Guided Inquiry (5E Exploring Motion

Lesson)

Objectives: The students will be able to …

 Use a motion sensor to make position versus time graphs.
 Interpret position versus time graphs by relating an objects motion
to its graph.
 Experience Newton’s three laws of motion via hands-on
investigations.
 Identify instances where Newton’s Laws of Motion are illustrated.

Standards Addressed: (Indiana Academic Science Standards)

5.3.11 Investigate and describe that changes in speed or direction of motion of

an object are caused by forces. Understand that the greater the force, the
greater the change in motion and the more massive an object, the less
effect a given force will have.
6.2.3 Select tools, such as cameras and tape recorders, for capturing
information.
6.2.6 Read simple tables and graphs produced by others and describe in words
what they show.
6.5.4 Demonstrate how graphs may help to show patterns, such as trends,
varying rates of change, gaps, or clusters, which can be used to make
predictions.

Optional: (with further extensions or additions to the lesson)

5.3.12 Explain that objects move at different rates, with some moving very
slowly and some moving too quickly for people to see them.
7.3.17 Investigate that an unbalanced force, acting on an object, changes its
speed or path of motion or both, and know that if the force always acts
towards the same center as the object moves, the object’s path may curve
into an orbit.

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Required Materials:
Engagement (option #1) Station 4
□ Sewing thread (1 spool) □ Boiled egg and non-boiled egg (4)
□ Ring stand with secure extended
arm (1) Station 5
□ Mass with a place to tie the thread □ Magnetically levitated horizontal
on the top and bottom (1) spinning top. (“Strobe Revolution”)
□ Wooden dowel or stick (1)
Station 6
Engagement (option #2) □ Sheets of 8 ½ x 11 in. paper (20)
□ Passport Motion Sensor (PS-2103) □ Bowling Ball (1)
(6) □ Basket Ball (1)
□ Passport USB Links (PS-2100) (6) □ Tennis Ball (1)
□ Reflector Paper / Board (6)
Station 7
Station 1 □ Spring Scales (2+)
□ Table cloth (smooth without a thick
edge) (1) Station 8
□ Old heavy unbreakable dish and □ Bathroom scales (2)
silverware (1)
□ Paper plates and plastic silverware Station 9
(1) □ Balloons
□ Balloon helicopter (1)
Station 2
□ Glass or plastic flask (empty soda
bottle, ketchup bottle, etc…) (1)
□ Golf tee (1)
□ Embroidery hoop (1)

Station 3
□ Coat hanger (1)
□ Small blocks of wood (2)

Introduction:
Isaac Newton came up with three laws of motion in an attempt to describe the
movement of objects. Believe it or not, for as much as students have had a life full of
experience with moving and non-moving objects, they do not understand basic ideas of
movement. Everyday experiences often seem to contradict Newton’s laws of motion.

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The idea behind Newton’s first law of motion is that “objects want to keep doing what
they are doing.” If an object is at rest it wants to stay and rest, and if an object is in
motion it wants to stay in motion, maintaining the same speed in the same direction.
But, everyone knows that anything that is moving will “naturally” come to rest or stop
over time. This is of course is due to the force of friction, but students are not aware of
this. The exploration part of this activity gives students opportunities to experience
events where Newton’s first law is clearly illustrated.

Newton’s second law can simply be expressed in an equation form, ; the

acceleration of an object is equal to the force exerted on the mass divided by the mass of
the object, and the acceleration of the object is in the direction of the force on the object.
Conceptually this means that the more mass an object has a greater force is required to
change its motion or speed.

Newton’s third law is probably the least intuitive out of the three. It states that
for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. The word “force” can be
substituted for the word “action.” So Newton’s third law can be stated for every force
there is an equal and opposite force. Every student may know that the force of gravity
pulls everything down toward the Earth, but every student may not know that a person
standing at rest on the Earth experiences two forces: one from gravity pulling down and
one from the Earth pushing back up. If just the force of gravity was acting on that
person, that person would accelerate toward the Earth. This is the case when a
skydiver jumps out of an airplane, there is no counter-active force, from his/her feet to
the ground, to cancel out the attractive force of gravity, resulting in a rapid accleration
toward the Earth below.

