Force

Enforcing Newton’s 2 nd Law

The set-up for this activity is very similar to the set-up for “What's The Speed Of The Speed,” but the mass of the cart is changed in each trial in order to illustrate the effects of the cart mass on the acceleration if the accelerating force remains the same. After these trials are conducted, the force itself can be varied for successive trials to further illustrate the relationship between force and acceleration. By examining spark tape data students can fully explore the effects of Newton's 2nd law for themselves.

Tale Of The Scale

Newton’s third law comes to life. Students use various set-ups to explore Newton’s third law and action/reaction pairs. By using pulleys and spring scales, students will boggle their minds and put their logic to the test. After making and testing their predictions students will gain a new respect for Newton’s third law.

3-2-1 Blast-Off!

A student favorite, this activity employs air rockets that are set up in a field so that students can successively vary launch angle and launch velocity as they study the affect of these two variables on the range of the rockets. The rockets used are powered by a simple bicycle pump and can attain a vertical launch altitude of 180 feet.