Physical Science: Final Day of Testing

Students wrapped up testing their designs and started to work on a sales pitch to convince the project’s (imaginary) customer that their design should be scaled up into the real thing. One group’s duct tape came loose, which meant the cup holding their egg fell off in most of the collisions. I was very pleased when they suggested that might reduce the force the egg experienced and managed to use Newton’s 2nd Law to explain why that would be.

Testing a t-bone collision

Physics: Spring Force Lab

Students collected data to find a relationship between the force a spring exerts and how much it is stretched. I had the spring scales still out from another lab, and many students used them as a handy hook to hang their springs from. Several students commented that the reading on the spring scale consistently matched the force exerted on the bottom of the spring. I’m looking forward to revisiting that when we get to Newton’s 3rd Law later this week.