Guico, Jem Mariel S.

PHYSICS
2nd Year – BS Psychology Mr. Ariel Sumague

Newton’s Laws

The scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, helped to organize the thinking about forces by formulating three laws. In
his book Newton describes his three laws of motion. Newton’s Laws are all around us. To prove this, you
will conduct 14 different activities showing everyday examples of these laws.

Lab Procedure
1. You will start at a lab station and then move from station to station until you have completed all 14
activities.
2. You will have 3minutes to do the activity at each lab station.
3. Perform the activity as directed.
4. Write a description of what you observe in your notebook.
5. Determine which of Newton’s Laws of Motion is being demonstrated.
6. Record this in your table.
7. Move to each of the other lab stations and repeat steps 3 – 7.

Lab Activities
Station 1 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Place a note card/ card board or any board
paper on the table so about 1/3 of the card
extends over the edge of the table.
2. Place a 5 peso coin on the card that is on the
table.
3. Predict what will happen to the coin when the
card is removed.
4. As quickly as you can, pull the card from
under the coin.
5. Observe the motion of the coin.
Station 2 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Hold your right hand next to your right ear
with palm up.
2. Place a coin your elbow.
3. Quickly straighten your arm and catch the
coin.
Station 3 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Place a coin in the bucket.
2. Hold the bucket by the handle.
3. Twirl the bucket around in a circle.
Station 4 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Place the bottle containing water on the table.
2. Place the note card/ card board or board paper
on top of this bottle.
3. Place the second bottle mouth down on top of
the card and first bottle.
4. Remove the note card without disturbing
either bottle.
Station 5 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Balance the meter stick on one hand and the
ruler on the other hand.
2. Which is easier to balance?
Station 6 (Newton’s First Law of Motion)
1. Place the note card on top of the beaker.
2. Place a coin on the card, above the beaker.
3. Predict what happens when the card is rapidly
removed.
4. Pull the card out as rapidly as you can.
5. Observe the motion of the coin.
Station 7 (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
1. Place a coin near one end of your lab table.
2. Use your finger to propel the coin toward the
other end of the lab table trying to get it to stop
exactly at the edge of the lab table.
Station 8 (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
1. There are two balls with different masses on
the table.
2. Give the ball with the lower mass a gentle
push and record how far it goes.
3. Give the other ball a push, just as hard, and
record how far it goes.
Station 9 (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
1. Set up the cart/ toy car so that it is at the
starting tape.
2. One partner gently pushes the cart and the
other times it.
3. Stop the stopwatch when the car reaches the
finish line.
4. Repeat steps 1, 2, and 3 giving the cart a
harder push.
5. Record your two times.
Station 10 (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
1. Place the first marble on the top of the track.
2. Place the second marble on the bottom of the
track.
3. Release the top marble so that it rolls down the
track and collides with the second marble.
Station 11 (Newton’s Second Law of Motion)
1. At the same time, drop the flat piece of paper
& the wadded up piece of paper onto the lab
table.
Which hits first?
Station 12 (Newton’s Third Law of Motion)
1. Blow up the balloon
2. Release the balloon
3. Return the balloon to your teacher.
Station 13 (Newton’s Third Law of Motion)
1. Stand with each of your feet on a separate
sheet of paper.
2. Start to run.
3. Observe the paper
Station 14 (Newton’s Third Law of Motion)
1. Pull one pendulum back about 25cm (10
inches).
2. Let the stopper fall into the other stopper.
3. Watch what happens to each stopper following
the collision

