Force and Motion Newton's Laws

Fifth grade has been learning a lot about forces and motion. We have been discussing Newton’s three laws, as well. Today our lab involved experimenting with four different activities that demonstrated Newton’s Laws of motion and helped students make hands on connections. We started our lab by reviewing some information: We sense motion by seeing that an object’s position has changed! All motion is caused by some kind of force. You use force every time you do something. You use force whenever you push, pull, or lift something. An object that gives some of its energy to another object is using force. You can’t see forces…you can see the motion that happens when a force acts on an object, though. Forces and motions differ and change depending on the mass of an object and also if forces are balanced or unbalanced. Some kinds of forces stop motion: Friction stops motion – causing the object to slow down. Magnetism and gravity are forces that push and pull. After reviewing and discussing… we talked about our main focus for today: Sir Isaac Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion!

1. Newton’s first law of motion, also called the law on Inertia, states that an object at rest will stay at rest, forever, as long as nothing pushes or pulls on it. An object in motion will stay in motion, traveling in a straight line, forever, until something pushes or pulls on it.

2. Newton’s second law of motion states that the greater the mass of an object, the greater the force required to change its motion…acceleration is produced when a force acts on an object with a certain mass…the more the mass of an object, the greater is the force required to move it (force = mass x acceleration)

3. Newton’s third law of motion states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.

Finally, the real fun began when we were able to test and experiment with some activities that practice Newton’s 3 laws of motion. The activities involved the following:

1. Balloon racer experiment– newton’s 3^rd law of motion

2. Ball Bounce experiment – newton’s 1^st law of motion

3. Penny on a card experiment – Newton’s 1^st law of motion

4. Popping Canisters experiment – Newton’s 3^rd law of motion

It was very exciting to see some of Newton’s Laws of Motion in action!