Target Audience:
Students
Grade Level:
5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12
Event Focus :
If someone pushed a cannonball, a golf ball, a marble, and you off a tall tower at the same instant, would you hit the ground first?
Description:
Students are taught Galileo's law of falling objects; that all objects fall at the same rate in a vacuum. This is difficult to demonstrate in class because vacuums are hard to produce. Students will be shown how Galileo was able to carry out a study of falling objects in air and come to a correct conclusion.
The event includes a movie clip from Apollo 15, in which the experiment is demonstrated on the Moon. Earth-bound experiments (including the hypothetical cannonball drop from the Tower of Pisa) must deal with air resistance. The event demonstrates real world applications of math and physics principles as applied to falling objects. It also shows by demonstration the collection of data, and the manipulation of data how velocity, acceleration, and gravitation are related.
Instructional Objectives:
- 80% of students will demonstrate an understanding that all objects fall at the same rate in a vacuum.
- 70% of students will demonstrate an understanding of terminal velocity and the effects of aerodynamic drag.
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| Sequence of Events |
Pre-Conference Activities: |
Grades 5-8: Free Falling, Texas Space Grant Consortium
Grades 9-12:The Way Things Fall, NASA Goddard. High school students may want to become familiar with the Beginner's Guide to Aerodynamics and the specific group of web pages related to falling objects as described in the Aerodynamic Index. Begin with Newton's First Law and follow the "Falling Objects" guided tour at the bottom of the page.
Vocabulary
Acceleration: the rate of increase in velocity over time. As an object falls in a vacuum it undergoes acceleration, going faster and faster.
Gravity: the force of attraction between all masses in the universe; especially the attraction of the earth's mass for bodies near its surface. When an object is dropped, the force of gravity causes it to be attracted to the earth.
Rate: a quantity measured with respect to another measured quantity: a rate of speed of 60 miles an hour. The rate at which something falls is the distance fallen in a given time.
Terminal Velocity: the maximum velocity a falling object can reach when falling in air. Terminal velocity is reached when air resistance equals the downward pull of gravity.
Velocity: the change of distance in a given time. Velocity changes as a object falls.
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Videoconference Activities: |
| The presenter will begin with a brief history of Galileo and his scientific inquiries. He will discuss his observations with a telescope, his difficulties with the Inquisition, and his study of the pendulum.
The event includes interaction with NASA scientist, Tom Benson. |
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Post-Conference Activities: |
| Falling Objects, Learner.org |
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| Standards |
NSTA Science Content Standards: 5-8 PHYSICAL SCIENCE CONTENT STANDARD B: MOTIONS AND FORCES
An object that is not being subjected to a force will continue to move at a constant speed and in a straight line. If more than one force acts on an object along a straight line, then the forces will reinforce or cancel one another, depending on their direction and magnitude. Unbalanced forces will cause changes in the speed or direction of an object's motion. Galileo studied forces on falling bodies and pendulums.
NCTM Number and Operations Standards: 6-8 Compute fluently and make reasonable estimates: develop, analyze, and explain methods for solving problems involving proportions, such as scaling and finding equivalent ratio.
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