Physics

Gravity and Forces

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NOVA

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Video
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	Document
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	Audio
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Document
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	Interactive
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	Interactive
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	Interactive
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	Interactive
Construct an Aqueduct Think like an engineer and build an aqueduct in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.	3-12	Interactive
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	Video
Demolition Woman Find out how controlled explosions are used to demolish multi-story buildings in this interview from the NOVA Web site.	6-12	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Document
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	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
Free-Falling and "Weightlessness" Discover the difference between free-falling and weightlessness in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.	6-12	Interactive
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	Interactive
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	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Document
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Document
Lever an Obelisk Investigate the mechanical advantage of the lever in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.	6-12	Interactive
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	Video
Lift and Drag In this interactive activity from NOVA, learn about the aerodynamic forces of lift and drag and how critical they are to the operation of all sorts of devices.	6-12	Interactive
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	Document
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	Video
Newton's Third Law: Action–Reaction In this lesson 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	Self-paced Lesson
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
Physics of Arches In this interactive activity from NOVA, try your hand at constructing a stone arch and learn about the physics that affect the arch.	7-12	Interactive
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	Video
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	Document
Sagan on Time Travel Astronomer Carl Sagan discusses the possibility of time travel in this audio-enhanced interview from the NOVAWeb site.	9-12	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Interactive
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	Video
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	Video
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	Document
String Theory: Elementary Particles This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site looks at the fundamental forces and particles that make up all matter.	6-12	Document
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
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	Video
The Structure of Metal In this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site, animations explain different aspects of the properties of metal.	6-12	Interactive
Tidal Curiosities This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site answers questions about irregularities in the tides.	6-12	Document
To Survive at High Velocity This video segment adapted from NOVA looks at speed, velocity, and centripetal force on the racetrack.	6-12	Video
Traveling Through Time This video excerpt from NOVA’s "The Fabric of the Cosmos: The Illusion of Time" explains gravity’s pull on time, and how time travel may be possible in the future. However, this kind of time travel might not be exactly like Hollywood’s depiction.	9-12	Video
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	Video
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	Video