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Physics: Gravity and Forces

Resource Grade Level Media Type
Aerodynamics: What Causes Lift?  

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.

6-12 HTML Interactive
Air Bag Design  

Air Bag Design
Using automobile crash test footage, this video segment adapted from NOVA shows some of the challenges in designing the air bag.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Anatomy of a Firework  

Anatomy of a Firework
There's more to a fireworks display than meets the eye. This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site looks at the technology behind each burst of light.

6-12 Flash Interactive
Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day  

Antarctica: A Challenging Work Day
What happens when the ground under your feet is ice and it's moving? This video segment adapted from NOVA features some of the dangers faced by scientists conducting research in Antarctica.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Antarctic Ice Movement: Part I  

Antarctic Ice Movement: Part I
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains why ice sheets move. To find out how fast they move, scientists carve a tunnel through a glacier.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Astronauts in Hard Hats  

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.

6-12 HTML Document
Astronauts Speak: Gene Cernan  

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.

3-12 Real Audio
Avalanche Town  

Avalanche Town
The impact of natural disasters is made vivid in this video segment adapted from NOVA. A small town in Iceland, prepared for recurrent avalanches, is devastated when one takes a new and damaging path.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia  

Birth of a Supernova, Type Ia
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type Ia supernova — that is so bright that astronomers can measure the distance to the galaxy in which it resides, and even learn which elements make up the star.

6-12 Flash Interactive
Birth of a Supernova, Type II  

Birth of a Supernova, Type II
In this interactive activity from NOVA Online, learn about a type of exploding star — a Type II supernova — that is so large it has a mass 10 times greater than the mass of our Sun.

6-12 Flash Interactive
Booming Sands  

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.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Build a Bridge  

Build a Bridge
Survey potential bridge sites, research bridge design, and select the right bridge for the right location in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12 Shockwave Interactive
Buoyancy Basics  

Buoyancy Basics
This illustrated demonstration from the NOVA Web site explains the concepts of buoyancy and density by showing what happens when different kinds of wood blocks are dropped in water.

3-8 HTML Document
Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler  

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Balloon-in-Car Puzzler
This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to explain the behavior of a helium-filled balloon in a moving car.

3-8 HTML Interactive
Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler  

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Boat-in-Pool Puzzler
This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what happens to the water level when a rock is resting in a boat and when it is submerged in water.

3-8 HTML Interactive
Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question  

Buoyancy Brainteasers: Buoyancy Question
This interactive brainteaser from the NOVA Web site challenges you to figure out what causes an object to sink.

3-8 HTML Interactive
Centripetal Force: Pulling Cs and Gs  

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.

3-8 HTML Interactive
Construct an Aqueduct  

Construct an Aqueduct
Think like an engineer and build an aqueduct in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

3-12 Shockwave Interactive
Deep-Sea Vents and Life's Origins  

Deep-Sea Vents and Life's Origins
Deep-sea vents are home to life forms that do not rely on the Sun's energy. They depend instead on energy from volcanoes on the ocean floor. This video segment adapted from NOVA hypothesizes that life on Earth may have begun in this extreme environment.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Demolition Woman  

Demolition Woman
Find out how controlled explosions are used to demolish multi-story buildings in this interview from the NOVA Web site.

6-12 HTML Document
Earthquakes: Los Angeles  

Earthquakes: Los Angeles
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, animations are used to show how the hills around Los Angeles were formed by earthquakes at small thrust faults that extend outward from the larger San Andreas fault.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Earthquakes: The Prehistoric Record  

Earthquakes: The Prehistoric Record
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a geologist digs a trench along the San Andreas Fault to reveal three thousand years of earthquake history. Information from the layers of sediment may help geologists to predict earthquakes.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Einstein: A Timeline of His Life  

Einstein: A Timeline of His Life
This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site follows Albert Einstein's life, including 1905, his "Miracle Year," during which he developed his Special Theory of Relativity and the equation, E=mc2.

6-12 HTML Document
Einstein: How Smart Was He?  

Einstein: How Smart Was He?
This essay from the NOVA Web site explores the impact Einstein made on physics and most everything we know about the cosmos.

6-12 HTML Document
Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether  

Einstein's Thoughts on the Ether
Do light waves travel through the ether like waves on a lake travel through water? In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a young Albert Einstein grapples with this question while examining the speed of light.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Energy Transfer in a Trebuchet  

Energy Transfer in a Trebuchet
On NOVA, a team of carpenters, timber framers, engineers, and historians recreate a medieval throwing machine called a trebuchet. This adapted video segment explores how understanding energy transfer informs their design.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Extreme Temperatures on the Moon  

Extreme Temperatures on the Moon
In this video segment adapted from Interactive NOVA, astronaut John Young experiences extreme temperatures on the Moon that are a result of the Moon's low gravity and lack of atmosphere.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Fastest Glacier  

Fastest Glacier
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, scientists in western Greenland explain how a glacier there is shrinking and moving faster due to increased melting.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Free-Falling and "Weightlessness"  

Free-Falling and "Weightlessness"
Discover the difference between free-falling and weightlessness in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12 Shockwave Interactive
Galileo: His Experiments  

Galileo: His Experiments
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site samples Galileo's experiments with falling objects, projectiles, inclined planes, and pendulums.

