Week 2

1. Significant Digits

   Olympic Swimming

   There are a lot of ties in Olympic swimming -- Why?

   Some data: World Record in the men's 50 meter freestyle is 20.91 seconds. How fast is this?

   The timing in swimming is precise to a level of one-hundredth of a second. How far does a swimmer travel in this amount of time?

   There are clocks that are precise to a thousandth of a second, even a billionth of a second. Why don't we use them for Olympic sports?

(Some background , for after we've done the problem)

1. Order of Magnitude -- estimate, leaving out all the details.

   Estimate the total annual income of the United States, essentially adding up the income of all people in the country.

2. Motion Graphing. Defining a coordinate system. The distinctions between distance, position, displacement, speed, and velocity

1. The collision problem

1. First quiz, covering unit conversion, significant digits, approach to problem solving
2. Science Identity