Tag Archives: newton's laws

In this activity, you will investigate the relationship between weight and mass. Mass and weight are different quantities. Mass is a measure of an object’s inertia, the extent to which an object resists changes to its state of motion. Weight is a measure of the interaction between an object and the planet the object is nearest to. Usually that planet is the earth. The weight of an object is related to its mass. In this activity we will find out what that relationship is.

Every day we have to make choices. Sometimes these can be life changing. In the Firing Squad Demo the student you pick to be the target, will have to choose between two dart guns to be shot with!

In this activity, you will observe the motion of a variety of objects under a variety of conditions. You will interpret your observations to learn the relationship between force, mass, and acceleration.

The balloon helicopter is a classic toy with a simple design. The physics that explains its motion, though, can be difficult to explain. Students will observe the motion of the helicopter and study its construction before applying Newton’s 3rd Law twice to explain how it moves. Newton’s 3rd Law says that every force is opposed by an equal and opposite force. This lab will reinforce the idea that the two forces involved in this law are applied to different objects.

Chapter 3 Lab #7:

Using collisions, students will demonstrate Newton's first law of motion.

This exploratory’s emphasis is on the introduction of Newton's 1st, 2nd and 3rd laws. At each station students are asked to perform one or more activities and answer questions based on their observations. These stations use a variety of manipulatives. Some stations feature common household items; others use either commercial devices or teacher-produced apparatus. I would like to share some of our students’ favorite stations with you. During the last 30 years, Dr. James Hicks and I have assembled exploratory activities that we’ve used to introduce each major topic (for example, forces, energy, optics, wave phenomena, electricity, magnetism, etc.)