Physicists and Primary Schools Project
Forces and Gravity: Apparatus
Demonstration 1
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List of suggestions of objects for them to try in order to experience forces:
Pushes and pulls
- large springs- those from a chest-expander or similar are good,
- a toy with a string to pull it,
- toy car
- Plasticine or similar.
Some examples of turning forces could be included: eg hand food whisk.
Airzooker- source Hawkin’s bazaar
Forcemeters (remember to order these from the school before your visit)
-Objects with the weight of about 1 newton OR some 1 N weights
(The weights are usually available in primary schools but should be requested before the day of the class visit.)
-an apple
- forcemeters – the range of forcemeters should be sufficient to measure the weights of the masses hidden in the ‘mystery box’ eg 0 to 5 newtons. A closed cardboard box with hidden weights of varying sizes eg masses of 50 g, 100 g, & 500 g, hanging inside on pieces of string which can be pulled. Curtain rings on the outside ends of the strings will help. The children estimate the forces and the results are displayed in a table. Then the children pull each string using a forcemeter (newtonmeter) to measure the size of the forces. | "Mystery Box" |
Ping pong balls - brightly coloured ones are available that are fun and can be identified easily for collection.
Straws – these must be wide in cross section for the children to be able to suck hard enough to hold a ball.
Test before the day! One straw per child is needed so they do not pass the straws around.
Phone book and ping pong ball or small light object.
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