The purpose of the second writing assignment is for students to explain how something works while also
extending beyond the textbook. In the following list, each essay topic also incorporates a question that does
not have an obvious or unique correct answer.
• Provide an understandable definition of voltage, borrowing from the author’s analogy of water flowing
downhill. In your description, include some exceptions to the general rule and how similar exceptions
also occur in the case of charges and voltages.
• Explain whether it is safe or dangerous to touch the wires in an electrical circuit. Describe what issues
need to be considered, and what situations would change your advice.
• Using the correct vocabulary of magnetism, describe what is happening inside paperclips when they are
magnetized by a permanent magnet, and what is necessary to demagnetize them.
• Describe polarization, and how the idea of polarization applies to both electric charges and magnets.
• Explain some of the things in common between today’s hybrid cars (like the Prius) and a futuristic
maglev train (with specific attention to electromagnetic propulsion and braking).
• Did California make a mistake by approving high speed conventional trains instead of ones that use
magnetic levitation? What are the advantages and disadvantages to using magnetic levitation in the
next generation of transportation?
• Explain some of the similarities and differences between cassette audio tapes and computer hard drives.
• Explain some of the similarities and differences between the human ear and a conventional microphone.
• Describe the main differences between how sound is recorded on audio tape and how it is recorded on
an iPod. Include a clear description of the pros and cons of analog versus digital storage.
• The text describes the difference between ‘analog’ and ‘digital’ numbers. Describe two practical
situations, one where using digital numbers has an advantage over using analog numbers, and the other
where the opposite is true. Explain your reasoning.
• Explain how antennas are used to receive radio and cell phone signals, and why antenna orientation and
placement can sometimes make a big difference.
• Describe the effects of placing different objects – either conductive or insulating, smooth or sharp – into a
microwave oven, explaining combinations that are safe or dangerous.
• Explain why some foods heat up more effectively than others in a microwave oven.
• Explain why the diffracted rainbow from different types of light bulbs might look different from the
standard rainbow of sunlight.
• Describe which types of lightbulbs are best and worst at simulating natural sunlight.
• It is unfortunate that fluorescent light bulbs must be considered hazardous waste. Explain why the bulbs
cannot be redesigned to make them safer to use.
• Explain why different types of fluorescent bulbs are labeled “warm” or “cool”, despite the fact that they
operate at exactly the same temperature.
• Incandescent, LED, and fluorescent lighting each uses different amounts of electricity to produce the
same amount of light. By comparing the way each one works, explain why there is such a big difference
in their efficiencies.
• Using the lens equation and descriptions, discuss the similarities and differences between how a camera
and an eye focus to record an image clearly.
• Describe the similarities and differences between how music is stored on a phonograph recording and
on a CD.
• Describe the process of carbon-14 dating and its limitations for dating very old fossils.

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