Mechanics

Looking for a new twist on the traditional Newton's Second Law experiment? Or, want to challenge your students to determine that friction can not be the cause for all of the error that they encounter in their experiments? On this page I have included many of the inquiry experiments that I have used in my mechanics unit...from kinematics to momentum. You are going to find that many of the experiments use toys as the tool to be experimented with...makes the labs more interesting and introduces a lot of variability, as well. Hot Wheels cars and Nerf guns do not work the same way every time...introduces quite a few experimental variations that need to be considered by your students.

AP_Kinematics Inquiry Experiment My AP students have been doing inquiry physics for a year now, so I start the school year off with a simple inquiry challenge: determine the acceleration due to gravity in as many ways possible. I do not put any restrictions on them and they can use any physics concept that they can dream up. Of course, most of them stick to free fall and projectile motion, but there have some very interesting procedures designed over the years.

AP_Projectile Motion Experiment This is my spin off of the traditional "Ball in Cup" lab. The students have to calibrate their launch ramp and create a graph before receiving their target and target location. My target typically is a paper towel tube that the golf ball barely fits in...still my students hit the target pretty quickly. The extension requires them to experiment with the influence of air resistance on the fall of their golf ball. My hope is that they will learn that air resistance is negligible...sometimes this is the exact opposite of what they learn...the joys of inquiry!

AP_Friction Inquiry Experiment I do not know about your students, but my students blame friction as a source for everything! Of course, we use PASCO and Vernier tracks and cars, so I am not sure they understand that they are designed for the frictional effects to be negligible. So, I created this experiment to "subtly" get the point across that the resistance experienced between a rolling car and track is pretty much non-existent.

AP_Momentum Inquiry Experiment One more mechanics based inquiry experiment for my AP students. This one is, in my opinion, a true inquiry exercise...I do not give them any guidance at all and expect them to start from scratch. I tell them that they can use anything in the room or bring materials in from home. I will not allow them to do a simple collision or explosion experiment with the tracks and carts...they must come up with their own ideas and the more original the better. A lot of variations on the ballistic pendulum will be the norm...but, it is better than just crashing cars together.

Motion Inquiry Experiment And they're off! This is the first inquiry lab my students are presented with at the start of the school year. Essentially, describe the motion of a Shake n Go car using whatever means they choose. Do not have the budget for a Shake n Go car...any car that can be set on the ground and will speed up and eventually slow down within a reasonable distance will work well. My students learn very quickly that there is more to the experiment than the motion, there are so many other factors that they can explore, as well. It is also an expectation of mine that they will go beyond the stated purpose of the experiment and explore on their own.

Projectile Motion Experiment I have done this experiment with stomp rockets and with Nerf guns. It is a tough one for the students to get "right", since both launchers do not work consistently. Of course, you could do a similar experiment with a manufactured launcher, but where is the fun in that???

Newton's Laws Inquiry Experiment For many years I challenged my students with creating a parachute that would take the longest time to reach the ground. This was great when I worked in a school that had a "drop zone" in the building. When I moved schools and only had the football bleachers to perform the experiment, I decided to make the experiment a little more meaningful. This experiment requires the students to determine the terminal velocity of their parachute and compare it to their peers. The use of video analysis is required and hope for a non-windy day or getting the video is very challenging.

Coefficient of Friction Inquiry Experiment I call this one the "mu of a shoe" lab...the challenge simply asks the students to determine the coefficient of friction between their shoes (or socks) and the floor (or ramp). The opportunity to extend the experiment should come naturally by now...

Energy Inquiry Experiment What can be more fun than Hot Wheels? Again, this is another difficult to make "work" investigation for the students and I now make it a lot less inquiry and little bit more direction based. But, the creative engineering that the students come up with to make the experiment work are worth it...the best is when they get to the loop and rig up all sorts of ideas to get the photogate and track to all work to collect their data.

Mechanics Inquiry Experiment At the end of the semester students are required to take a semester exam to demonstrate their understanding of the past semester's worth of physics content. I created this one to test how much the students learned in the lab setting as well. This is quite a challenging experiment and I recommend providing your students with quite a bit of class time to complete it.