Engagement:
Option #1 (Time = 20minutes) **It’s a good idea to practice this before hand!**

1. Setup the apparatus as pictured in the

diagram on the right. You will need to have a
heavy mass for the demonstration to work
properly, but it must not be too big or the
string will inadvertently break under its
weight. (For a simple and cheap option use
three, three quarter inch washers which can be
purchased from your local home improvement
store for under a dollar!)
2. Ask the students which string will break
first, if you pull on the bottom stick.
3. If the majority of the students think the top
string will break, proceed to demonstrate by

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 pulling fast on the stick. This will cause the bottom string to break. If the
majority of the students think that the bottom string will break, pull the stick
slowly downward. This will cause the top string to break first.
4. Setup up the appartus another time (you may want to have precut thread, with
loops on either end, so the demonstration can be repeated multiple times in a
relatively short amount of time).
5. Now ask a student to come up and try to break the other string, whichever string
was not broken the first time.
6. If the student volunteer is unable to preform the task, break the other string by
pulling either slowly (breaks top string) or fast (breaks the bottom string).
7. Ask the students if they noticed anything that was done differently when each of
the strings were broken.
8. Ask for additional student volunteers to break the string of your choosing.
Continue this process until the students catch on to the difference in technique
when breaking the strings.
9. Explain to the students that knowing how objects move allows you to break
either of the two strings that you wish. Tell them that throughout the next
several days they will be investigating how things move and what, if any, rules
the objects must follow when they move. The students will revisit this
demonstration later in the lesson to try and explain the phenomena, after they have
investigated the laws of motion.

Logic Behind Demonstration (Don’t tell them yet!) The bottom string breaks if the
stick is pulled quickly because the of the weight’s inertia; the weight wants to stay
not moving. When the stick is pulled slowly the force on the top string is equal to
the force applied by your hand plus the weight of hanging mass. Since the bottom
string only feels the weight applied by you hand, the top string will always break
first when the stick is pulled slowly.

Option #2 PASCO Match Graph Activity (Time = 50 minutes)

Equipment needed for each group:

Pasport Motion Sensor Passport USB Links (Optional) Reflector

(PS-2103) (PS-2100) Paper / Board

Procedure:

1. Ask the students to give some examples of objects that move. Have the students
try to describe the motion of the objects they mentioned. Ask them to be as
specific as possible when giving their descriptions.
2. Discuss how scientists use position graphs to help describe the movement of
objects. Show the students the following examples of motion and their
corresponding position versus time graphs. Relevent pictures, data, and graphs for

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 the following examples are found in separate handouts at the back of the lesson. These
handouts can be copied onto transparencies for whole-class viewing.

a. (Teacher Motion) The handout contains a table of position and time data
and a corresponding graph. Make 0.2 meter incremental markings on the
floor from zero to two meters and demonstrate the motion displayed on
the graph for the students to see. Tell the students that the value for your
position is the distance you are away from your starting point. Show
them the data table and graph that corresponds to the demonstrated
movement. Discuss how each point on the graph corresponds to a specific
position and time from the data table (point out several examples).

b. (Model Rocket Flight) Ask the students if they have ever seen a rocket
take off. Ask the students what happens during the flight of a rocket from
the point that it takes off to the point that it returns to the ground. Discuss
the different phases of a rocket flight: liftoff, ascent, maximum height,
rapid descent, parachute deployment, slow descent, and touchdown.
Show the students the graph of altitude (position) versus time. Ask the
students to identify what time after lift off these events happened:
i. The rocket reached its maximum height (3 sec.)
ii. The parachute was released and started to slow down the falling
rocket (> 3 sec.)
iii. The rocket landed (< 25 sec.)

c. (Roller Blader on Halfpipe) Have the students watch the video and see
the corresponding position (height) versus time graph. They should be
viewed side by side for comparison using the Data Studio software or
Power Point.

