Maybe I shouldn't have started this blog now, not with everything that's been going on.

In my Trigonometric Applications class last Thursday I told them about the reviewer (or solutions to the problems we solved the meeting before) having been sent to the photocopier already for them to copy and study from, and suggested to them that they should try to solve the problem set I gave them so (reiterating) that if they have any questions they could ask me then instead of during the exam itself.

On the board I also wrote everything they were supposed to recall for the exam. One third of the board was filled with the derivation of the trigonometric functions of the special angles, the functions that are negative in the different quadrants, and how to get the reference acute angle given one of the other angles and vice versa.

One sixth of the board went to the eight basic trigonometric identities (which, ironically) was worth twice as much as the other important relationships taking up twice as much space on the board.

Another one sixth of the board went to reviewing simplification of fractions, including complex to simple fractions, converting addition of whole numbers to fractions, when not to cancel terms or factors from the numerator and denominator, and multiplying and factoring radical expressions. This, though, they are already supposed to have known by heart in their Mathematical Methods 1 class.

There weren’t that many who consulted, and those who I asked to answer some samples on the board were able to complete their tasks correctly, so I assumed they would be ready for the test.

In my mechanics lecture in the afternoon we started on a new lesson, Conservation of Mechanical Energy. I introduced the concept of work, the equation and the unit, and from there I went to total energy, kinetic energy and potential energy of a system with no external forces acting.

I even gave my now standard illustration of a dropped ball at four different points along its path, and how the kinetic and potential energy change for each point, but the total energy remains the same.

I answered problems from the book that gave another definition of work as the change in kinetic energy. Then I gave an example of a projectile, whose velocity and height could be taken at different points along its trajectory also, without having to use the horizontal and vertical components method.

Just like in my Mathematical Methods 1 class, I told them that in the upcoming exam they could use whatever method they want to be able to answer those velocity and height questions. Of course, angle and time problems still had to use the equations for constant acceleration.

It was just a matter of getting the correct values of height and velocity for different points along the object’s motion.

Tomorrow I’ll start with the exam last Friday night then go to the Tuesday classes from there. For now, class dismissed.