Honors Physical Science Summer Work 2007

 Welcome to Daniel High School and Physical Science.   It is my hope that you will discover how fulfilling an in-depth coverage of chemistry and physics can be.  I have high expectations for each of you and look forward to working with you next year. 

              Honors Physical Science is designed for those students that have a strong interest in science.  You will be expected to turn in all homework assignment on time and prepare thoroughly for test.   We will be doing a great deal of lab work which requires preparation before and analysis afterward.   Learning lab skills and data analysis are critical skills for high school students.  We will use a variety of math techniques during the year and hope all honors students will have a full year of algebra behind them.  We will be using graphing calculators on a daily basis. 

             The Science Department at Daniel is very experienced and offers you many different paths in your preparation for college science and engineering coursework.   CP and AP classes in biology, chemistry, and physics are offered as well as elective courses such as astronomy and environmental science.  Honors Physical Science will prepare you for those future challenges. 

             You may contact me by email with any questions you have with the summer work.  The address is:  joneslw@pickens.k12.sc.us.

             So, work honestly through the assignments.  Turn in your very best work and  have a great summer vacation.

Larry Jones

            Students that choose Honors Physical Science are expected to start their year by completing the following assignment during the summer.    Sections 1 and 2 of the summer assignments should be completed and turned into the school office by July 16^th.  They will count as a major grade for the first nine weeks.

            All work should be neatly completed, following the instructions given.  Any sources used must be cited (i.e., Internet, print media, etc. should be cited in a simple bibliographical manner).  Quality of work is more important than quantity.

            There are three sections.  The first selection involves research on four science topics to be covered during the year. The second is a performance exercise involving data collection. The third section is a review of specific information. 

Section 1. 

            Choose any four of the following topics.  Develop a set of review notes for that topic.  These notes could then be used by students on homebound instruction or developed into web pages.  You must research the topic and make decisions as to the most important information.  Then present that information in a clear, concise, interesting manner.

 Instructions:   This experiment is designed to be completed at home.  Neatly summarize all your information on notebook paper (front only or it may be typed).  Answer all questions using complete sentences as well.  You should make drawings to complement your observations.   Be sure your name is at the top of the paper.

 1. Cohesion and Adhesion

          Find a tiny piece of clear plastic.  Place it over the typewritten instructions on this page.  Obtain a small amount of water in a small cup.  Use some kind of dropper to add 1 drop on top of the plastic.  Draw the shape of the convex droplet (use a side view).  Describe the appearance of the typeface beneath the plastic.  Try adding another drop of water to make your droplet larger.  What happens to the magnification?   The drop is acting as a lens.  What does a greater curvature of the droplet cause?  Is the water more attracted to itself (cohesion) or more attracted to the plastic film (adhesion)?

 How could you calibrate the dropper you used?  (i.e., determine the # of drops/mL).  What techniques work to allow constant volume drops?  Why will the dropper not work if there is a small hole in the bulb?  Design an experiment to test your calibration ideas.

             Cut a clean straw nearly in half and bend at the cut to form a right angle.  Extend the bottom half into a cup of water vertically.  Holding the upper part of the straw at right angles to the bottom half of the straw, blow through the horizontal straw.  Can you get water to move up the vertical straw and be expelled out, away from you?  What happens to the water as it is expelled?  What scientific principles are involved?  Make a scaled drawing, with measurements in cm, of your final straw-setup. 

2. Magnifying Power of Water

We see images that are formed by the eye from light that comes from objects. Because light can be bent (refracted) by lenses the image we see can be different from the object that produced it. With a magnifying lens we can make an image seem larger than the object. The magnification is the ratio of real object size to the image size we see through the lens. Water droplets on a plastic surface act as a lens. Use graph paper and the clear plastic sheet to determine the magnification ability of one drop of water, several drops of water, and a drop of some other clear liquid.

Find the magnification of a lens:
1. Examine a section of the attached graph paper with your water lens. Move the water droplet lens closer and farther away until you have the biggest squares you can still see clearly through the lens.
2. Count the number of squares it takes to cross the width of the droplet lens.
3. Set the lens back on the paper and measure the width of the droplet lens in graph paper squares.
4. The magnification is the image size divided by the object size. The image size is the width of the lens. The object size is the number of magnified squares you see in the lens.
5. Measure the distance between the lens and the graph paper (that gives you the maximum magnification). Record this on your data sheet. As you move the lens closer and farther away what happens to the magnification?
6. Describe the effect of adding extra drops of water. Did the magnification change? What other liquid did you use? Did it work the same as the water? The magnification does depend on the curvature of the droplet but over a small range of sizes the water droplets flatten out on top so the curvature does not change too much.

 3. Coins and Graphing

Obtain a penny, nickel, dime, and quarter. Clean and dry each coin, then complete this section without physically touching them.  Again using the cup of water and dropper, see how many drops you can place on each coin without them sliding off.    Remember to hold the dropper vertically and eliminate air bubbles (to have consistent drops).  Record these numbers.  You should repeat each coin three times to get an average number of drops held by each coin.

         Next measure the diameter of each coin in cm. Next calculate the surface area of each coin (using             area = π r² ).  Use charts for data and show all calculations on your paper.  Then calculate the number of drops per square centimeter for each coin (i.e.,  # drops/cm²).  Given the area of a half-dollar (area = 7.06 cm² ), how would you calculate the number of drops it would hold using your graph?   Are their other ways to estimate the number of drops it would hold?   What factors might cause this prediction to be incorrect?

Try graphing the number of drops on vertical axis (Y) versus area of coin on horizontal (X) axis.  Draw a best fit straight line through the data points.  Will this help you determine the drops that a half-dollar might hold?  What problems are encountered if you use soap on the coin before adding the drops (or touch the coin with the oils on your fingers)?  What shape did the water take on top of the coin?  Can you draw the shape?

Measure the thickness and circumference of each coin. Plot circumference on vertical (Y) axis and diameter on horizontal (X). Find slope of best fit line through points. How accurate is your slope? How can you calculate the degree of accuracy?

Find the volume of each coin (consider each to be a cylinder of length L or the thickness of the coin). Use the formula volume _cylinder = π r² L. Calculate the density of each coin by using the formula: density = mass/volume. The masses are given as: dime = 2.26 g, penny = 2.50 g, nickel = 5.04 g, and quarter = 5.60 g.   Are coins made of a single metal or combinations of metals?   How would combinations of metals affect the density of the coin?  Can you find the actual compositions of the different coins?

4.  Flight

          Do a simple internet search for uncommon paper airplane designs.  Draw detailed  instructions for folding the airplane (must be done by you – cannot use those already created).  Test fly it and record what you think would be the important flight data.  Discuss how you could turn this into a research project.  What would be your dependent and independent variables?  What variables would you control?  Can you develop a simple hypothesis to test?

Section 3. 

            Attached to this information is a list of common chemical elements and their symbols.  Students should memorize the correct spelling of the names and the associated chemical symbols.  The first letter of any symbol is always capitalized and if a second letter is included it will always be lower case.  In the second week of school a test will be given on these elements and their symbols.  

            Students are also requested to go to my website (www.sciencebyjones.com) and review the following sections in the math review area.  From the main menu, choose “Teaching Topics Menu”, then click on “Measurement & Math Review Menu” and work through each of the menu items.  Another very helpful area on the website is the downloadable programs.  Start from the main menu, choose “General Information Menu”, then click “Download File Menu”, then click the download button.  You will need an unzip program to access the programs.  The two programs  “SigFigs” and “Metrics” are the most important.  If you have trouble getting access to these programs I will give you a copy on disk when school begins.  There is nothing to turn in from this section.