3. Launch the Pasport Motion EZ Screen by simply plugging in the Pasco motion
sensor into a USB port on a computer that has the Data Studio
software on it. If the program does not launch automatically double
click on the file titled “EZMotion.exe”. The icon is on the right. This file
can be found in the folder at the following location C:\Program Files\
DataStudio\EZScreens\EZMotion.exe.

** See the next page for the opening screen**

 The opening screen of EZMotion

should look this…

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 4. Explain to the students that they will try to create a position versus time graph
by moving back and forth relative to the motion sensor. Using the EZ Screen
program, demonstrate how the motion sensor will produce a graph while you
are moving. With the sensor, try to reproduce the teacher motion graph that was
discussed earlier so the students are able to see it created in real time.

5. Have the students complete PASCO’s Match Graph Activity. A copy of the
activity can be downloaded from Pasco’s website:
http://www.pasco.com/experiments/middle_school/october_2002/home.html

6. Following the activity, discuss how these types of graphs allow us to measure
and describe the motion of an object but they do not allow us to predict the
motion of an object. Tell the students that over the next several days they will
find out how to predict the motion of an object and they will find out if there are
any rules that all objects must “obey” when they move.

Exploration: (Time = 1 - 2 days)

This portion of the activity involves many different types of stations illustrating
Newton’s three laws of motion. The students cycle throught the different stations,
following instructions, and answering the provided questions. These stations give
students an additional wealth of experience dealing with the movement of objects. This
experience will allow them to start forming ideas of how things move and will help
them understand Newton’s three laws of motion.

Each station will have an instruction sheet with relevent questions that the
students must answer after performing the appropriate activity. The instructions and
questions for each station are include in the back of the activity (pages 18 – 26). The
instructions can be laminated for repeated use. Stations one through five illustrate
Newton’s first law, station six illustrates Newton’s second law, and stations seven
through nine illustrate Newton’s third law. A majority of the station directions and
questions were taken directly from “Cool Stuff” an online newsletter published by Arbor
Scientific (Chiaverina, 1).

The lab stations do not have to be done in any specific order, so the students can
be evenly divided up and assigned to any station. The students should be given five to
ten minutes at each station and then move to the next. It works best if all the students
move at the same time instead of each group moving when they are finished with each
station. As the students perform the designated activities and answer the questions

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focus on the students’ ability to reason based on their observations, rather than solely
evaluating students on correct responses to the questions (remember the students are
just starting to form ideas of how things move and should not be expected to get
everything right the first time. They are figuring it out!).

Explanation: (Time = 30 minutes)

1. Review the students experience over the last couple days, by having students
volunteer to read their answers from the stations to the class. Discuss the
presented answers and answer any questions that may arise.

2. Discuss how the scientist Sir Isaac Newton spent time observing the world
around him and performing experiments to find out if there are any rules that
objects must follow when they move. He came up with three general rules that
describe why objects move the way they do. Write the following paraphrased
rules on the board for students to see.

Newton’s Laws or Rules of Motion: (Paraphrased)

(Law #1) If left alone, objects will keep doing what they are currently doing.
If an object is not moving, it “wants” to stay not moving; and if an object is
moving, it “wants” to stay moving.

(Law #2) The greater the force (push or pull) on an object, the greater the
change in motion and the more massive an object, the less effect a given force
will have.

(Law #3) If something is pushed or pulled, it will push or pull right back with
the exact same amount of force. (Example: If you push on the wall the wall
will push back)

3. Give the students the Newton’s Laws Worksheet located near the end of the
lesson and have them work in groups to match Newton’s three laws of motion to
the stations that best illustrate them. They will also need to explain how the
station illustrates the law / rule that was chosen. Ultimately every object at each
station could illustrate any one of Newton’s three laws, but each station is is designed to
best illustrate one of Newton’s three laws of motion. However, any answer could be
correct as long as the students’ explain their answers properly and refer back to
observations that were made. .

4. As a class, review the groups’ answers to the worksheet. Focus on students’

explanations and reasoning when they give their answers (Remember, each
station could illustrate any one of Newton’s Three Laws of Motion, but one
should standout) Make sure their explanations make sense.

