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

Continuing my discussion of my mechanics lecture exam for the start of the sixth week of classes, in the second set of questions were the following items that required a bit more analysis that I may have shown them in the class examples: two cars on a straight road a certain distance apart where one overtakes the other, which also became the practice for conversion of units since one speed is given in miles per hour and the other in meters per second, which the distance between them is in kilometers.

Next was a freely falling body with initial downward velocity, which I told them before was a rare case. Well, it popped up now.

Lastly was a summation of forces example that used gravity for acceleration, and with Superman saving his girl thrown from Lex Luthor’s flying fortress. For this one there were students who were asking for Superman’s mass (one even gave assumed values) when in fact it wasn’t necessary. They seem to have forgotten that in previous problems we never took the mass of the people pushing or pulling the objects around.

During the exam itself I was amused that some students asking their seatmates questions not knowing that the acoustics of the room still made them audible from wherever I was.

Two of the three Korean students that I had also asked questions every once in a while. I resorted to telling them whether the non-English-centric illustrations and equations they made based on the problems were correct or not.

It was disheartening to see some students still using the formula for constant velocity even when acceleration is given. And this was before I even decided against giving them the problem with one car accelerating and the other with constant velocity. Then they would have been very confused.

Now I have to think whether I want to assign problem sets on the fundamental concepts to the trailing students, otherwise they would be very much left behind when we go to the next topics that build up on everything we’ve discussed so far.

I just have to come up with a way so as not to alienate the better students who may want to submit the same requirements for want of higher grades even though they don’t need it.

On the election front, there is another student appealing to be allowed to run even though he neglected all the extended deadlines for handing in his application form. This one supposedly submitted his letter to the Dean again, although I doubt that because if he did, it would have been automatically forwarded to my office as Commission of Elections faculty consultant. Sight unseen I am inclined to deny it, because it would just open the floodgates to more late nominations and maybe a pushing back of the whole schedule.

I also forgot to mention last time that there are some student assistants also assigned to the College Library, which so far they admit is the most arduous labor they have been given out of the three possible locations.

Next time I’ll post the first student’s letter of request for consideration to run for president, and our reply to it. For now, class dismissed.