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

The second meeting of my Advanced Mathematics students for the eleventh week of the third trimester turned into an impromptu shopping trip (just like we did during the Electricity and Magnetism lab class two terms ago) when we were caught in traffic on the way back from the mall where we checked out some electronic demonstrations.

I will have to ask the Faculty Attendance Checker now about how many meetings total I will have to make up for during these last weeks of the term.

For the second meeting in the eleventh week of my mechanics lecture sections, we had their second long exam, on the topics of forces in two dimensions, projectile motion, and tension in one and two dimensions.

As usual, it was a rush job (despite having filled out a third of the questions the night before) so that I didn’t see that the last three problems I gave did not have entirely numeric solutions. I also forgot to put in another equation they were supposed to know.

For the first class the clincher question (of the type they could answer) was one where only the tensions on a cable were given when it is stationary and moving, and they have to get the acceleration when it was moving and give the direction. They had to derive the mass from the tension when it was not moving.

The other tension in one dimension problem gave them the mass, vertical displacement and time, and they had to get the force, very straightforward.

Their tension in two dimensions problem was the one where I gave them the clock directions that I gave to the other class in the last quiz, and there was still one student who computed the angle between each “hour” as 22.5 degrees instead of 30.

For the second class, I was surprised that what I considered to be the easiest problem was the one a lot of them skipped: projectile motion with the vertical and horizontal displacement already given for a car running over a cliff, where it is known that the initial vertical velocity and the initial angle are both zero. Some students, in fact, drew a hill instead of a cliff, showing me who may be collaborating to share answers (no matter how erroneous).

Their tension in one dimension questions were taken from the examples I gave in class, albeit the most difficult examples.

One was the monkey climbing up a vine tied to a log. Instead of asking for the monkey’s acceleration that would lift the log, the accelerations were given and I asked them for the mass of the log.

For the second one, it was the man on a platform with a pulley attached to the floor, and he lifts himself up. In the example, the acceleration was given and they were asked for the force the man exerts. In the exam, the force was given and they had to get the acceleration.

I’ll relate the others next time. The teacher of the next class is already outside. For now, class dismissed.