DL-Momentum

Demo - Two air track gliders colliding.  As an intro to Momentum, I show a small and large air track glider colliding head on with Velcro.  The concept is that if their momentums are equal but opposite before the collision they will stick together and stop dead.  With practice you can get the right velocity for each so that they stop dead.  You can ask - What has to be true about their momentums?

Demo - The Balloons or WAR! - I launch howler balloons.  They are funny.

Demo - What do Rockets Push on?  Students are asked what the change in thrust will be when I place a whiteboard inches behind the exhaust of an airtrack blower attached to a force probe.  Most students think rockets push off the ground, and predict that the thrust will double, or more than double.  I do this with a Vernier force probe, and project a live graph of the force (after showing just how sensitive the force probe is)  Here is a video where I do it with just a force scale:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yvpi-WpgaDo

You have to look at the graph on the screen behind me as well.

Demo - What do Cars Push on - A remote control car is started on a track that can move backwards

Demo - Pendulum Car  A car that just moves back and forth.

Demo - Balloon Powered Air Track Glider - I tape a howler balloon to an air track glider

Demo - Bang Car.  An air track glider propelled by a firecracker.  (Sorry)

Demo - The Small Methanol Cannon.   Recoils when you fire it off

Demo - The XZJ500 Rocket propelled car - We light off a C6-5 engine to propel a car humorously down the sidewalk outside.  It's rarely stable.  I tape firecrackers to it.  I get paid to tape firecrackers to it.

https://youtu.be/ZxAZbXxf8VQ - Explainy video

Demo - Physics Cannon - Determine the speed of a tennis ball launched from a methanol cannon by measuring the mass of the ball, and the mass of the cannon, and the recoil velocity of the cannon.  We time how long it takes to stop, and use basic kinematics to calculate the velocity.   I use the tesla coil on an extension cord, designate two timers.  There is a long black tube that is the ramrod.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR3iVos9B0E

(We light the boxes on fire - which is amusing)

Demo - Match Rockets.  You can make mini rockets out of tinfoil and matches.  Paperclips make great launch platforms.

Demo - Tunnel of Transmogrification.  When two gliders of the same mass collide elastically on an air track, they just exchange velocities.  You can use this to create the illusion that they pass through each other.  I use two small yellow gliders with opposing magnets mounted to them.

Demo - Rubber Bullets (Elastic vs Inelastic collisions) - Have the students predict which rubber ball is better at knocking over a block of wood - the one that bounces off of it, or the one that hits it and stops.  I have two different kinds of rubber balls - happy and not so happy - but they look otherwise identical.

Lab - Conservation of Momentum - Students collide a moving glider with a stationary glider to determine if momentum is conserved.  

Regular Physics does brute force uncertainty:  https://sites.google.com/a/ttsd.k12.or.us/tuhsphysics/home/htp-physics-g/momentum-and-collisions/conservation-of-momentum-lab

IB Physics uses IB Uncertainty calculations:  https://sites.google.com/a/ttsd.k12.or.us/tuhsphysics/home/htp-ib-physics/momentum/ib-conservation-of-momentum-lab

Lab - Vector Momentum - This is a simulation of a lab I did in first year physics using a polaroid camera, a strobe light, and a dissecting microscope with a scale to analyze the multiple exposures of a steel marble hitting a stationary steel marble.  Students use Interactive Physics, screen shot it into Word, and print it.  They then analyze the image for momentum in the x and y direction.

The website is very helpful: https://sites.google.com/a/ttsd.k12.or.us/tuhsphysics/home/htp-ib-physics/momentum/ib-vector-momentum-lab

Lab - stuff