Data Table
Table # Law # What you did
1 1 I put a cardboard nearly at
the edge of my laboratory
table with a five-peso coin on
the of it, and quickly pulled
the cardboard.
2 1 I placed my right arm on my
right ear and put my elbow
right at the same level of my
shoulder, then I put the five-
peso coin on the top on my
elbow. I immediately
straighten my arms and tried
to catch the coin.
3 1 I put a coin inside the bucket
Observations
As I pull or remove the cardboard with a
five-peso coin on the top of it, the coin
obviously moves. At the first trial, I’ve
overdone the pull so the coin went along
with the cardboard. Then, in the second
trial, the minimize the force I exert when I
pull the cardboard, so the coin stayed on the
table. Same goes with the third trial. Even
though the stay the same on the top of the
table, the coin were somehow pull by
cardboard so it does not stay exactly on the
same location. It moves, as I moved the
cardboard.
At the first trial, I wasn’t able to catch the
coin maybe because I’m too slow. So in the
second trial, I straightened my arms as fast I
can, and that’s when I was able to catch the
coin. Same goes in the third trial. It was
hard but based on my observations, it’s
somehow testing your reflex and since I’m
using a coin, maybe I was able to catch it
because it doesn’t have a heavier mass so it
didn’t go down really fast.
In this station, the coin was obviously
 (I used a pitcher as an
alternative), then move the
pitcher in a circular motion.
4 1 I used a skincare bottle as an
alternative to a water bottle. I
placed the first bottle at the
table, put a cardboard on the
top of it, and placed another
bottle upside down. I tried
pulling the cardboard to see if
the two bottle will remain on
its position.
5 1 I have a meter stick and a
ruler. I will try to balance both
of the sticks in my fingers and
see which one is easier to
balance.
6 1 I placed a cardboard on the
top of a glass (alternative for
beaker), then placed a five-
peso coin on the top of the
cardboard. I tried removing
the cardboard and see what
happens to the coin.
7 2 I placed a coin on the other
side of the table and tried
pushing it using my fingers to
the other side of the table.
8 2 I have two balls with a lower
mass and a higher mass. I
tried pushing the ball with a
lower mass in a gentle way,
and I pushed the heavier ball
way harder.
unbothered the moment I placed it inside
the pitcher, but when I move the pitcher, the
coin also moves in the circular motion. This
then proves the Law of Inertia, that if
there’s no force, it stays still.
I made three trials but the two bottles did
not remain on its position. It kept on
breaking and falling. Maybe because I’m
not too fast when I pull the cardboard, or
maybe because the bottles did not stay still
because I exert another force to make it fall.
The meter stick is much easier to balance
than the ruler. It is because the center of
gravity of meter stick is higher than the
ruler. It is easier to balance a longer and
heavy object than a smaller and light object.
All the three trials have the same result.
When I pull the card board the coin goes
inside the glass. The Law of Inertia works
here when I pull the cardboard because I
exert force. When I wasn’t pulling anything,
the coin and the cardboard are staying still,
but when I pull the cardboard, the coin went
down.
At the first trial, I only exert a minimal
force. I did not push the coin very hard, so it
did not go to the other side of the table,
instead, it stopped moving in the middle. So
in my second and third trial, I push the coin
way harder than the first trial and so it goes
to the other side of the table. The second law
of motion works here because the net force
used will result the same in the acceleration
of an object. So, the harder I push, the
farthest the object goes. It works because
the coin is not heavy as some other objects,
so the greater the net force is, the greater
the acceleration would be.
I made three trials and they almost had the
same result. The distance between the two
balls is not as far as I expected. This proves
the second law of motion. When I pushed
the ball with a lower mass as gentle as I can,
it will have the same speed. So, even though
I pushed the ball with a heavier mass very
hard, it will also give us the same result.
Because the heavier the object, the lesser the
acceleration. If push both balls very hard,

