Curated OER
Inertial Mass, Weight, and Newton's Second Law of Motion
The stage is set for you to guide future physicists through three forceful activities about motion. In the first, learners experiment with rolling carts to discover how objects interact. In the second, they inspect images of an object in...
Florida International University
Simulating Microgravity with Buoyancy
How do astronauts know how to live and work in a weightless environment? It doesn't come naturally! Junior physicists conduct experiments to examine the link between buoyancy and microgravity. Each activity illustrates a different aspect...
NASA
Simulating Weightlessness
Floating across the top. Class groups examine the parabolas, written as parametric equations, that model the flight path of NASA's C-9 as it simulates weightlessness. They continue their exploration by changing the parameters to...
NASA
Weightless Wonder
A video of the weightless wonder provides a setting for the math to follow. Groups analyze the graph of a quadratic function that models the path of the C-9 as it gives astronauts the experience of weightlessness. Using a graphing...
Curated OER
Waves
Although this was written to accompany a specific textbook, the information can illustrate wave motion for any advanced level physics course. The slides are simple, use plain but colorful fonts, and include diagrams and pictures to...
Curated OER
Weightlessness
Students compare and contrast the terms "weight" and "mass". In this physics lesson, students observe an experiment in which objects are placed on a balance scale and weighed under different circumstances. Partners drop items and observe...
Curated OER
Weightlessness
Students use a coffee cup to demonstrate weightlessness. After a lecture/demo, students read an article on free-fall. They perform a simple experiment which helps them explain the concept of weightlessness.