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 5. Revisit the demonstration used for the engagement portion of the activity, option
number one on page three. Repeat the demonstration and now have students
explain why pulling fast will break the bottom string and pulling slowly will
break the top string.
 (Answer) The bottom string breaks if the stick is pulled quickly because
the of the weight’s inertia; the weight wants to stay not moving. When
the stick is pulled slowly the force on the top string is equal to the force
applied by your hand plus the weight of hanging mass. Since the bottom
string only feels the weight applied by you hand, the top string will
always break first when the stick is pulled slowly.

Explanation (Advanced): (Time = 90 minutes)

**If you decide to do the advanced option with your students, this should be done in
place of the previous explanation section**

Newton’s 1st Law

1. Lead a discussion reviewing the activities invovled in stations one through five
and discuss specific student responses to the questions from each station.
 Ask students to explain the reasoning behind their answers. “What did you
observe that supports your answer?”
 Pages 14 & 15 of the activity contain the correct answers for reference.

2. Ask the students to come up with statements about how things moved at each
station, based on their experience. Ask the students to refer to their experiences
with specific stations to back up their stated “rule of motion” (Below are some
examples of possible student responses)
 “Rule of Motion: Objects that are not moving stay that way until they are
pushed by something”
 “Rule of Motion: Once you get something moving it keeps moving until you
stop it”

3. Synthesize student responses into one or two statements that revolve around the
concept addressed by Newton’s first law (see the introduction pages 2 & 3).

4. Tell the students that they have just discovered a rule that objects must follow
during motion. Isaac Newton had the same idea, he called it the first law of

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 motion. Introduce Newton’s first law: objects at rest tend to stay at rest and
objects in motion tend to stay in motion (at a constant speed and in a constant
direction), or more simply if an object is not moving it will “want” to stay not
moving and if an object is moving it will “want” to stay moving.

5. Introduce the idea of inertia: the tendency of an object to continue to do what it is

doing. If it is at rest it “wants” to stay that way, and if it is moving it “wants” to
stay moving. Ask the students the following questions:
 Do some objects have more inertia than others? .. more of an ability to
continue to do what they are doing? … more of a tendency to stay at rest
or continue moving? Have several students give examples and explain
them.
 Desired Response: “Yes, some things like large rocks, cars, or a
bulldozer have a lot of inertia because they are very difficult to
move or stop if they are moving. Conversely things like a ping-
pong ball or a pencil do not have a lot of inertia becaue they are
easy to get moving, or easy to stop once they are moving.”
 What property of an object determines the inertia of that object? Think
about your previous examples. What was different about the examples
you gave of objects that had a small inertia as a opposed to those that had
a large inertia?
 Desired Response: “How much something weighs, or its mass is
what determines the inertia of an object. Size does not determine
the strength of an object’s ability to keep doing what it is doing.
For example, a large beach ball has less inertia than a baseball
which is much smaller.”
 At station one how did the situation change when you replaced the plastic
plate and cup with the paper plate and light plastic cup? Why did this
happen?
 Desired Response: “Unlike the heavy plastic plate, the paper
plate did not stay on the table . This happened because the paper
plate is lighter than the original plate. The force of friction of the
moving table cloth underneath had more of an effect on the
lighter paper plate than the heavier plate causing it to move more
and fall off of the table.”

6. Revisit the demonstration used for the engagement portion of the activity (page
three). Repeat the demonstration and now have students explain why pulling
fast will break the bottom string and pulling slowly will break the top string.
 (Answer) The bottom string breaks if the stick is pulled quickly because
the of the weights inertia; the weight wants to stay not moving. When the
stick is pulled slowly the force on the top string is equal to the force
applied by your hand plus the weight of hanging mass. Since the bottom

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 string only feels the weight applied by you hand, the top string will
always break first when the stick is pulled slowly.
Newton’s 2 Law
nd

1. Lead a discussion reviewing the activity invovled in station six and discuss
specific student responses to the questions from the stations.
 Ask students to explain the reasoning behind their answers. “What did you
observe that supports your answer?”
 Page 15 of the activity contains the correct answers for reference.

