Reluctant Movers

SCIENCE CONCEPT:

Movement is a form of energy, and it is produced by the action of force. As a toddler you were fascinated by movement. First, you watched with your eyes as people moved around you, then you delighted in pushing and dropping any object you could grasp, and then you learned to move yourself. Everything has inertia, making it reluctant to move and to stop.

STUDENT OBJECTIVE:

The student will explore this natural law of inertia and how it applies to coins and playing cards.

OVERVIEW:

In this activity, the students will examine and discover how Newton's First Law of Motion affects the simple motion of coins and playing cards. The student will place three coins on a smooth tabletop, and put a playing card under the middle one. The challenge will be to move the card without disturbing the coin. You can do it by giving the card a hard flick with a finger. It will fly out from under the coin without moving the coin at all.

PREPARATION TIME:

Variable

LESSON TIME:

20 minutes.

TEACHER PREP:

Gather materials for the experiment. You will need 3 coins, a smooth tabletop, and a playing card. This experiment can be done by the students on their own.

WORDS TO KNOW:

inertia

stationary

speed

pushing and pulling

TEACHER TEXT:

The tendency of an object to remain moving in a straight line at a constant speed or to remain stationary is called inertia. This is Newton's First Law of Motion. An object not being pushed or pulled by a force, will either stay still or keep moving in a straight line at a steady speed.

A heavy object has more inertia than a light one. This means that the heavier something is, the more force is needed to get it moving. The card is very light, so it moves quickly when flicked. But the coin is too heavy to start moving and stays where it is. It might seem obvious that a stationary object will not move until a force acts on it, but it is less obvious that a moving object can continue to move without the help of a force.

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Last modified: Tue Mar 24 16:26:37 PST 1998