Bouncing Bear

SCIENCE CONCEPT:

In Newton's Third Law of Motion states that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. When you stand up, you push on the floor with all your weight and the floor pushes upward on you with an equal force, so that you neither rise to the ceiling nor fall through the floor. With a teddy bear you can experience this Third Law of Motion in a simple fashion by attaching a chain of rubber bands. What happens when you pull on the toy and let go?

STUDENT OBJECTIVE:

The student will explore Newton's Third Law using a soft toy teddy bear and a chain of rubber bands.

OVERVIEW:

In this activity, the student will attach a chain of rubber bands to a soft toy. Then the student will pull on the toy and observe how the teddy bear 'jumps' up to them and then 'bounces' down again. As the student repeats the pull on the teddy bear with differing strengths they will see that the teddy bear jumps and bounces at various heights.

PREPARATION TIME:

5 minutes.

LESSON TIME:

20 minutes.

TEACHER PREP:

Gather materials for the experiment. You will need soft toy teddy bears and chains of rubber bands.

WORDS TO KNOW:

push

pull

opposite

reaction

TEACHER TEXT:

In Newton's Third Law of Motion there is the dynamic of pushing and pulling that takes place. When the child pulls on the teddy bear with the chain of rubber bands the teddy bear responds to Newton's Third Law of Motion: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

When you walk, you push backward against the ground with your foot. The ground (the earth) exerts an equal force forward on your foot. Wee see you move forward because of the earth's force on you. But we do not see the earth move. Its mass is so large that its motion in the opposite direction is too small to be noticed.

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Last modified: Tue Mar 24 15:35:37 PST 1998