Week 3

In lab this week we continued to investigate factors that could determine a child's speed going down a slide. My group chose to investigate whether weight played a role in speed. By dropping the same size balls, each varying in weight or material, we were able to determine that yes weight does matter. The heavier the ball the quicker it went down the slide. Here is a picture of the data we captured! 

Chapter 9, The Force Lens on Motion, of our press book, discusses Newton's Three Laws of Motion. While reading this chapter, I began recalling much information I learned in high school. The first of the three laws is the Law of Inertia. This describes how an object will remain at rest or in motion until another force acts upon it. The second law is the Law of Acceleration This law describes the idea that the force of an object is equal to its mass times its acceleration. The third is the law of Law of Interaction. This describes the notion that for every action there is an equal or opposite reaction. I thought it was very helpful to relearn this information. I think the press book made it much more simple and dulled down than I remember it being when I first learned about Newton's Laws. There were a lot of examples mentioned, which was very helpful. 

In Thursday's lecture, we continued to look at playground slides and what each group discovered during their investigations. We learned that steepness does majorly affect the speed of a rider going down the slide. The steeper the slide, the faster the rider will go. As we continued we discussed force as a push or pull motion that causes objects to accelerate, slow down, or come to a complete stop. Lastly, we began discussing friction, specifically in our slide lesson, the material of the rider's clothing. Friction is a force that opposes the ability to slide on a surface.