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

To continue my discussion of the second meeting in Advanced Mathematics for the second week of classes this third term, part of the problems I had them solving already included proofs of the properties of multiplication of matrices, including association, commutation, distribution (when involving scalars) and the exceptional zero (or null) property.

This as actually the next topic, where we left off from the lesson last time.

In my second meeting for the week in mechanics lecture, first of all I announced to them about the quiz on Friday, of which the coverage is conversion and scientific notation, constant velocity and, our topic for that day, constant acceleration in one dimension.

As usual I told them to submit a blank test booklet with their name written on the back, to be passed until the day before the quiz.

Then I started with the lecture, where I gave a recap of constant velocity from a tabular point of view, and how distance changes as time numerically increases.

For the second time in my classes, someone asked if the rules on significant figures would be included. I had to emphasize to them that significant figures is most applicable for measured quantities, which means that it is used in the laboratory classes. But since in the lecture class we are concentrating on the theory, I am looking more for the exactness of the values they calculate rather than being of the correct form.

After all, would they rather not have leniency in terms of how many different versions of the right answers I will accept and give points to in the tests?

Resuming the lecture, I asked them about their previously learned concepts about acceleration. From the definition, I derived the unit in terms of the three basic quantities, which makes it length divided by time squared. I gave examples of actual units (meters per second squared, miles per hour squared).

Then I introduced them to the new convention of variables that we would be using.

Speed is now velocity, with the subscript determining at what particular moment that value applies (“0” for initial value, “n” for that value of time).

Since we are talking about acceleration in one dimension, I asked them to recall the horizontal number line, where motion to the right makes the current position increase, and decrease to the right.

I told them that distance would now be written as current position minus the initial position, which is now termed as displacement.

Then we completed a table for a value of constant acceleration (where initial position and velocity also do not change), where velocity now increased steadily based on the value of acceleration. We then computed the displacement for each point in time based on one of the five formulas used, and how this, when analyzed, still ties in to the acceleration.

There’s the bell. I’ll finish this tomorrow. Those who are finished copying may go.