2. Ask the students to come up with a “rule” about how things move based on their
experience of station number six. Ask the students to refer to their experiences
with the station to back up their stated “rule of motion” (Below is an example of
a possible student response)
 “Rule of Motion: Heavier things are harder to get moving.”
 “This was shown when we tried to speed up the bowling ball. We
couldn’t get it to go very fast. The tennis ball and the basketball where
both much faster when they crossed the finish line.”
 “Rule of Motion: Lighter things are easier to speed up.”
 “This was shown when we compared the speed of the tennis ball with
that of the bowling ball. The tennis ball was easier to speed up than
the bowling ball.”

3. Synthesize student responses into one rule that revolves around the concept
addressed by Newton’s second law (see the introduction page 3).

4. Introduce Newton’s Second Law: “The greater the force (push or pull) on an
object, the greater the change in motion and the more massive an object, the less
effect a given force will have.”

5. Discuss the following example that illustrates Newton’s 2nd law of motion:
Larger engines in a car or truck are able to give a larger push to get the vehicle
moving. So a small car with a big engine can speed up quicker than the same car
with a small engine. Newton’s second law also suggests that the heavier
something is the harder it is to get moving or to slow down, so if you had a big
engine in both a small car and a large bus which one do you think could move
the fastest (Check out the diagram below)? “Can you explain why small car
with a small engine could keep up with a big truck which has a big engine, even
though the larger engine can push more?”

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Newton’s 3rd Law

1. Lead a discussion reviewing the activities invovled in stations seven through

nine and discuss specific student responses to the questions from each station.
 Ask students to explain the reasoning behind their answers. “What did you
observe that supports your answer?”
 Pages 15 & 16 of the activity contain the correct answers for reference.

2. Ask the students to come up with “rules” about how things move based on their
experience of these four stations. Ask the students to refer to their experiences
with specific stations to back up their stated “rule of motion” (Below are some
examples of possible student responses)
 “Rule of Motion: If you push against something it will push back with the
same force.”
 “This was shown when we pushed two bathroom scales together. Each
scale had the same reading no matter how hard we pushed.”
 “Rule of Motion: When two things attract one another, they do so with the
same force.”
 “This was shown when we brought two magnets close to one another.
They both came toward eachother at identical speeds, which means
they must have had the same force exerted on them.”
 “Rule of Motion: When two things pull agianst one another they do so with
the same force.”
 “This was shown when we used the spring scales and had a small tug-
of-war. No matter how hard or soft we pulled, both scales had the
same reading. This shows that when two objects pull on one another
they are pulling with the same amount of force.”

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 3. Synthesize student responses into one rule that revolves around the concept
addressed by Newton’s third law (see the introduction page 3).

4. Introduce Newton’s third law: For every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction. Explain that you can substitue the work “force” for “action” and it
would read “for every force there is an equal and opposite force.”

5. Ask the students if they remember the definition of a force. “What is Newton’s
third law with this defition?”
 “For every push or pull there is an equal and oppostie push or pull.”

6. Ask the students if they can think of a situation where this law does not hold
true. Any situation that is brought up will provide an opportunity for the teacher to
show that indeed there are equal forces present. Fully discuss several student
responses.
 Student Response: “The Earth’s gravitational force pulls down on me causing
me to be pulled toward the Earth, but I don’t pull on the Earth, otherwise the
Earth would come to me.”
 Teacher response: “How do you know that you do not exert the same
amount of force on the Earth that the Earth exerts on you? Remember
the the more mass something has the more force it takes to accelerate it
or move it. We will learn more about the force of gravitation later in
the year, but each object exerts the same force on eachother. The
reason for the attraction is different, but think about a really large
magnet and a small magnet. They exert the same force on one another,
but the smaller magent moves toward the larger magnet faster because
it has a smaller mass. Remember what we learned yesterday
concerning Newton’s second law. The acceleration of an object is
determined by its mass and the force applied. The same force applied
to two objects with different masses will give two different
accelerations. The object with the large mass will have a small
acceleration, and the object with the small mass will have a large
acceleration. When you talk about the difference in mass between a
human being and the earth you are talking about a factor of over ten
thousand billion billion to one. So with same force exerted on each
object, the acceleration will be different by that same factor.

