Physics

Properties of Matter

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NOVA

RESOURCE	GRADE LEVEL	MEDIA TYPE
Atmospheric Pressure Did you know that air has weight? This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explores conditions that affect air density and atmospheric pressure.	6-12	Document
Atomic Structure of an Alloy Learn about the atomic structure of bronze, a copper alloy, in this video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements."	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
Body Breakdowns This interactive feature from the NOVA "Surviving Denali" Web site details the variety of ways the body can fail while climbing a high-altitude peak.	6-8	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
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.	6-12	Video
The Dating Game: Radioactive Carbon In this media-rich essay from the NOVA Web site, learn about the atomic structure of radioactive carbon and how it can be used to determine the age of organic remains, such as bones and teeth.	6-12	Document
Developing the Periodic Table This video excerpt from NOVA: "Hunting the Elements" looks at how early chemists developed the periodic table of elements.	6-12	Video
Diamonds: The Science Behind the Sparkle This illustrated essay from the NOVA Web site explains why the atomic structure of a diamond slows down light and produces a sparkle more brilliant than from any other colorless substance.	6-12	Document
Discovering Air Our understanding about the air we breathe has changed dramatically through time. This illustrated timeline from the NOVA Web site tracks the changing thought on air and the creation of the Periodic Table of the Elements.	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 Special Theory of Relativity What happens when you approach the speed of light? This video segment adapted from NOVA follows one of Albert Einstein's thought experiments and his quest to find the answer.	9-12	Video
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
The Elements: Forged in Stars The story of how elements from lithium to uranium are created by stars is illustrated through animation and a hands-on periodic table in this video segment adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Video
Evidence for the Big Bang Theory This video segment adapted from NOVA tells the story of two scientists who inadvertently discovered microwave radiation that is now believed to be heat left over from the Big Bang.	9-12	Video
Finding Cures Is Hard This video segment from NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" explains the difficulty of curing genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis.	9-12	Video
Fireworks! Lifting Charge In this video segment adapted from NOVA, learn how pyrotechnicians use common compounds to blast fireworks into the sky and give them shape.	6-12	Video
Fireworks! Making Color What gives a fireworks display its brilliant blue, green, and red colors? Learn how pyrotechnicians give fireworks color in this video segment adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Video
Floating and Sinking: Hot Air Balloons Why do hot air balloons float? This resource from the NOVA Web site offers a series of interactive activities that illustrates the physics of hot air balloons.	6-12	Interactive
Franklin Chang-Díaz: Rocket Scientist This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW profiles Franklin Chang-Díaz, a scientist who is working on plasma-powered rockets and was NASA's first Latin American astronaut.	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
Frozen Frogs This video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW shows how the common wood frog freezes solid every winter, an adaptation that allows the organism to survive the cold winter.	6-12	Video
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 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
The Grand Canyon: Its Youngest Rocks This video segment adapted from NOVA features the youngest rock formations in the Grand Canyon, lava dams, and how they are subject to the eroding power of water.	6-12	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
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
Ingredients for Life: Carbon This video segment adapted from NOVA illustrates why carbon is at the center of life on Earth. It also asks whether carbon-based life might exist on other planets.	6-12	Video
Ingredients for Life: Water This video segment adapted from NOVA goes on a whimsical journey in search of life forms thriving in extreme conditions on Earth and in outer space. Animations show ice on Jupiter's moon, Europa, and signs that water once existed on Mars.	3-12	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
Journey into DNA Travel deep into the human body to see exactly where your DNA resides. From the NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life" Web site.	6-12	Interactive
Lava Sampling on Kilauea Volcano, Hawaiʻi In this video segment adapted from NOVA, scientist Mike Garcia draws lava samples at the foot of the active Kilauea volcano to see if it is related to its neighboring volcano, Mauna Loa.	6-12	Video
The Light Stuff This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site asks which items in your home can slow down the speed of light.	6-12	Interactive
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
Next-Generation Space Suits In this video segment adapted from NOVA scienceNOW, MIT engineer Dava Newman is working to replace today's bulky, inflated space suits with a radical, sleek design that may one day allow astronauts to walk easily on Mars.	9-12	Video
On Fire Learn about the chemical reactions that take place when things burn in this interactive activity from the NOVA Web site.	6-12	Interactive
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
Pyrotechnics: It's Elemental In this interactive periodic table from the NOVA Web site, find out the role of various elements in making fireworks.	6-12	Interactive
Quarks: Inside the Atom This video segment adapted from NOVA shows how the particle accelerator helped physicists find parts of the atom even smaller than protons and neutrons.	6-12	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
Ringed-Carbon Compounds In this interactive activity adapted from NOVA, learn about alkaloids and steroids, both examples of compounds with carbon rings. Short videos with interviews, animations, and photographs are featured.	9-12	Interactive
Sequence for Yourself How do researchers read the tiny As, Gs, Ts, and Cs that comprise DNA? This step-by-step explanation shows you. From NOVA: "Cracking the Code of Life."	9-12	Interactive
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
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
Sources of Radiation This interactive activity from the NOVA Web site explores sources of radiation, both harmful and beneficial, natural and manmade.	6-12	Interactive
Steam Machine Explore NOVA Online's interactive steam engine and discover how this machine can convert heat to mechanical energy.	3-12	Interactive
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: 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
Surviving Winter In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the varied physical and behavioral adaptations that animals rely on to help them survive changing environmental conditions, such as the arrival of winter.	5-12	Self-paced Lesson
Tangled Up in Teleportation This video excerpt from NOVA’s "The Fabric of the Cosmos: Quantum Leap" illustrates how quantum entanglement could be used to teleport people from one place to another, and discusses what you would need to make teleportation possible.	9-12	Video
Tour the Electromagnetic Spectrum Take NOVA's interactive tour of the electromagnetic spectrum and find out why your eyes are like antennae for a narrow band of electromagnetic radiation.	6-12	Interactive
What's This Stuff? Learn about the physical, chemical, and mechanical properties of ten mystery materials in this interactive activity adapted from NOVA.	6-12	Interactive
Your Carbon Diet Find out how much energy you use and some ways to conserve in this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site.	3-12	Interactive
Your Carbon Diet In this interactive activity from the NOVA/FRONTLINE Web site, you can click on various items in a typical New England house to find out how much energy each uses and some ways to reduce energy consumption in your home.	6-12	Interactive