6-12 Flash Interactive
Galileo: His Place in Science  

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.

6-12 HTML Document
Galileo on the Moon  

Galileo on the Moon
Watch Apollo 15 astronaut David Scott perform Galileo's falling objects experiment on the Moon in this video segment from NASA.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Galileo's Big Mistake  

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.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Galileo's Inclined Plane  

Galileo's Inclined Plane
How did Galileo figure out the mathematics of falling bodies? This video segment adapted from NOVA examines Galileo's work on motion.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Galileo's Thought Experiment  

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.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Galileo: Timeline of His Life  

Galileo: Timeline of His Life
This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site turns back the clock to the late 1500's to relive the dramatic life of one of the world's most renowned scientists.

6-12 HTML Document
Getting Airborne and Wing Design  

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.

6-12 Flash Interactive
The Grand Canyon: Ancient Mountains  

The Grand Canyon: Ancient Mountains
This video segment adapted from NOVA features the twisted and melted forms of the Grand Canyon's oldest rocks, the 1.7-billion-year-old Vishnu Schist.

6-12 QuickTime Video
The Grand Canyon: How It Formed  

The Grand Canyon: How It Formed
This video segment adapted from NOVA uses animation to present the theory of how the Grand Canyon was formed and features rare footage of a phenomenon known as debris flow.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Gravity and the Expanding Universe  

Gravity and the Expanding Universe
This video segment, adapted from NOVA, traces the evolving history of theories about gravity and a force that may oppose it, along with our understanding of the impact of both of these forces on our expanding universe.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Gravity at Earth's Center  

Gravity at Earth's Center
In this video segment from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about the effects of gravity as astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson falls through a virtual hole through Earth's center.

6-12 QuickTime Video
History of the Universe  

History of the Universe
This interactive timeline from the NOVA Web site recaps the theoretical origin and formation of the universe, and forecasts its eventual fate.

6-12 Shockwave Interactive
How Big Is the Universe?  

How Big Is the Universe?
In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, astronomer Brent Tully of the University of Hawaiʻi walks you through the latest scientific theories about the size of the universe.

6-12 HTML Document
How Do Avalanches Form?  

How Do Avalanches Form?
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, dramatic footage of avalanches and animations of ice crystals illustrate how a layer of weakly-bonded snow can contribute to a devastating avalanche.

6-12 QuickTime Video
How Do Tornadoes Form?  

How Do Tornadoes Form?
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists use computer simulations to explore the question of how supercell thunderstorms produce tornadoes.

6-12 QuickTime Video
How Do You Get to the Moon?  

How Do You Get to the Moon?
This video, adapted from NOVA, showcases the competing engineering plans designed for landing a person on the Moon for the first time.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Island of Stability  

Island of Stability
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, follow scientists in their quest to understand how stable elements are made and how to create the elusive element 114.

9-12 QuickTime Video
Jupiter: Earth's Shield  

Jupiter: Earth's Shield
Jupiter's immense gravity protects Earth from asteroids. In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientists searching for signs of life in the universe identify solar systems with Jupiter-like planets that may be shielding smaller nearby Earth-like planets from comets and asteroids.

6-12 QuickTime Video
The Leaning Tower: Where It Stands Today  

The Leaning Tower: Where It Stands Today
Will the Leaning Tower of Pisa give way to gravity? In this interview from the NOVA Web site, engineer John Burland relates the difficult job of saving the tower.

6-12 HTML Document
Lever an Obelisk  

Lever an Obelisk
Investigate the mechanical advantage of the lever in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.

6-12 Shockwave Interactive
Levers: Raising the Moai on Easter Island  

Levers: Raising the Moai on Easter Island
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, a team of archaeologists and engineers explores different uses of the lever by recreating the engineering feats of the ancient Easter Island peoples.

3-12 QuickTime Video
More on Galileo's Big Mistake  

More on Galileo's Big Mistake
Even great scientists make mistakes! This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site looks at Galileo's theory of the tides, which, while well thought out, was wrong.

6-12 HTML Document
A Nanotube Space Elevator  

A Nanotube Space Elevator
In this video adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, find out about the discovery of a new building material, the carbon nanotube, whose physical properties could theoretically enable the creation of a 22,000-mile elevator to space.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Newton's Third Law: Action-Reaction  

Newton's Third Law: Action-Reaction
In this media-rich activity designed to enhance literacy skills, an early astronaut's experiences teach students that Newton's third law of motion—for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction—applies both on Earth and in outer space.

