tennesseewiz
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Let me first explain my situation here...
I'm a math major and out of all the sciences, physics is my least favorite, but I have to take this science class that forces you to design your own experiments. Math is used in physics all the time, but I have a really hard time connecting math to other areas of study, and I am horrible at physics. My final project has to be a physics project. So, I'm doing it on magnets.
I know Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt are the three metals attracted to magnets. Originally I was designing an experiment with three pieces of each of those three metals and seeing how far away each metal would become attracted to a magnet and then measure how much more Iron is attracted to magnets than the other metals. This was to happen on a flat surface with different masses of the metals (50g, 250g, 500g for each metal), but my teacher said we don't have the resources. So, he having me use a ramp and put a metal on a car and use different degrees for the ramp. He said that would be the same as using different weights on a flat surface. Personally, I think he's just trying to make my life more difficult. I knew that if I kept everything flat, I wouldn't have to worry about extra variables like degrees and stuff like that... But no, he wants to make sure I use as much math with this as possible. I know that because I'm a math major, using a bunch of math should be easy, but I'm not good at applying math at all, I'm a pure math kind of person and have been trying to escape applied mathematics for years.
Anyways, what I wanted to know was, what equations am I going to have to use with this kind of experiment? I have searched the internet to find simple equations, but when I do, the letters in the formulas aren't explained. Also, do you have any suggestions on how to make this easier on myself? Will I have to worry about friction at all? How much is gravity going to play a roll in this?
I'm a math major and out of all the sciences, physics is my least favorite, but I have to take this science class that forces you to design your own experiments. Math is used in physics all the time, but I have a really hard time connecting math to other areas of study, and I am horrible at physics. My final project has to be a physics project. So, I'm doing it on magnets.
I know Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt are the three metals attracted to magnets. Originally I was designing an experiment with three pieces of each of those three metals and seeing how far away each metal would become attracted to a magnet and then measure how much more Iron is attracted to magnets than the other metals. This was to happen on a flat surface with different masses of the metals (50g, 250g, 500g for each metal), but my teacher said we don't have the resources. So, he having me use a ramp and put a metal on a car and use different degrees for the ramp. He said that would be the same as using different weights on a flat surface. Personally, I think he's just trying to make my life more difficult. I knew that if I kept everything flat, I wouldn't have to worry about extra variables like degrees and stuff like that... But no, he wants to make sure I use as much math with this as possible. I know that because I'm a math major, using a bunch of math should be easy, but I'm not good at applying math at all, I'm a pure math kind of person and have been trying to escape applied mathematics for years.
Anyways, what I wanted to know was, what equations am I going to have to use with this kind of experiment? I have searched the internet to find simple equations, but when I do, the letters in the formulas aren't explained. Also, do you have any suggestions on how to make this easier on myself? Will I have to worry about friction at all? How much is gravity going to play a roll in this?