Forrest Hellard English 1101 Mrs.

Camargo

ACIP Individual Report When it comes to Physics, the amount of different literacy and communication techniques in the field can be almost anything. The reasoning behind this simply is because Physics provides reasoning in Math to explain everyday situations and scenarios for any aspect of life. You can have anywhere from an explanation of a certain theorem, to an article regarding the discovery of new data. Looking at the first article, the information is presented straight forward with facts and examples. It also provides visual descriptions of exactly what happens to the object in regards to force. Being in the field, it is very important to realize the impact that pictures have on explaining a certain theorem. For any problem, regardless of what it involves, you should start by drawing a picture. The Physics Classroom is primarily involved in showing visual examples which is very common among the discourse community of Physicists around the world. Athough Physics generally can be very informational with facts and equations, it doesnt always necessarily involve the most obvious. Generally there are several different components involved in making the final answer. Looking again at the article, you can see that although it talks about Force, it is based off the previous knowledge of gravity and acceleration. To put this to terms, you can look at what was said: It is a natural extension of this unit to combine our understanding of Newtons Second Law with our understanding of vectors. (PHY Classroom).

Often times people think of Physics as something that should remain in only the science department and it doesnt really relate to much else. Surprisingly this isnt true at all because Physics can really be used in several different scenarios. To see how essential Physics really is, you can look at the second article which talks about the God Particle. On Thursday, scientists announced that the particle, detected at the Large Hadron Collider, the worlds most powerful particle smasher, looks even more like the Higgs boson. (Brumfield). Discovered from two geniuses in Europe, the God Particle provides an explanation for why everything has mass. This is a prime example of using Physics to provide reasoning for things we use everyday. This article is nothing like the previous article because it is simple a news article describing the achievements of scientists in the community. Although it isnt as informative, it still shows how Physics can make an impact in the everyday world. After being in the Physics department for almost a semester, the classes focus primarily on math and derivatives. After researching and talking to my lab professor, Ive realized that Physics research is concerned with explaining dynamics that in turn explain how something works. After looking at some publications in the library, research is almost always surrounded by formulas and derivatives. When it comes down to what type of literacy is most involved in the research and work involved in Physics, it is almost always a mathematical literacy. It is also important to note that people who like to solve problems and who like to solve things mathematically will probably succeed in Physics over someone who has a more humanitarian approach. The learning style is very important because ultimately if you dont truly seek an interest in the subject, then you will never really take the time to understand what is truly happening. Although no person

has told me this, I know this is true simply because Ive seen it in the Physics department first hand. A lot of what Physics involves is providing explanations for things that you cant see, (i.e. gravity, acceleration, momentum). If you are a learner who succeeds in environments with tangible data then you might have some trouble. Writing in the discipline of Physics is not exactly the same as writing in other fields. First off, Physics isnt a course that requires writing at all unless you are writing lab reports which often times wont include much writing either. Regardless of what type of Physics you are doing, the writing should be able to easily describe your theorems and any other mathematical equations that go with the experiment. After reading some of the research done by Dr. Sharma in Burson, its clear that the bulk of what is written about primarily has to do with the mechanics involved. In conclusion, Physics is a discourse community that revolves around the minds of people who think logically and mathematically. From looking at informational articles to a professors research, they all seem to focus around a central theorem and data that is then described with words. Although it is a beautiful science, it doesnt always click with everyone simply because of the way it works your mind. Regardless, I know I will stick with Physics and it continues to interest me everyday while in college.

Forrest Hellard English 1101 Mrs. Camargo Reflection When it comes to reflecting on my individual report, I think I have one of the more challenging discourse communities overall in regards to how it relates to literacy. The process I took for this project involved a lot of reading and being in the library. Since Physics is a subject that is based primarily around math, I used the process of finding informational articles on my laptop based on certain equations Ive learned in class. Athough the literacy memoir focused on how I am a mathematical and logical person, this report tended to be much more difficult for me. When comparing the two, I like my literacy memoir more, because it is much more personal and I feel like more people can relate directly to it than this report. I also think that this report was much more challenging than the other because it required information that often isnt explained using words. Since Physics is basically all

math work, it was tough for me to try and take equations and explain them in a format that relates to everyone. One article that really stood out to me was the article regarding the God Particle. Although it is probably a concept that will confuse most people, it still fascinated me to see people in my field doing such amazing work. Not only did it allow me to see what Physicists around the world do in their job, but it also influenced me to maybe one day be just as smart as them. Finally I think that this report couldve been better if I was better at being able to explain how Physics works in the field. Although I see it everyday and I know how the community operates, it is still challenging for me to explain it in a way that makes sense without confusing the reader. I think this is largely due to myself being a much more logical and mathematically inclined thinker.

Works Cited

Brumfield, Ben. "'God Particle' Theorists Receive Nobel Prize in Physics." Cnn.com. Cable News Network, 8 Oct. 2013. Web.

"Net Force Problems Revisited." Net Force Problems Revisited. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Nov. 2013.

Dark Matter experiment has found nothing scientists say proudly. New York Times. Overbye, Dennis. Web. October 30th 2013.