Newton's First Law

 Part A:

When I learned about Newton's First Law, I thought it was very interesting. The statement saying that "objects tend to keep on doing what they're doing" made a lot of sense to me. Especially when imagining how if a car is going at a very high velocity and suddenly comes to a stop, the people in the car will jerk forward. Also, when the forces acting upon an object have the vector sum of zero, the object is in translational equilibrium. Setting these equations equal to zero helped solve for different types of forces acting upon the object in translational equilibrium. The FBDs also helped also in solving these equations.I have learned many things, but some were more difficult to learn about than others.

 The FBDs were hard to understand because I had to take into account every single force acting upon the object and not leave any out, otherwise I would get the answer wrong for the magnitude of the forces. Figuring out if I had to switch the cos and sin was also difficult. However, once I figured out the basics of these concepts it was a little easier to learn how to use them.

My problem solving skills are ok, I would say. I am good at solving equations and problems for the translational equilibrium, but when I have to decide whether the sin and cos are switched I sometimes get confused. However, overall I am pretty good at translational equilibrium problems...the FBDs help a lot once I get them right.

Part B:

Here are some connections from Newton's First Law to real life. First, when I am standing in an elevator and when I comes to a quick stop, the blood from my head rushes to my feet. Also, when I need ketchup from a ketchup bottle I have to turn it upside down and move it in a downward motion and then stop, and the ketchup will move to the top of the bottle so it will be easy for me to get. Thirdly, I once broke my arm because I ran into a gutter while bicycling at a fast speed, and went flying forward while the bike stopped and fell. These are a few examples that connect Newton's First Law to real life.