Subtopic: Objects in Motion

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.

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: 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

Defy Gravity! Balancing Balls on Air
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, cast members use a hair dryer to balance a ball in a stream of air, seemingly defying gravity.

Defy Gravity! Upside Down Ping Pong Ball
In this video segment, the ZOOM cast is challenged to keep a ping pong ball in a funnel while the funnel is held upside down, seemingly defying gravity.

Designing a Roller Coaster
In this video segment adapted from ZOOM, the cast is challenged to design and test a roller coaster with loops, hills, and U-turns.

Energy in a Roller Coaster Ride
See potential energy convert to kinetic energy in this interactive activity from WGBH that shows a roller coaster in action.

Experimenting with a Pendulum
In this video segment, members of the ZOOM cast experiment with a pendulum and discover what they need to do to make the pendulum complete one back-and-forth swing in five seconds.

Frames of Reference
Explore how different frames of reference affect your perception of motion in this interactive activity from the American Museum of Natural History.

Galileo: A Different Thinker
Students examine four of the experiments that Galileo used to discover the effects of gravity and inertia on moving objects.

Galileo: His Place in Science
Einstein called Galileo the "father of modern physics." This media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site looks at Galileo's quest to understand the mathematics of motion.

Galileo's Big Mistake
Scientists don't always get it right. This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at Galileo's failed theory for the motion of the tides.

Galileo's Thought Experiment
How can Earth move through space without our feeling its motion? This video segment adapted from NOVA answers this question by dramatizing one of Galileo's thought experiments.

Getting Airborne and Wing Design
What makes an airplane fly? Discover the connection between Newton's third law of motion and flight in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

Gravity and Falling Objects
Students investigate the force of gravity and how all objects, regardless of their mass, fall to the ground at the same rate.

Invisible Forces
Sometimes it is challenging to comprehend the forces that effect out everyday life because most forces we can't see. This video segment from SPARK shows how one artist makes them visible.

Microgravity
In this video from DragonflyTV, Tiana and Sammy measure, record, and analyze the results of a "drop box" test to find out how everyday items behave in microgravity.

Newton's Third Law of Motion: Astronauts in Outer Space
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, NASA learns hard lessons from the first American attempt to do work while "walking" in space. The video also explores Newton's third law of motion.

Projectile Motion
In this interactive simulation adapted from University of Colorado’s Physics Education Technology project, learn about projectile motion by firing various objects from a virtual cannon into the air. Experiment with the settings and try to hit a target.

Rolling Ball Incline
In this video adapted from the Encyclopedia of Physics Demonstrations, learn how plotting the changes in an object's position on a graph can provide information about the object's motion.

Think Like Einstein
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site challenges you to think like Einstein and understand how time travel might be possible.

Transforming the Future of Flight
In this video segment adapted from NASA, learn how engineers are transforming the future of flight by designing airplanes based on principles found in nature.

Virtual Car: Velocity and Acceleration
Take control of a virtual car and learn how vectors are used to represent velocity and acceleration in this interactive activity developed for Teachers' Domain.

Waterslides
Join Valerie and Margie as they devise ways to measure how fast and how "wild" two waterslides are in this video from DragonflyTV.