9 2 I have a toy car and I made a
starting and ending line. I
started pushing the first toy
very gently and the second toy
times it.
10 2 I have two marbles and I tried
rolling the first marble at the
top of the track, making it
collide with the second marble
on the ground.
11 2 I have two papers, a flat paper
and a wadded-up paper. I let
go the two papers at the same
time, and observe which paper
hits the ground first.
12 3 I blow up the balloon and
release it to see what will
happen.
13 3 I placed two papers and stand
on it. I tried running and
observe the two papers.
14 3 I do not have any pendulum
but I know what it looks like
and how it works.
the ball with a lower mass will go farther
than the other ball.
The results are; the first toy finished the line
at 2.53 seconds, while the second toy
finished the line for only .50 seconds. This is
because I exerted a small amount of net
force to the first toy, while I exerted a huge
amount of force to the second toy. This
therefore proves the second law of motion.
The second marble went farther from the
first marble because the first marble hit the
second marble at a constant speed.
Therefore, the second marble went far away
because of the unbalanced force and the
amount of force that was made by the first
marble.
The three trials I made has the same result.
The wadded-up paper hits the ground first.
Then, the flat paper takes too much time to
hit the ground. This is because the wadded-
up paper has a heavier mass, so its
acceleration lessens. It didn’t go to any
direction, it went directly to the ground.
Unlike the flat paper, it went flowing to the
left and right because it hits the ground.
The result of this station is already expected.
It went to different directions as I release it.
The third law of motion works here because
as it exerts force (releasing oxygen), it also
gives the same equal of force (hitting air).
This station confuses me a lot. When I was
doing this experiment, I don’t know what’s
the third law of motion is happening in
there, but then, I realize that my feet exerted
a force when I started running and the
ground does the same. We both exerted a
force, so the paper somehow did not change
its position.
When you start letting go the other side of
the pendulum, the other side will also do the
same. It is because the gravity makes it
accelerate. This relates to the third law of
motion, which is when you exert force to the
other object (the other side of pendulum)
therefore, it will also exert the equal and
opposite force to the other side of the
pendulum.
Post Lab Questions

A. After you have completed all 16 stations, go back to your individual desk and read through your
observations for each of the activities for Newton’s First Law of Motion. Find the one thing that happens
in each of the activities. Record in the table. Repeat for the Second Law activities and then the Third
Law activities.

What observed in common

Newton’s First Law of Motion
Newton’s Second Law of Motion
Newton’s Third Law of Motion
In the stations 1-6, the common things there is
when you do not exert any other forces, the
object will remain on its position. Hence, if there
is no force, the speed and the direction will not
change, but in those stations, I applied many
forces by pushing or pulling the objects. So
basically, the objects did not stay still.
In the stations 7-11, it proves that the greater the
net force is, the greater the acceleration will be.
So, the acceleration of an object will always
depend on its mass and in the amount of force
that is being applied.
In stations 11-14, the common thing here when
you exert a force, it will give you the same equal
of force.

B. At station 6, what supplied the force necessary to make the nut drop into the beaker?

The coin dropped into the beaker because I pulled the cardboard. This means the coin will
stay in its state of motions unless an unbalanced force is acting on it. The unbalanced force
is when I pulled the cardboard. The net force is equal to zero if all forces are in
equilibrium. This shows that there is no acceleration happened in the station 6.

C. At station 7, what supplied the force necessary to slow the penny down as it slid along the top
of the table?

The force that acted on this station is a net force of friction acting on the object. If there is
no friction, the coin will continue to slide nonstop. Friction is the one that causes to stop
the moving or sliding coin.

D. Why is a meter stick easier to balance than a ruler?

It is because the longer object has a greater moment of inertia. This means that a larger
force on the other side must be applied to the other side to make it balance. This will be
much easier to do with a longer object, than a shorter object.

E. How many laws of motion did Sir Isaac Newton write?

Isaac Newton wrote three laws of motion.

F. What are Newton’s three laws of motion?

 Newton’s First Law of Motion (Law of Inertia), he states here that an object is at rest,
unless an unbalanced force acted on it.
 Newton’s Second Law of Motion (Amount of Force), he states here that the acceleration
of an object depends on the mass of the object and the amount of force applied.
 Newton’s Third Law of Motion (Action and Reaction), he states here that whenever an
object exerts force on another object, the other object exerts an equal and opposite force to
the first object.