DiscoverE
Build a Bobsled Racer
Host a design challenge of Olympic proportion! Junior engineers build their own bobsleds using simple materials. The activity focuses on kinetic and potential energy and how the center of mass affects motion on a downhill track....
Exploratorium
Balancing Stick
Have some physical science fun when studying the center of gravity or center of mass. Simply have balancing artists stand a dowel on one finger and keep it from falling over! A lump of clay is added and moved up along the dowel over a...
NASA
3...2...1...Puff!
Which will make it fly better? Individuals build paper rockets with fins that are launched using straws. After determining an average flight distance, they make adjustments, such as size and location of fins, and try again. A second...
Urbana School District
Projectile and Circular Motion, Torque
Introduce your young scholars to the concepts of circular motion, projectile motion, angular speed, simple harmonic motion, torque, center of mass, centripetal force, and Hooke's Law with a 86-slide presentation. The circular motion...
It's About Time
Center of Mass
Lead your class on an exploration as they locate the center of mass in several oddly shaped two-dimensional objects they create from their imaginations. Pupils also determine the location of the center of mass in three-dimensional...
Curated OER
Review of Linear Momentum
In this linear momentum worksheet, students calculate force, impulse and momentum to answer 50 multiple choice questions. They identify elastic and inelastic collision.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Wow! That Captures It!
Learners examine how motion capture technology allows computer based animators to design realistic effects in animation. They study how the center of gravity contributes to animation and how to use the center of gravity to write an...
Curated OER
The Center of Mass
Students determine the center of mass of two irregularly shaped objects, determine when the center of mass is inside or outside the boundaries of the object, determine when and/or why an object is stable, balanced, unstable or unbalanced.
Curated OER
Center of Mass
Students identify the geometric mean of their data. In this statistics lesson, students collect data and graph their findings. They identify the mean, range and mode.
Curated OER
Perpetual Motion
High schoolers are introduced to the concept of Energy Conservation with the example of: Tony Hawk seems to defy the conservation of energy as he keeps reaching new heights on each pass on the halk-pipe. Actually, Tony is supplying the...
Curated OER
Tightrope Trials
Students research the concepts of center of mass and how to make different things balance. They make symmetrical cut-outs of different "creatures" and experiment with how they balance on a tightrope of string.
Curated OER
TE Activity: Build Your Own Mobile
Students inquire into how the center of mass is the key factor in designing cars. They construct an oddly shaped object and determine its center of mass. They find that engineers are able to predict how objects will behave while they are...
Curated OER
Perching Parrot
Students explore the concepts of center of mass and static equilibrium by seeing how non-symmetrical objects balance. They also analyze why all forces on an object must cancel out exactly for an object to be stationary.
Curated OER
Robots from Junk
Students create balloon and rubber band models of robotic rovers to investigate the concepts of mass, torque, and friction. Through research and planning, students construct a rover test-bed that simulates the Martian environment.