7-12 Student Activity
Newton's Third Law of Motion: Astronauts in Outer Space  

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.

3-12 QuickTime Video
The Origin of the Elements  

The Origin of the Elements
This video segment adapted from NOVA explains the origin of the elements and how scientists use unique element profiles to identify supernova types.

6-12 QuickTime Video
The Origin of the Moon  

The Origin of the Moon
This video segment adapted from NOVA follows the Apollo 15 astronauts as they collect samples of ancient rock from the Moon's crust, whose discovery helps lead to a radical new theory about the Moon's origin.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Raising an Obelisk: An Engineering Puzzle  

Raising an Obelisk: An Engineering Puzzle
This video segment adapted from NOVA follows two teams as they each test a different engineering design in an effort to explain how ancient Egyptians raised a giant stone obelisk.

3-12 QuickTime Video
Relativity and the Cosmos  

Relativity and the Cosmos
This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site introduces the basic concepts of Einstein's General Theory of Relativity and what we know about cosmology as a result.

6-12 HTML Document
Sagan on Time Travel  

Sagan on Time Travel
Astronomer Carl Sagan discusses the possibility of time travel in this audio-enhanced interview from the NOVAWeb site.

9-12 HTML Document
Smart Bridges  

Smart Bridges
In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, learn about engineering innovations that could help detect a bridge's structural weaknesses before they become dangerous.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Solar Magnetism  

Solar Magnetism
This video segment adapted from NOVA describes how the Sun's magnetism can have an effect here on Earth, from dramatic auroras to a mini-Ice Age in the 1600s.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Sound Waves Underwater: True or False  

Sound Waves Underwater: True or False
This interactive quiz from the NOVA Web site features an array of interesting facts about the nature of sound underwater.

3-12 HTML Interactive
String Theory: A New Picture of Gravity  

String Theory: A New Picture of Gravity
This video segment from NOVA describes the general theory of relativity and the theory of electromagnetism.

6-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: A Sense of Scale  

String Theory: A Sense of Scale
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site puts the infinitesimally small world of string theory into perspective.

6-12 Flash Interactive
String Theory: A Strange New World  

String Theory: A Strange New World
This video segment from NOVA chronicles Einstein's quest to unify the forces of electromagnetism and gravity.

6-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: A Theory of Everything?  

String Theory: A Theory of Everything?
This video segment from NOVA introduces the basic ideas behind string theory and looks at the quest for unification.

9-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: A Theory of Everything Essay  

String Theory: A Theory of Everything Essay
In this essay from the NOVA Web site, string theorist Brian Greene introduces the basic ideas behind string theory and how it might help us better understand the universe.

9-12 HTML Document
String Theory: Elementary Particles  

String Theory: Elementary Particles
This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site looks at the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter.

6-12 Flash Interactive
String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out  

String Theory: Gravity - The Odd Man Out
This video segment from NOVA describes the discovery in the 1930s of two forces in addition to electromagnetism: the strong nuclear force and the weak nuclear force.

9-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: Newton's Embarrassing Secret  

String Theory: Newton's Embarrassing Secret
This video segment from NOVA chronicles Newton's theory of gravity and Einstein's discovery that contradicted it.

6-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: Science or Philosophy?  

String Theory: Science or Philosophy?
This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of proving the scientific validity of string theory, in question because strings may be too small to ever be seen or detected, and therefore tested.

9-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: Strings to the Rescue  

String Theory: Strings to the Rescue
This video segment from NOVA discusses the challenge of unifying the force of gravity and the forces described by quantum mechanics into a single theory of unification.

9-12 QuickTime Video
String Theory: The Quantum Café  

String Theory: The Quantum Café
This video segment from NOVA relates the rise of subatomic physics in the 1920s and the development of the radical theory of quantum mechanics.

9-12 QuickTime Video
The Structure of Metal  

The Structure of Metal
In this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site, animations explain different aspects of the properties of metal.

6-12 Flash Interactive
Tidal Curiosities  

Tidal Curiosities
This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site answers questions about irregularities in the tides.

6-12 HTML Document
To Survive at High Velocity  

To Survive at High Velocity
This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at speed, velocity, and centripetal force on the racetrack.

6-12 QuickTime Video
Trying to Breathe on Mount Everest  

Trying to Breathe on Mount Everest
In this video segment adapted from NOVA, climbers attempting to reach Mount Everest's summit must contend with the low levels of oxygen at high altitudes.

6-12 QuickTime Video
What Is a Planet?  

What Is a Planet?
This video segment, adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, presents the ongoing debate over the definition of a planet, including the status of Pluto.

3-12 QuickTime Video