A comprehensive course that teaches the big ideas behind Galileo and Newton’s ground-breaking work. Students study velocity, acceleration, forces, friction gravity and Newton’s three laws of motion as they uncover the basis of all physics in our crash course in projectile motion. Zoom balloon racers, detect electric fields, construct a bridge that holds 400 times its own weight, and more.

Step 1. Click Here to download your copy of the Ultimate Science Curriculum Forces & Motion Vol. 1 Student Guidebook. To download the Parent/Teacher Guidebook, Click Here.

Step 2. Watch the videos that go with it below.

Introduction

Greetings and welcome to the study of Forces & Motion. This unit was created by a mechanical engineer, university instructor, airplane pilot, astronomer, robot-builder and real rocket scientist… me! I have the happy opportunity to teach you everything I know about forces, acceleration, velocity, speed, friction, gravity and more over the next set of lessons. I promise to give you my best stuff so you can take it and run with it… or fly!

To get the most out of these labs, there are really only a couple of things to keep in mind. Since we are all here to have fun and learn something new, this shouldn’t be too hard.

One of the best things you can do as the student is to cultivate your curiosity about things. Why did that move? How did that spin? What’s really going on here?

This unit on Forces & Motion is chock full of demonstrations and experiments for two big reasons. First, they’re fun. But more importantly, the reason we do experiments in science is to hone your observational skills. Science experiments really speak for themselves much better than I can ever put into words or show you on a video. And I’m going to hit you with a lot of these science demonstrations and experiments to help you develop your observing techniques.

Scientists not only learn to observe what’s going on in the experiment, but they also learn how to observe what their experiment is telling them, which is found by looking at your data. It’s not enough to invent some new kind of experiment if you don’t know how it will perform when the conditions change a bit, like on Mars. We’re going to learn how to predict what we think will happen, design experiments that will test this idea, and look over the results we got to figure out where to go from there. Science is a process, it’s a way of thinking, and we’re going to get plenty of practice at it.

Good luck with this Forces & Motion unit!

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Lesson #1: Balloon Racers

Overview: We’re going to experiment with Newton’s Third Law by blowing up balloons and letting them rocket, race, and zoom all over the place. When you first blow up a balloon, you’re pressurizing the inside of the balloon by adding more air from your lungs into the balloon. Because the balloon is made of stretchy rubber, like a rubber band, it wants to snap back into the smallest shape possible as soon as it gets the chance, which usually happens when the air escapes through the nozzle area. When this happens, the air inside the balloon flows in one direction while the balloon zips off in the other.

What to Learn: The motion of objects can be observed and measured.

Materials

  • balloons
  • string
  • wood skewer
  • two straws
  • caps (4, like the tops of milk jugs, film canisters, or anything else round and plastic about the size of a quarter)
  • wooden clothespin
  • stiff cardboard (or four popsicle sticks)
  • hot glue gun
  • meter or yardstick
  • stopwatch

Lesson #2: Look Out Below

Overview: If you jump out of an airplane, how fast would you fall? What’s the greatest speed you would reach? Let’s practice figuring it out without jumping out of a plane.

This experiment will help you get the concept of velocity by allowing you to measure the rate of fall of several objects.

What to Learn: In this experiment, learn how an objects motion can be described by recording the change in its position over time. Changes in velocity can be changes in speed, direction, or both.

Materials

  • stop watch
  • feathers (or small pieces of paper, a plastic bag – anything light and fluffy)
  • tape measure

Lesson #3: Detecting the Electric Field

Overview: You are actually fairly familiar with electric fields, too, but you may not know it. Have you ever rubbed your feet against the floor and then shocked your brother or sister? Have you ever zipped down a plastic slide and noticed that your hair is sticking straight up when you get to the bottom? Both of these phenomena are caused by electric fields and they are everywhere!

What to Learn: The way to change how something is moving is to give it a push or a pull. The size of the change is related to the strength, or the amount of "force," of the push or pull.

Materials

  • head of hair
  • balloon
  • yardstick or meterstick
  • spoon, large

Lesson #4: Newtons First Law of Motion

Overview: The natural state of objects is to follow a straight line. In fact, Newton’s First Law of Motion states that objects in motion will tend to stay in motion unless they are acted upon by an external force. A force is a push or a pull, like pulling a wagon or pushing a car. Gravity is also a force, but it’s a one-way force that attracts things to each another.

What to Learn: The way to change how something is moving is to give it a push or a pull. The size of the change is related to the strength, or the amount of "force," of the push or pull.

Materials

  • wagon
  • rocks
  • friends
  • stopwatch
  • meterstick or yardstick or measuring tape

Lesson #5: Newtons Second Law of Motion

Overview: Newton’s Second Law of Motion is for objects experiencing unbalanced forces. The first law, usually called the law of inertia, says that if all the forces acting on an object are balanced then the object is in equilibrium and does not accelerate. The object can either be at rest or in motion, but not accelerating (the object can be at a constant speed and traveling in a straight line). Objects not in equilibrium experience unbalanced forces, which causes them to accelerate. Acceleration is a change in speed, direction, or both.

