Pretzel Circuit

Physics homework for 3/2/15:

Pretzel Activity

          

       Today we did an activity called the "electron shuffle" and basically this activity involved a couple of things. Firstly, it involved a different representation of circuits and it also involved teaching us about circuits. Next, it involved everyone in the class being assigned a certain role; the majority of the class were electrons (and the students represented electrons in the circuit) and around four other students took on different roles. Two students represented light bulbs and these two students specifically held buckets unlike the "electrons" and unlike the other two students (most of us also held papers that stated our roles).  As for the other two students, one kept track of the number of students passing the light bulbs I believe by using a clicker, and the other represented the "battery" of the circuit. But there is a small catch; the "battery" handed out energy that was represented by pretzels. In fact, the pretzel bag was more of the "battery" and the pretzels were the "volts" or was the "energy" given to the electrons. There was also tape used to represent "wires" and the "electrons'" paths.

       With our roles and what not in mind, we started off traveling through a series first then a parallel. In the series, every "electron" lined up on one side of the room on the "wire" (tape). The "electrons" traveled to the "battery" (pretzel bag) first and each one was given two "volts" (pretzels) each time they passed by the "battery" empty handed. And only two "volts" were given during both the series and the parallel. Next, all of the students/"electrons" traveled in a nice straight line where there was no cutting and dropped off one "volt"/pretzel to each "light bulb"/student because the "volts" were to be distributed evenly. And once they were split and all, the electrons would go back to the "battery" for more, but they HAD to have no "energy" in their hands. This all stopped once the person using the clicker got 30 "Amps" (30 people passing the "battery"). After that we made a diagram and what not and it showed us our current plus our volts. 

      Then we finally repeated this process except this time we all traveled through a parallel circuit. So the only real differences were Miss Reid chose which paths the "electrons" had to take and the electrons dropped off two "volts" to whichever "light bulb" they passed because they would only pass one "bulb" no matter which path they took so there are no other "bulbs" that the "pretzels" need to be split amongst.

Pretty fun, right? :D

<3 xDDDD

Good night!! :333