Elaboration: (Time = 20-30 minutes)

Have the students discuss the following scenarios as a class or you may use these
questions to make a worksheet. Tell the students that they must use their knowledge of
Newton’s Rules or Laws of Motion to answer the following questions…

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 1. Why is it good to wear a seatbelt if you are in a head-on collision? Why?
 (Answer) When you are in a head-on collision the car stops suddenly when it hits the
other car, if you are not wearing a seatbelt your body will “want to” keep moving,
because nothing is stopping it, so it will move forward into the steering wheel or
windshield, likely injuring you.

2. If you were playing football would you rather be tackled by the kicker or a
linebacker? Why?
 (Answer) It would be better to be tackled by the lighter player, the kicker. The kicker
would have less inertia, less of a tendency to keep moving than the heavier linebacker.
It would hurt less!

3. When you jump you push down quickly on the ground. If you are pushing
down, why do you go up?
 (Answer) When you push down on the ground with your legs, the ground pushes
back up with the same amount of force on your legs, pushing you upwards into the
air.

4. During liftoff, a rocket shoots out burning gas in the opposite direction the rocket
is traveling. How does this allow a rocket to move upward?
 (Answer) If the rocket is forcing the gas downward, the gas will push back with the
same amount of force in the opposite direction, propelling the rocket upward.

5. Why is it a good idea to be in your seat when a bus starts to move instead of
standing up next to your seat?
 (Answer) If you are standing when the bus starts to move, your body wants to stay
not moving, so you will appear to fall backwards. In reality you are just staying still
and the bus is moving forward. If you are seated, when the bus begins to move the
seat will take you with the bus; it will get you moving.

Evaluation:
The student assessment should be done throughout the entire activity. Students’
involvement and reasoning skills should be informally assessed during discussion and
question and answer periods. The written answers from the exploration can be used as
a means of formal assessment. (More formal assessment to come)

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Worksheet Answers

**The student responses will probably not be filled with the same amount of physics
terms and jargon included in these answers, but the main ideas should be the same.**

1. (Not with My Dishes!)

i. The dishes stayed there because the table cloth was pulled out from underneath
them very fast. If the table cloth was pulled slowly, all of the dishes would have
fallen on the floor. (Students may not yet have a concept of inertia so this answer
is enough)
ii. The dishes moved a little bit because was some friction between the table cloth and
the dishes and silverware.
iii. A smooth table cloth was used to reduce the amount of friction between the table
cloth and the dishes.
iv. When the paper plate and plastic silverware was used they flew off the table when
we tried to quickly remove the table cloth. The weight of the dishes and
silverware did matter, the heavier the better!

2. (Tee off Time…)

i. The tee dropped into the container underneath it. This happened because the hoop
was quickly taken from underneath the golf tee.
ii. When the outside of the hoop was grabbed the tee fell outside of the container.
This happened because when the outside of the hoop was grabbed the hoop’s
width was decreased and its momentary height was increased maintaining contact
between the tee and hoop while the hoop was being moved. This caused the tee to
move and miss the container when it fell. When the inside of the hoop is grabbed,
its width is temporarily increased which in turn decreases its height. This
temporary decrease in height of the embroidery hoop separates its surface from
the bottom of the tee, allowing the hoop to be snatched from underneath the tee
without moving the tee. The tee then simply drops into the open container.

3. (Looking Back…)
i. As my body spins around, the wire frame and the wood blocks remain relatively
motionless; they maintain approximately the same position they started in.
ii. The apparatus barely moves because there is not much friction between someone’s
head and the part of the wire frame apparatus that touches the head. The balls
will not turn unless a force is applied. Apparently the force was too small to make
much of a difference concerning the motion of the wire frame and the blocks of
wood.

