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Re: A FIRST Encouter with Physics
Great start! I also (supporting what everyone else has said) recommend a quick summary section at the end of every chapter or so. For instance Chapter 1's could say: F=ma, T=r x F (and/or T=r.F_(perpendicular), depending on your exact target audience), T_out=T_in(driven/driving) with a note that says if small drive big: slower, more torque. If big drives small, faster but less torque.
It's probably too early in the lesson to do this and it'd take some more description, but I'd love to see a few integrated design examples at some point. i.e. back up a step from "we have a kicker winch that needs to do this" to "we want to fire such and such rotating kicker at v velocity" It'd only take a few, but I think getting kids thinking about design intent might be really helpful. Also, this is a minor detail, but I know my students would probably concentrate on it better/like it more if I had actual robot photo examples to help put with a "you really can do awesome stuff if you know this" perspective.
I'd be happy to write some/proofread for this project. I actually did a (pretty simple) physics in robotics class for our team's pre-season last year: kinematics, friction, rotational motion, CG, and simple machines/MA. I'd recommend especially digging into (wheel) friction and maybe projectile motion.
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