Content Videos (Lectures and animations to supplement lessons):
- Newton’s Laws
- Conservation of Linear Momentum (included: collisions, velocity, friction)
Interactives (Online activities for student interaction & practice with content):
- Forces & Motion: Basics Simulation (students explore the forces at work in a tug of war or pushing a refrigerator, crate, or person. Create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. Change friction and see how it affects the motion of objects)
- Forces & Motion Simulation (students explore the forces at work when you try to push a filing cabinet. Create an applied force and see the resulting friction force and total force acting on the cabinet. Charts show the forces, position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time. View a Free Body Diagram of all the forces, including gravitational and normal forces)
- Amusement Park Physics (are you really in danger when you are taking those hairpin turns and death-defying loops on a roller coaster? Discover how amusement park rides like bumper cars, free-fall rides and pendulum swings use the laws of physics to simulate danger, while keeping the rides safe)
- Newton’s Laws
- Newton’s First Law (The learner views several animations to study Newton’s First Law of Motion, also known as “The Law of Inertia.”)
- Newton’s Second Law (students look at force, mass, and acceleration to understand this “Law of Acceleration.”)
- Force (When forces are unbalanced, objects accelerate. But what factors affect the amount of acceleration? This Interactive allows learners to investigate a variety of factors that affect the acceleration of a box pushed across a surface, The amount of applied force, the mass, and the friction can be altered. A plot of velocity as a function of time can be used to determine the acceleration)
- Free Body Diagrams (The Free-Body Diagrams Interactive is a skill-building tool that presents users with 12 physical situations for which they must construct free-body diagrams. On-screen buttons are used to select up-down-right-left force types. Force arrows can be clicked/tapped to toggle the magnitude of the force. Feedback is immediate; opportunities to correct answers are endless. Built-in score-keeping makes this Interactive a perfect candidate for a classroom activity)
- Rocket Sledder (This Interactive illustrates the effect of friction, air resistance, and applied force upon a sledder. The speed, acceleration, and force values are displayed as the sled moves. Learners can vary the mass of the sledder and the size of the parachute that is attached to it)
- Conservation of Linear Momentum
- Gravity Force Lab (Visualize the gravitational force that two objects exert on each other. Change properties of the objects in order to see how it changes the gravity force)
- Pendulum Lab Simulation (students play with one or two pendulums and discover how the period of a simple pendulum depends on the length of the string, the mass of the pendulum bob, and the amplitude of the swing. It’s easy to measure the period using the photogate timer. You can vary friction and the strength of gravity. Use the pendulum to find the value of g on planet X. Notice the anharmonic behavior at large amplitude)
- Projectile Motion Simulation (Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target)
- Egg Drop (In this simulated version of an egg drop, students explore the variables that result in a safe landing or a fractured or broken egg. This Student Worksheet is intended for use with a classroom; its emphasis is on the use of science reasoning skills to understand the physics behind an egg drop activity. )
- Collisions
- The Cart & The Brick (This activity involves the analysis of a collision between a moving cart and a dropped brick that lands on top of it. Position-time data are used to determine the pre- and post-collision speeds of the cart and the brick. The individual momentum values of the two objects are calculated before and after the collision and analyzed. This Interactive is accompanied by this Student Worksheet)
- Fish Catch (Can the relative mass of two colliding objects be used to quickly predict the post-collision speed of the objects? Learners can use the Fish Catch Interactive to explore this question. The Interactive is accompanied by this Student Worksheet that guides learners through the process of determining the rule for predicting the post-collision speed from the relative mass of the two objects.)
- Exploding Carts (Consider two side-by-side carts on a low-friction track. The carts are equipped with a spring-loaded plunger. When the plunger is activated, the carts push away from each other and are propelled in opposite directions. How does the relative mass of the two carts affect that outcome of the explosion? Does the more massive cart acquire the greater post-explosion velocity? Or is the least massive cart moving faster after the explosion? Or does the mass not make a difference? Explore these questions and more with the Exploding Carts Interactive)
- Collision Carts (Pick a cart, put it on a track and slam it into a second cart. Change the mass and/or the velocity and repeat the experiment. Put two carts next to each other on the same track with a firecracker between them, Ignite the fuse and watch the carts fly apart when the firecracker explodes. Do all this and more without getting yelled at by your physics teacher or sent to the deans office for possession of incendiary devices. What a blast!)
- Amusement Park Bumper Cars (Try to predict what will happen in three different bumper car collisions. For each collision, you’ll be shown two possible outcomes)
Games (Online games for students to apply & test their content knowledge):
- Parkworld Plot! (students help unravel Bertie Block’s plans to destroy Parkworld’s rides by learning about the various forces that make the rides work. Students learn about the forces of gravity, friction, compression, stretching and magnetism. Great introductory game into the force laws)
- Newton’s Laws
- Newton’s First Law: Match Game (Students drag the corresponding terms & definitions/examples onto each other to make them disappear)
- Newton’s First Law: Terminology Space Race (Destroy the scrolling words by typing in their corresponding term and pressing enter. You may destroy them in any order, but make sure they don’t scroll past the screen)
- Newton’s Second Law: Match Game (Students drag the corresponding terms & definitions/examples onto each other to make them disappear)
- Newton’s Second Law: Terminology Space Race (Destroy the scrolling words by typing in their corresponding term and pressing enter. You may destroy them in any order, but make sure they don’t scroll past the screen)
- Newton’s Third Law: Match Game (Students drag the corresponding terms & definitions/examples onto each other to make them disappear)
- Newton’s Third Law: Terminology Space Race (Destroy the scrolling words by typing in their corresponding term and pressing enter. You may destroy them in any order, but make sure they don’t scroll past the screen)
- Conservation of Linear Momentum
- Momentum: Match Game (Students drag the corresponding terms & definitions/examples onto each other to make them disappear)
- Momentum: Terminology Space Race (Destroy the scrolling words by typing in their corresponding term and pressing enter. You may destroy them in any order, but make sure they don’t scroll past the screen)
- Virtual Air Track (There are many elastic and inelastic collision cases that you can construct by varying the masses and initial velocities of the two colliding carts on the air track. Students are enabled to create & play with some of these using this virtual air track)
- Virtual Billiards (This is a more or less realistic billiard simulation that includes friction. You can drag the white and the red ball with the mouse. If you click anywhere outside of the balls, then a line is drawn from your click point to the center of the white ball. This is a measure for the initial momentum you give that ball as soon as you press start. You can drag the endpoint of the line to adjust direction and magnitude of the impulse the white ball receives. Use momentum and energy conservation to get the red ball into a hole. That’s the whole point of billiards after all)
- Save the Day Using Frictional Forces (Save the day using friction to help propel your modified scooter towards the security van before it’s too late. Choose the best surface for the job and remember to avoid incoming projectiles by clicking on them before they hit you. Which choice offers the path of least resistance? How can you improve the air resistance? Give this fun science game a try and find out!)
For Teachers 