What to Learn: Students will learn how to calculate the net force and acceleration of an object. They will learn that acceleration of an object produced by the net force (the vector sum of all forces) is directly proportional to the magnitude of the net force, in the same direction as the net force, and inversely proportional to the mass of the object.

Materials

  • friends
  • wagon
  • rocks
  • stopwatch
  • measuring tape

Lesson #6: Newtons Third Law of Motion

Overview: Newton’s Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. This means that for every interaction, there’s a pair of forces action on the objects, which are equal in size and opposite in direction. (Want to know a secret? Forces always come in pairs!)

What to Learn: The way to change how something is moving is to give it a push or a pull. The size of the change is related to the strength, or the amount of "force," of the push or pull.

Materials

  • friends
  • rocks
  • wagon
  • balloon

Lesson #7: Barrel Roof

Overview: This roof can support more than 400 times its own weight, and you don’t need tape! One of the great things about net forces is that although the objects can be under tremendous force, nothing moves! For every push, there’s an equal and opposite pull (or set of pulls) that cancel each other out, so all forces balance.

What to Learn: A force is a push or pull on a object that results from an interaction with another object. Forces always come in pairs.

Materials

  • template print out (heavy weight paper works best)
  • scissors
  • pencils (2)
  • thread
  • book or light clipboard
  • paper to load the roof

Lesson #8: Building Bridges

Overview: What keeps buildings from toppling over in the wind? Why are some earthquake-proof and others not? We’re going to look at how engineers design buildings and bridges while making our own.

What to Learn: Objects near the Earth fall to the ground unless something holds them up.

Materials

  • index cards
  • blocks
  • straws
  • clay
  • cups, disposable

Lesson #9: Weighty Issue

Overview: If I drop a ping pong ball and a golf ball from the same height, which one hits the ground first? How about a bowling ball and a marble?

What to Learn: Students will learn that gravity accelerates all things equally. Objects near the Earth fall to the ground unless something holds them up.

Materials (per lab group)

  • ping pong ball
  • golf ball
  • feather
  • balloon
  • bouncy ball
  • eraser
  • pencil
  • 2 sheets of paper (crumple one up to the size of a golf ball)
  • paperclip
  • empty water bottle

Lesson #10: Forever Falling

Overview: If I toss a ball horizontally at the exact same instant that I drop another one from my other hand, which one reaches the ground first?

What to Learn: Gravity accelerates all things equally and objects near the Earth fall to the ground unless something holds them up.

Materials

  • rulers or paint sticks (2, anything wide and flat)
  • coins or poker chips (2)
  • sharp eye and ear
  • partner

Lesson #11: Rocketball Launcher

Overview: One of the basic laws of the universe is the conservation of momentum. When objects smack into each other, the momentum that both objects have after the collision is equal to the amount of momentum the objects had before the impact. What to Learn: Today you’ll get introduced to the ideas about mass, velocity, impact, and momentum as well as see firsthand how momentum is conserved as it’s transferred from one object to another. Materials

  • Two balls of very different sizes, like a bouncy ball and a tennis ball, or a tennis ball and a basketball

Lesson #12: Detecting the Magnetic Field

Overview: Remember, there are four different kinds of forces: strong nuclear force, electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and gravity. There are also four basic force fields that you come into contact with all the time. They are the gravitational field, the electric field, the magnetic field, and the electromagnetic field. Notice that those four force fields really only use two of the four different kinds of force: electromagnetism and gravity. Let’s take a quick look at what causes these four fields and what kind of objects they can affect, starting with the magnetic field.

What to Learn: Magnets can be used to make some objects move without being touched.

Materials

  • needle
  • foam (small piece)
  • magnet
  • cup or bowl
  • water
  • compass

Lesson #13: Flying Paperclip

Overview: In fields, the closer something gets to the source of the field, the stronger the force of the field gets. This is called the inverse-square law.

What to Learn: The inverse-square law applies to quite a few phenomena in physics. When it comes to forces, it basically means that the closer an object comes to the source of a force, the stronger that force will be on that object. The farther that same object gets from the force’s source, the weaker the effect of the force.

Materials

  • magnets (4)
  • paper clip
  • string
  • ruler
  • tape

Lesson #14: Force-full Cereal

Overview: Did you know that your cereal may be magnetic? Depending on the brand of cereal you enjoy in the morning, you’ll be able to see the magnetic effects right in your bowl. You don’t have to eat this experiment when you’re done, but you may if you want to (this is one of the ONLY times I’m going to allow you to eat what you experiment with!) For a variation, pull out all the different boxes of cereal in your cupboard and see which has the greatest magnetic attraction.

