When asked what their all-time favorite Magnet class is, more Magnet students respond with this course, Magnet physics, taken by every Magnet student Fall semester of their first year. Of course, this may be because we've asked as many freshman, who have only taken a few courses beyond this course (and no electives) as seniors, who have run the full gambit...but you'll have to take Statistics to get a full appreciation of why it may not be a fair sample.

Regardless, this is a very population course, taught by our resident philosopher, Mr. Donaldson, and our resident Santa Claus, Mr. Bunday. Like all the required science courses, which Magnet students take their first two years at Blair, this course emphasizes interdisciplinary work. Subjects taught within the physics course intermingle with the work being done in the Magnet courses taken at the same time.

Topics in the course include:

• Projectile motion
• Motion on a constant slope ramp (with and without friction)
• The speed and period of a pendulum
• The period and potential energy of a spring, including a discussion of Hooke's Law
• The force of gravity
• Electrical force
• Centripetal force
• Conservation of momentum, angular momentum, and kinetic energy
• Torque and change in angular momentum
• Sliding friction
• Electric fields, potential energy, and potential
• Gravitational potential energy
• Electrostatic induction
• Wave velocity as a product of wavelength and frequency
• Electric circuits
• Electromagnets
• Electric motors and generators
• Production of light by atomic electrons
• Fluorescence and Phosphorescence
• Refraction and interference of light
• Lasers