The C 21 Project Real World Physics Problems

The C 21 Project Real World Physics Problems for Undergraduate and High-School Students What is it? Online teaching materials and resources for university instructors and high school teachers. http: //c 21. phas. ubc. ca All resources deal with realworld phenomena or real-world applications. Is it working? Data from workshops and teaching evaluations: Teachers find the web resources useful and would use them in class Students find the examples interesting and motivating If high voltage is so dangerous, why transmit electricity that way? Can plants be used to fuel my car? Are cycle commuters, who take an extra shower, doing more damage to the environment than those who commute by car? How much force can the body withstand upon impact? What physics is covered? The physics is still the same but presented in different contexts: Conservation of energy, Newton’s laws, heat transfers, energy and work, electricity and magnetism, kinematics, etc. are applied to examples of sustainability and the environment, the human body and animals, earth climate… Does it pay to cover your roof with solar panels in Vancouver? How much energy does our body use? How do we keep cool when it is really hot out? Can we justify eating more when studying? How much energy does it take to move a person or a tonne of freight from A to B? How far away can a cheetah be from a gazelle and still be guaranteed to catch it? Why? Physics is often seen as something that happens in the lab and as something that is not relevant in everyday life, especially by non-physics majors. Examples with strong real-world connections and interactive teaching methods have the potential to change students’ attitudes towards science. Real-world examples are also much more motivating for students to carefully look at. Lack of such resources in textbooks. It takes energy to fly. How much? All bodies emit radiation. So why don't we all shine in the dark? …instead of asking this: What compensation for doppler shifts do bats perform to keep their echoes within their hearing range? v L What examples are shown? Show pictures and hooks. These can be distributed all over the poster. The rest of the points is in textboxes (except maybe example). Can wind turbines actually be used to harness a substantial amount of power? How it works: We can ask this… How long do you have to ride your bicycle to burn off a doughnut? Or As you probably know, cycling uphill is a lot harder than cycling on a flat terrain. How much harder? Consider the following: … Obviously, bicycling questions are much more interesting than questions about blocks on frictionless ramps such as the one below. Our resources show that we can answer such real-life question with basic physics and a little bit of information that is available on web. Why does your cat have a better chance of surviving a fall from a large cliff than you do? What resources are available: Lecture notes, multiple-choice question, problem questions, take-home experiments (all with solutions), videos. When does a car have the same fuel efficiency as a bicycle? How long do you have to ride your bicycle to burn off a doughnut? d A block starts at the bottom of a frictionless ramp with the initial speed v=15 m/s up the ramp. It slides up the ramp and then shoots into the air. Eventually the block lands on a plateau, which is level with the top of the ramp (see the figure below). The ramp is L=10 meters long and makes an angle = 30 o with the horizontal. What is the magnitude of the deceleration of the block on the ramp? What is the velocity of the block when it leaves the ramp? At what distance d from the top of the ramp does the block land (on the plateau)? Why do you feel dizzy if you stand up too quickly? What single system could be added to a gasoline car to improve its city driving fuel economy by 30 -40%? People: Georg Rieger, Chris Waltham, Andrzej Kotlicki, Theresa Liao, Rachel Moll, Shaun Dychko, Angela Ruthven, Janelle van Dongen, Oren Rippel, Chenchong (Charles) Zhu, Brittany Tymos, Claire Wheeler, Mathew (Sandy) Martinuk, Anoushka Rajan Acknowledgements: This project is funded by TLEF and SSHRC How fast does a nerve signal travel? The bigger the better? Which planetary characteristics contribute to producing a mean surface temperature that makes Earth habitable?