Motion and force
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Measuring Motion
Go on an African safari and observe a variety of animals walking and running across the savanna. Videotape the animals, and then play back … the videotape to estimate animal speeds. Which animals run fastest?
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Force and Fan Carts
Explore the laws of motion using a simple fan cart. Use the buttons to select the speed of the fan and the surface, and press Play to … begin. You can drag up to three objects onto the fan cart. The speed of the cart is displayed with a speedometer and recorded in a table and a graph.
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Free Fall Tower
Recreate Galileo's famous experiment by dropping objects off the Tower of Pisa. You can drop ping pong balls, golf balls, soccer balls … or watermelons. Objects can be dropped in air or no air, with or without a parachute. The speed of each object is shown on a speedometer and a graph.
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Pendulum Clock
Find the effect of length, mass, and angle on the period of a pendulum. The pendulum is attached to a clock that can be adjusted to tell … time accurately. The clock can be located on Earth or Jupiter to determine the effect of gravity.
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Charge Launcher
Launch a charged particle into a chamber. Charged particles can be added into the chamber to influence the path of the moving particle. … The launch speed can be changed as well. Try to match a given path by manipulating the fixed particles in the chamber.
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Gravity Pitch
Imagine a gigantic pitcher standing on Earth, ready to hurl a huge baseball. What will happen as the ball is thrown harder and harder? … Find out with the Gravity Pitch Gizmo. Observe the path of the ball when it is thrown at different velocities. Throw the ball on different planets to see how each planet's gravity affects the ball.
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Magnetism
Drag bar magnets and a variety of other objects onto a piece of paper. Click Play to release the objects to see if they are … attracted together, repelled apart, or unaffected. You can also sprinkle iron filings over the magnets and other objects to view the magnetic field lines that are produced.
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Levers
Use a lever to lift a pig, turkey, or sheep. A strongman provides up to 1000 newtons of effort. The fulcrum, strongman, and animals can … be moved to any position to create first-, second-, or third-class levers.
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Pulleys
Lift a variety of heavy objects (armchair, safe, piano) using pulleys and a rope. Systems of one, two, four, or six pulleys can be used. Up … to six people can be used to pull on the rope, which adds force (effort).
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Ants on a Slant (Inclined Plane)
Lift food using ants with the help of a slanted stick. The steepness of the stick, the number of ants, and the size of the item being … lifted can be varied. Observe the effect of friction on sliding objects.
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Wheel and Axle
Use a wheel and axle to move a large, heavy load. Find out how many barbarians it takes to move the load under different conditions. The … radii of the wheel and the axle can be adjusted to help study mechanical advantage.
