Students are introduced to the concepts of force, inertia, and Newton's first law of motion: objects at rest stay at rest and objects in motion stay in motion unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.This instructional activity is the...

This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at speed, velocity, and centripetal force on the racetrack. [6:28]

Students use the principles of technological and engineering design to research and explain how airfoil shape affects flight characteristics and how it applies to boomerang flight.. They will work in teams to design, build, test, and...

This lesson introduces the concepts of vectors and scalars and explains how they are related to distance and displacement. It is 3 of 3 in the series titled "Introduction to Vectors & Scalars."

This site provides an introductory look at torque, the measure of how much a force acting on an object causes that object to rotate. Provides a definition of torque, illustrations, and also a formula to define torque.

A short interactive activity which allows you to visualize the sum of vectors.

The practice exercise investigates force fields, closed curves, and work. The resource consists of an enlarged printable version of a force field available in PDF format.

Students' use force sensors to investigate forces and learn about force as a vector. Similar concept to the common "spring scale" force vector lab, but with a real-world twist.

A practical application of the use of the components of vectors with force. Example and general form are both given.

Next, let's apply all these ideas to the case where a particle is being acted on by both gravity and air resistance using this 5-question quiz/practice. The gravity force vector points downward, and the air resistance force opposes it.

Uniform circular motion can be described as the motion of an object in a circle at a constant speed. This animation depicts this by means of a vector arrow.

In this active learning activity, students will find a technique to move a car with one hand. Students are given only a tow strap, so the students must apply angular force to successfully move the car with one hand.

Students practice reading situations where forces are acting upon objects in all directions and magnitudes, and then draw free-body diagrams to represent the forces. Each problem has a self-checking key linked right on the page.

Students apply both kinematic principles and Newton's laws of motion to understand and explain the motion of objects moving in two dimensions, more specifically, the motion of projectiles.

An edible lab activity utilizing Jello to demonstrate the x and y components of vectors.

An interactive simulation that teaches about gravitational force, circular motion, and astronomy by manipulating the sun, earth, moon, and a space station to observe the effects of gravity and orbital paths. This simulation can either be...

An interactive simulation that teaches about force and potential energy by changing variables to stretch and compress springs. This simulation can either be downloaded or played online and includes handouts, lesson plans, and additional...

Stretch and compress springs to explore the relationships between force, spring constant, displacement, and potential energy. Investigate what happens when two springs are connected in series and parallel.

Learners are introduced to Newton's third law of motion, and then learn that engineers apply Newton's third law and an understanding of reaction forces when designing a wide range of creations, from rockets and aircraft to door knobs,...

Kids learn about glossary and terms in the science of physics and motion. Definitions for words such as momentum, force, work, energy, gravity, scalar, vector, power, and more.

Learn to draw free-body diagrams in this simulation where you place arrows to indicate the directions that forces are acting on an object.

The mathematical model for the relationships between work and energy serves to model physical problems and, more importantly, predict natural and man-made phenomena. Students discover the relationships which serve as a powerful...

An interactive simulation that teaches about kinematics, air resistance, and parabolic curve by shooting a car out of a cannon while trying to hit a target. Observe how changes in angle, initial speed, mass, air resistance, and drag...

A tutorial that describes what a resultant is and how a resultant is determined.