What to Learn: Magnets can be used to make some objects move without being touched. Certain materials that contain iron are affected by magnets, like your breakfast!

Materials

  • cereal
  • bowl
  • milk (or water)
  • spoon
  • magnet (1, rectangular)
  • magnet (1, disk)

Lesson #15: Ear Tricks

Overview: Think of your ears as ”sound antennas.” There’s a reason you have TWO of these – and that’s what this experiment is all about.

What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • noisemaker
  • partner
  • blindfold
  • earplugs

Lesson #16: Humming Balloon

Overview: You can easily make a humming, screeching balloon using just a little bit of physics knowledge about sonic vibrations.

What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • hex nut
  • balloon
  • optional: other small options (washer, various coins, marble, etc.)

Lesson #17: Harmonica

Overview: Sound is caused by something vibrating. If you can hear it, you can bet that somewhere, something is vibrating molecules and those molecules are vibrating your eardrums. The sound may be coming from a car, thunder, a balloon popping, clapping hands, or your goldfish blowing bubbles in her tank. However, no matter where it’s coming from, what you are hearing is vibrating particles, usually vibrating air molecules.

What to Learn Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • tongue depressor popsicle sticks (2)
  • rubber bands (3, one at least 1/4″ wide)
  • paper
  • tape
  • ruler

Lesson #18: Buzzing Hornets

Overview: When something vibrates, it pushes particles. These pushed particles create a longitudinal wave. If the longitudinal wave has the right frequency and enough energy, your eardrum antennas will pick it up and your brain will turn the energy into what we call sound.

What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • index cards (2)
  • scissors
  • popsicle stick (tongue depressor sized)
  • rubber band (thick)
  • cotton string (3-4 feet)
  • hot glue gun
  • ruler or tape measure

Lesson #19: Air Horn

Overview: Sound can change according to the speed at which it travels. Another word for sound speed is pitch. When the sound speed slows, the pitch lowers. With clarinet reeds, its high. Guitar strings can do both, as they are adjustable. If you look carefully, you can actually see the low pitch strings vibrate back and forth, but the high pitch strings move so quickly its hard to see. But you can detect the effects of both with your ears.

What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • 7-9" balloon
  • straw
  • film canister or similar small plastic container
  • drill and drill bits

Lesson #20: Best Parent-Annoyer

Overview: This is one of my absolute favorites, because it’s so unexpected and unusual. The setup looks quite harmless, but it makes a sound worse than scratching your nails on a chalkboard. If you can’t find the weird ingredient, just use water and you’ll get nearly the same result (it just takes more practice to get it right). Ready? NOTE: DO NOT place these anywhere near your ear… keep them straight out in front of you. What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume. Materials

  • water or violin rosin (this is the weird ingredient)
  • string (a few feet)
  • cup (disposable plastic)
  • pokey-thing to make a hole in the cup

Lesson #21: Seeing Sound Waves

Overview: This section is actually a collection of the experiments that build on each other. We’ll be playing with sound waves in many different forms, and you get to have fun making a loud mess.

What to Learn: Sound is made by vibrating objects and can be described by its pitch and volume.

Materials

  • radio or some sort of music player
  • balloon
  • mixing bowl
  • water
  • spoon
  • rubber bands

Lesson #22: Building Speakers

Overview: We’ll be making different kinds of speakers using household materials (like plastic cups, foam plates, and business cards!), but before we begin, we need to make sure you really understand a few basic principles.

What to Learn: An electrical signal (like music) zings through the coil (which is also allowed to move and attached to your speaker cone), which is attracted or repulsed by the permanent magnet. The coil vibrates, taking the cone with it. The cone vibrates the air around it and sends sounds waves to reach your ear.

Materials

  • foam plate
  • plastic cup
  • copy paper (one sheet)
  • business cards (3)
  • magnet wire AWG 30 or 32 (RS#278-1345)
  • neodymium magnets (2-4, use these from previous experiments)
  • disc magnet (1” donut-shaped magnet) (RS#64-1888)
  • index cards or stiff paper
  • cup (plastic disposable)
  • tape
  • hot glue gun
  • scissors
  • audio plug (RS #42-2420) or other cable that fits into your stereo (iPods and other small devices are not recommended for this project – you need something with built-in amplifier like an old boombox)

Want More Science Activities?

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These videos are samples from my online eScience Learning program. Its a complete science program for K-12. Plus, its self-guiding, so they can do it on their own.

Access over 800 more experiments! Includes our unconditional happiness money-back guarantee! Click here to learn more.

Thank You!

Thanks for the privilege as serving as your coach and guide in your science journey. May these videos bring you much excitement and curiosity in your learning adventure!

~Aurora

Supercharged Science

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