# Test Help

1. Sep 28, 2009

### zaga04

This is not a homework problem, I am not sure what section to put this (I apologize if it's in the wrong place). So I take AP Physics B at my high school and we just got our first test back on Kinematics in One Dimension and I got a 53%! I know that might sound horrific (which it is) but my teacher said I lost most of my points on the free response. How do I write a AP Physics free response question? Like for example, there is a question I remember that is like "You are on a top of a canyon and you have a stopwatch and a ball, how do you measure the depth of the canyon" or something along those lines. How would you answer it correctly? My teacher does 50% of the test is counted as the MC section and 50% is the free response, so that's why I blew it! I need to better next time or else I might drop out of the class. Please help, and again sorry if this is in the wrong place.
1. The problem statement, all variables and given/known data

2. Relevant equations

3. The attempt at a solution

2. Sep 28, 2009

### 206PiruBlood

I don't think your response has to be particularly eloquent, it just needs the key points which demonstrate that you understand what you are doing. What was your response to this question?

Key points to include would be using the watch to measure the elapsed time, and well $$d=4.9t^2$$

3. Sep 28, 2009

### zaga04

I put you can drop the ball and use the timer to measure the amount of time it took to hit the bottom. Then you know acceleration (9.8 m/s^2) so you can use some formula which I cannot think of right to calculate the depth.