watch the whole video, just see the first 15 seconds or so and observe what the data is telling us.

On a seperate sheet of paper please answer the included questions.
1. What is happening to the altitude?

2. What is happening to his velocity?

3. Calculate his velocity at 3 points in the fall? Show your work. Either capture amplitude data and time data, or calculate the conversion from km/hr.

4. What is his acceleration? Use the velocities from question 3. Graph this (velocity is dependent variable; time is dependent) and find the slope of that graph. (Use Excel or Google Sheets.)

5. Given his initial height and our data, how long should it take him to reach the height at which he releases the parachute (2600 m)? Edit the computer model below to find the time.

6. If your model is not exactly correct, theorize factors that it might have taken into account for.

7. What happens to his velocity after the parachute is released and why?

Falling In Two Dimensions with NetLogo

Mr. Callahan — Mon, 05 Sep 2016 20:34:13 +0000

An old question is physics is, how does a bullet falling from someone’s had behave differently than one being fired from a gun? Another way to word it is “If one bullet is fired, and another is dropped, both at the same time, which hits the ground first?

Use the video below to answer the question.

We’re going to look more closely at the motion of something moving. The video below has tape marks every 10 cm. Use the video to gather data about the trajectory of the ball as it falls. It is in 8x slow motion, so each 8 seconds passed on the video equates to 1 second in reality.

Please use either Excel or Google Sheets to graph the data you gathered.

Next we're going to use a programming language called NetLogo to edit a bad computer model to fit the data that we gathered.

The model below is of the motion of the ball in freefall. Please edit it to better fit our experimental data.

2dmotion

Moon Shot

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 02:30:57 +0000

For a rocket to make it into space it must have something called escape velocity. Adjust the angle and initial velocity of the projectile and see how the range is affected.

Color Coding

Mr. Callahan — Mon, 29 Jun 2015 13:05:40 +0000

Colors on TVs, Monitors and many other devices are produced by a mixture of red, green, and blue colors of light. Each of them has 256 levels of intensity (8 bit). That means the each have a value between 0 and 255. Try the tool I wrote below to see if you can use math to match colors.
You could also just go to the page here.

Why Doesn’t the Moon Fall Into the Earth

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 20 May 2015 14:03:01 +0000

Isaac Newton is famous for understanding that the gravity in space is the same as that on Earth. It is the same universal gravity. The Moon is attracted to the earth and vise-versa. The great question is why doesn’t it ever hit us. Try to figure it out with this simulation.

How is the Atmosphere on Mars Different Than on Earth?

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 20 May 2015 13:21:27 +0000

We are surrounded by gases. They are necessary for life and important for chemistry if only because chemical reactions occur very quickly in gases. We’ll be looking at how the atmosphere of Mars is different from that of Earth in order to understand this topic.

Ideal Gas Simulation

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 20 May 2015 13:17:24 +0000

Gases are too small to see molecule by molecule. They are a perfect example of the challenge of chemistry. In teaching chemistry I try to make the invisible visible. The kinetic molecular model is an example of this. The way that gases behave can be explained by a model that has several rules. We’ll learn more about that. See if you can find some of the gas laws by working with this simulation.

Basketballs: Second Day Assignment

Mr. Callahan — Wed, 20 May 2015 01:57:51 +0000

Basketballs don’t bounce forever. Energy is never lost, but takes new forms. Read and learn further about thermodynamics and entropy in this assignment.

Ununpentium

Mr. Callahan — Tue, 19 May 2015 05:08:58 +0000

This year some of my students went to the Lawrence Livermore Lab which did the research to discover Livermorium. Another element has recently been discovered. Learn more about it with this lesson.