4. (Egg Spin!) Description – when the “x” egg was spun and temporarily stopped it
stayed motionless after the finger that stopped it was taken off of the egg. However,

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 when the “o” egg was spun, after a finger was used to temporarily stop the egg and
then taken off, the egg started to spin again.
i. The two eggs behave differently because one of the eggs is raw and the other is
not.
ii. A cook could use this knowledge to determine if an egg is raw or cooked.

5. (Revolution)
i. The spinning axle takes a long time before it comes to rest and stops spinning.
ii. If all frictional forces could be eliminated, the axle would spin indefinitely.

6. (Speed it Up!)
i. The tennis ball was moving the fastest when it crossed the finish line.
ii. The bowling ball was moving the slowest when it crossed the finish line.
iii. The tennis ball was able to be moved the fastest because it weighed the least out of
the three balls.

7. (Spring Pull)
i. The readings on the scales are always the same no matter how hard you pull.
ii. We could not find a way to make one scale register a higher value than the other
scale.
iii. By simply pulling on the scales, we could also not find a way to make one scale
read zero and not the other.

8. (The Big Push…)

i. Similarly to station nine, the readings on these scales were also always the same.
ii. We could not come up with a way to push on the scales so one would produce a
higher reading on the scale than the other.
iii. If you pull on something it will always pull back with the same amount of force
and if you push on something it will always push back with the same amount of
force.

9. (Up Up & Away!)

i. The helicopter is able to fly and stay up in the air because the spinning blades push
down on the air consequently the air pushes back up on the blades countering and
overcoming the force of gravity, allowing the helicopter to “fly” upward.
ii. The helicopter blades do push on the surrounding air. This can be inferred when
you place your hand underneath the rotating blades; you can feel air being pushed
down. The air must push up on the blades; this force upward on the blades, from
the air, causes the helicopter’s upward motion.
iii. A helicopter would not fly in outer space where there is no atmosphere. A
helicopter needs something to push down, so that something can push back up on
it, keeping it from plummeting back down to Earth.

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Web Sources:
1. Chiaverina, Chris. Introducing Newton’s Laws with Learning Cycles. Cool Stuff, Arbor
Scientific. Volume VI 2002. http://www.arborsci.com/CoolStuff/cool6.htm

2. Match Graph. Pasco website. 2005 http://www.pasco.com/experiments/

middle_school/october_2002/home.html

Author: Aaron Debbink

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 Newton’s Laws Worksheet

Names: ______________________________________________________________________

Directions: Write the number of Newton’s Law of motion that best describes the
experience at each station. Explain the reason you chose that law by giving an example
of what you observed.

Law #1 If left alone, objects will keep doing what they are currently doing. If an object
is not moving, it “wants” to stay not moving; and if an object is moving, it
“wants” to stay moving.
Law #2 The harder something is pulled or pushed the quicker its speed will increase,
and if you push two objects with the same amount of force the one that weighs
the least will speed up quicker.
Law #3 If something is pushed or pulled, it will push or pull right back with the exact
same amount of force.

Station #1 __________ (Not with My Dishes!) Station #6 __________ (Speed it Up!)

Explanation: Explanation:

Station #2 __________ (Tee off time…)

Station #7 __________ (Spring Scales)
Explanation:
Explanation:

Station #3 __________ (Looking Back…)

Station #8 __________ (The Big Push)
Explanation:
Explanation:

Station #4 __________ (Egg Spin)

Station #9 __________ (Balloon Helicopter)
Explanation:
Explanation:

Station #5 __________ (Revolution)

Explanation:

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 Not with my Dishes!

Station 1

Directions: Haven’t you always wanted to try the old table cloth and dishes
trick? To perform this time-honored magician’s trick, place some of the old
dishes (you may want to begin with a single plate) on a smooth tablecloth.
Grab both ends of the tablecloth and, without hesitation, pull the tablecloth
out from under the dishes as quickly as you can. Don’t stop pulling until the
table cloth is completely out from underneath the dishes!

