Reflective Writing
Dakota Olson
Physics 1010
Dave Schaffer
In this paper I will be talking about my experiences that I have had at Salt Lake Community College this spring 2013 Semester. This Semester in Physics has been a Challenging but rewarding one. This being the first science class that I have taken at SLCC I came in not knowing what to expect, but I can honestly say that I have enjoyed this class very much so. The sciences have always interested me and the degree I would like to acquire is very science and math oriented. I have taken many other classes at many of which have been math classes so I assumed that I would automatically be good at science, however this was not the case this class has taught me a new way to think about the world in which we live in, and how important the sciences are too humanity if we want to thrive in the coming centuriesI have learned many interesting and awesome things this semester in physics 1010. We learned about Newtonian physics and the 3 laws that it includes. We also spent time learning about electricity and magnetism which I found very interesting it was probably my favorite section of the class. This is way I chose to do the Gauss Rifle for my semester project. I chose this project out of all the projects for a few reasons; first being I have always loved playing/experimenting with magnets they have always interested me, secondly in my previous math classes I have learned about the mathematician Karl Gauss, I am not aware if this gun is named after him or not but that is why I chose it. I did this project with a partner and it was Mckenzie Allred this was a collective effort and we learned a lot about magnetism in this project. Initially it was supposed to have three magnets on this gun but we did not keep in mind the polarity of the magnets and we placed the first one perpendicularly to the other to so it did not work so we had to take off one of the magnets that is why we only had two. I am very proud of this project and it has provided many hours of enjoyment to my family and friends playing with it and shooting it. This has also given me many opportunities to teach my family about what is going on in the rifle. Moreover I have enjoyed this class very much and I have learned a lot from it. I know this is only the beginning of my career in the sciences and I hope that I can use the information I have learned in this class and have a fruitful remainder of my time here at SLCC.