Ideas for Science Projects on Motion and Gravity
Science teachers and other officials looking to illustrate examples of concepts of motion and gravity have several easy, inexpensive options to choose from. Explaining Newton's three laws of motion and how gravity affects traveling objects can be as simple as finding household objects and applying the right concepts to them.
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Newton's First Law of Motion
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You can do a simple inertia experiment to illustrate Newton's First Law of Motion, that an object's velocity will remain unchanged until an outside force acts upon it; otherwise, an object at rest stays at rest. Spin a hard-boiled egg on its side and after a moment place your finger gently on the egg to stop it, then immediately remove your hand. Now do the same thing with a soft-boiled egg and point out that it is still moving while the hard-boiled egg stopped. Explain this is because the amount of force from the gently laid finder was not enough to stop the inertia of both the shell and internal liquid. The liquid inside the egg is still moving and needs more force to completely slow its roll.
Newton's Second Law of Motion
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Drop a rock and a wadded-up piece of notebook paper at the same time and note how they fall at an equal rate. Explain that this is because of the constant acceleration due to the force of gravity and that the rock has more impact upon landing because it has greater mass. This is a good introduction to a lesson on Newton's Second Law of Motion, that when an object (the rock or paper) is acted on by an outside force (gravity) the strength of the force equals the mass of the object times the resulting acceleration, or force = mass x acceleration. Dropping the objects again into a pile of flour will demonstrate the force of impact for the objects because it will be visible in the flour's craters. You can also push two roller skates belonging to the same pair at the same time, one getting a harder push than the other, to demonstrate that although the mass of the skates is equal the skate that got pushed harder has greater acceleration.
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Newton's Third Law of Motion
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Newton's Third Law of Motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. A product called Newton's swing demonstrates this principle with steel balls suspended on a frame. Show students that when the ball on one of the ends is pulled away then released, the other balls swing as well and then the opposite end ball mimics the first by swinging up with an equal force. Agile instructors can also prove this principle by strapping on those roller skates from the last experiment and throwing a ball forcefully, which will push them and their skates in the opposite direction.
Gravity
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Explore gravity further by having the students create parachutes using string, scissors, a ruler and a bandanna or a square piece of plastic without holes. Have the students hold competitions to see whether they can drop their parachutes from a high ledge and have them land on the ground without crashing from the pull of gravity. With the students who land gracefully, have them drop their parachute from a higher place.
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