Questions:

i) Why did the dishes remain virtually motionless when the tablecloth
was quickly pulled out from under them (assuming you were successful)?

ii) Did the dishes move at all? Why?

iii) Why was a smooth tablecloth used? What do you think would happen
if a rough material like sandpaper was used?

iv) Now try it using a paper plate and plastic silverware. What happened?
Did the weight of the plate and silverware matter?

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 Tee off time...

Station 2

Directions: Balance an embroidery hoop on the

mouth of an empty container or glass soda or catsup
bottle (see photo). Now place an inverted golf tee or
flattened piece of chalk on the top of the hoop. Make
certain that the tee is directly over the mouth of the
bottle. Now take a deep breath, and remove the hoop
by quickly grabbing the inside center of the hoop.

Grabbing the hoop from the inside: Grabbing the hoop from the outside:

Questions:

i) What happened to the wooden golf tee when you grabbed the hoop
from the inside, pulling it away from the container? Why do you think this
happened?

ii) Repeat the experiment, this time quickly grab the outside of the hoop,
pulling it away from the container. What happens now? Can you explain
your observation?

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 Looking Back...

Station 3

Directions: Balance the center point of the wire on the top of your head.
Make certain that the wire frame does not come in contact with your ears.
Now quickly spin around.

Questions:

i) Describe the motion of the frame and the blocks of wood as your body
spins around.

ii) Can you explain why the wire frame and the blocks of wood on your
head barely budges as you move?

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 Egg Spin!

Station 4

Directions: In this “eggsperiment” you will use two eggs, one marked with
an“O”, the other with an “X.” Spin the egg marked with an “X” on its side.
Now stop the egg with your hand. Immediately after the egg stops, remove
your hand. Describe what happens. Now spin the egg marked with an “O” on
its side. Again stop the egg with your hand and then quickly release it.
Describes what happens this time.

Questions:

i) Why do think the two eggs behave the way they do?

ii) How could a cook make practical use of the results of this experiment?

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 Revolution

Station 5

Directions: Give the “Strobe Revolution” a gentle spin and observe what
happens.

Questions:

i) Once the object is spinning how long does it take before it stops
moving?

ii) If all frictional forces could be eliminated, how long do you think
the axle would spin?

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 Speed it Up!

Station 6

Directions: Use a rolled up sheet of paper (8 ½ x 11 in.) to push each of

the balls from the starting line to the finish line. Move the balls by pushing it
with the rolled up sheet of paper as shown in the pictures (Nothing else
should be used!). If you push too hard the paper will crumble or fold, so be
gentle. See how fast you can get each ball to move by the time it crosses
the finish line. Using the paper to the push the balls limits the amount of
force you are able to use.

Like this . …or this

Questions:

i) Which ball was moving the fastest when it crossed the finish line?

ii) Which ball was moving the slowest when it crossed the finish line?

iii) Why do you think one ball was able to be move faster than the other?

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 Spring Pull!

Station 7

Directions: Have one person hold the end of both scales. Now pull so that
the reading on one scale is halfway between the lowest and highest number
on the scale. What does the other scale read? (Don’t pull too hard!)

Questions:

i) Describe the readings on the scales.

ii) Can you pull in a way that will produce a higher reading on one scale
than the other?

iii) Can you pull in a way that will produce a reading of zero on one scale
but not on the other? Explain your answer.

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 The Big Push...

Station 8

Directions: With your lab partner, hold two bathroom scales back to back.
Now push hard on the scales and observe both readings.

Questions:

i) How do the readings compare?

ii) Can you and your partner push in a way that will produce a higher
reading on one scale than the other?

iii) Summarize your findings from stations 10 and 11.

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 Up Up & Away!

Station 9

Directions: Blow up the balloon and attach the hub to the blade assembly.
Now release the helicopter and watch it go!

Questions:

i) Why do you think the helicopter flies?

ii) Try holding the balloon from the bottom while the blades spin. Do the
helicopter’s blades push on the surrounding air? How do you know this?
Does the air surrounding the blades push on the blades? Which of these two
forces causes the helicopter’s motion?

iii) Would a helicopter fly in outer space where there is no atmosphere? Why
or why not?

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