UNIT 5: PHYSICS IN ACTION

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS- What is inertia, acceleration, and gravity?

- What are Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion and how can they be applied to everyday principles?

- How does a person’s center of mass effect their balance and performance?

- What is vertical accelerated motion and how can this be applied to athletic jumping?

- How does the surface effect the force due to friction, and how does this affect an athlete’s performance?

- What is momentum and how is it conserved?

CHAPTER CHALLENGE – DUE JANUARY 30- You will need to find a 2-3 minute sports clip (can be

recorded from TV or downloaded from the internet) of a sport that you enjoy watching/participating in

- You may work individually or with a group (max. 3 people)

- You will explain the physics principles behind the sport clip by either:

- Submitting a written script- Performing a live narrative- Dubbing onto the video soundtrack- Recording on file

DAY 1: A RUNNING START

Learning Objectives:

- Understand and apply Galileo’s Principle of Inertia

- Understand and apply Newton’s First Law of Motion

- Recognize inertial mass as a physical property of matter

STARTER

Watch the following videos and answer the questions:

- What determines the amount of horizontal distance a basketball player travels while “hanging” to do a slam dunk during a fast break?

- How do figure skaters keep moving across the ice at a high speed for long periods of time while seldom pumping their skates?

Time: 15 minutes

ACTIVITY 1

Newton’s First Law of Motion

- Place some water in a plastic beaker.

- Place a piece of paper under the beaker.

- Try to remove the paper without spilling any water

- Try this again using a different amount of water. Any change?

- Create a definition for Newton’s first law of motion based on what you observed

- Time: 20 minutes

ACTIVITY 2- Make a target on a piece of paper

- You are going to try to hit the target with a tennis ball as you run past it

- Make any changes to your definition for Newton’s first law of motion based on what you observed

- Time: 20 minutes

ACTIVITY 3- Complete steps 1-4 on pages 5 & 6

- Record your data in a table you create

- Time: 25 minutes

CLOSING & HOMEWORK- What does Newton’s First Law of Motion state?

- Why is a ball’s return height not a mirror image when you roll it down a ramp?

- For you to read/Physics talk, page 8-12

- Physics to go, pg. 13 # 1, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9

DAY 2: ADDING VECTORSLearning Objectives:

- Recognize that a force is a push or pull

- Identify the forces acting on an object

- Determine when the forces on an object are either balanced or unbalanced

- Calibrate a force meter in arbitrary units

- Use a force meter to apply measured amounts of force to objects

- Compare amounts of acceleration semi-quantitatively

- Understand and apply Newton’s Second Law of Motion

- Understand and apply the definition of the newton as a unit of force

- Understand weight as a spatial application of Newton’s Second Law

STARTER- What is a force?

- What is Newton’s Second Law of Motion?

- If you apply the same amount of force to the shot put and the tennis ball,

- Will they move the same distance?- Will one ball move farther than the other?- Why?

- Time: 15 minutes

ACTIVITY 1

Choose 4 various masses and record their weight in newtons. Check that the mass is correct by taking the mass on the electronic scale.

How will acceleration be calculated?

What do you notice about the acceleration of each mass? What does this number represent?

Time: 25 minutes

Mass (kg) Force (N) Acceleration (m/s2)

ACTIVITY 2- Take a coffee mug and find its mass

- Slide the coffee mug across the table at a slow, constant speed. Record the force used to pull the mug.

- Repeat, this time sliding the mug at a faster rate. Record the force used to pull the mug.

- Calculate the acceleration in both cases. What conclusion can you make?

- Time: 15 minutes

F = maa = F/m

ACTIVITY 3We will go to the computer lab to go through 2 activities:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/ks3/science/energy_electricity_forces/

- Go to “Forces” and do the “revise”, “activity”, and “test”

http://learner3.learner.org/interactives/parkphysics/bumpercars /

- Work through the bumper car problems

- Time: 30 minutes

CLOSING & HOMEWORK- Read physics talk/for you to read, Pg. 18-22

- Physics to go, Pg. #1, 2, 5, 9

- Choose any 3 calculation questions from #3, 4, 11-18

DAY 3: CENTER OF MASS

DAY 4: DEFY GRAVITY (60 MINS)

DAY 5: RUN AND JUMP

DAY 6: THE MU OF THE SHOE

DAY 7: CONCENTRATING ON COLLISIONS

DAY 8: SUMMATIVE ASSESSMENT (60 MINS)

Presentation of Commentary on Sporting Event