Acids and Bases: Testing Rocket Cars

In this ZOOM video segment, cast members make bottle rocket cars using lemon juice and baking soda, and experiment with different ways of launching the cars.

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Acids and Bases: Testing Rockets

What happens when you mix baking soda and lemon juice? Watch the ZOOM cast launch a rocket using kitchen chemistry.

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Aerodynamics: What Causes Lift?

How does an airplane stay aloft when upside down? This media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site offers an explanation based on Newton's third law of motion.

Air Power: Experimenting with Balloons

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members experiment with the amount of air expelled first from a balloon, then through a straw attached to it, and see how both affect a balloon's behavior.

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Air Power: Making a Hovercraft

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members make their own hovercraft and demonstrate how the air leaking out of a balloon can make a plastic plate hover above a table.

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Amplitude

This interactive activity adapted from the University of Utah's ASPIRE Lab shows how a pendulum's amplitude changes as you set it swinging from different distances from its axis, and how the amplitude of a sound wave changes as you adjust the volume.

Astronauts in Hard Hats

This media-rich series of interviews from the NOVA Web site explores the unique challenges faced by astronauts doing construction work in outer space.

Astronauts Speak: Gene Cernan

In this audio resource from NOVA, astronaut Gene Cernan recounts his harrowing experience during America's first attempt to do work in outer space.

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Basketball Physics

In this video from DragonflyTV, Jai and Jonathan track, graph, and analyze the motion of basketball shots as they investigate what factors influence the accuracy of their game.

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Booming Sands

This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, presents basic concepts of physics behind "booming" sand dunes. See how surface tension affects potential and kinetic energy and how it all works together to create sound.

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Bouncing Science

In this lesson, based on the Science Friday segment Physics of Basketball, students explore the properties of various balls from different sports, and discuss why the design of each ball is suited to its associated sport.

Building Simple Machines: A Glass of Milk, Please

In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast shows how the 34 steps in their Rube Goldberg invention use everything from gravity to carbon dioxide gas in order to accomplish one simple task: pouring a glass of milk.

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Building Simple Machines: Plant Quencher

In this video segment from ZOOM, Jillian explains how her simple machine uses marbles, levers, flowing sand, and a spinning wheel to water a plant.

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Carbon-Fiber Car of the Future

In this video segment adapted from NOVA, find out how cars made of a material stronger than steel and half the weight can help combat climate change.

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Carnival Physics: Midway Games

Follow Mary Jane and Eliza as they test and measure the best way to use a moving ball's energy to win at carnival games in this video from DragonflyTV.

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Centripetal Force

In this animation a ball bounces off the sides of the circle, and the number of sides double, until the circle appears to exert force on a ball that is constant in size and always directed towards the center.

Centripetal Force: Pulling Cs and Gs

In this interactive activity from NOVA, discover how centripetal force can affect you when riding in a car or flying at high speeds in a fighter jet.

Centripetal Force: Roller Coaster Loops

This video segment explains centripetal force and illustrates how roller coasters rely on it to give you a thrilling ride.

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Circular Motion

In this interactive activity featuring videos adapted from the Rutgers PAER Group, observe examples of circular motion. Can you find a common reason why the objects and people presented move in a circle?

Collisions on an Air Track

In this interactive activity adapted from the University of Toronto, observe the effect of mass on momentum in elastic and inelastic collisions.