Phycics Class Suggestion?

[JJ_BPK]

My cousin teaches at a local school and ask if I could suggest something special to get her 3rd & 4th graders interested in the sciences.

I thought maybe some of you could help?

My suggestion for a physics class project.

Q: How does the horizontal twist rate of the angular rotation affect the probability of a three(3) bounce sinker??

Q: Discuss the dynamics of interpersonal relations based on piezo-pneumatic muscular response, using of white vs blue pong balls??

Snacks to follow...

Comments??

[CSB]

Here's one of my favorites:

Grab a meter stick (schools are using a meter stick where they used to use a yard stick).

Anchor the meter stick in a corner of the blackboard (or whiteboard) and use it to swing an arc
from the top of the board to the bottom of the board, drawing the arc with a (piece of chalk/dry erase marker).

Now label the pie shaped section "Planet Earth."

Tell the students that this is a cross section of the planet Earth. The base where
the meter stick was anchored is the center of the Earth, and the arc you drew is
the surface of the Earth.

Now hand a student the chalk/marker and say "Step up here, and draw the
tallest mountain on planet Earth" (extra credit if they say "Mount Everest").
Draw it to the scale of the Earth that's I've drawn in cross section."

The student will probably draw a big hump above the surface, looking like "A" below.

Then hand the marker to another student. "I want you to draw a gouge for the
deepest valley in the Earth's surface. You can draw a deep valley on land, or the
deepest underwater trench known to man. (Extra credit if they say "The Mariana Trench?").
The child will probably draw something like "B".

Then ask: "Someone put an "X" at the highest place above the Earth where you
can still breathe air and live."

Then: "Put a symbol or mark where the Space Station orbits. Remember, keep it
as close as you can to scale -- in proportion -- to the Earth I've drawn."

If you want, add "Put a mark -- to scale -- at the location of the Hubble Space telescope,
that is also the highest orbit the Space Shuttle ever flew."

You might even ask: "Draw where the Moon would be if the Earth were this size."

Have them discuss the various locations.

NOW THE TEACHING POINT:

A meter is 39.37 inches long. That is almost exactly a scale of 1 inch = 100 miles,
because the Earth has a radius of 3,959 miles. So every inch on the blackboard
represents one hundred miles.

The tallest mountain on earth is Mount Everest, at 5 1/2 miles. To draw Mount
Everest on the blackboard arc, make a tiny bump 1/20th of an inch tall.

The deepest valley in the Earth is the Mariana Trench, at 6.8 miles below sea
level. Draw a tiny "v shape" of about 1/16th of an inch deep.

The other distances?

Maximum altitude to survive without supplemental oxygen? About the same as
Mount Everest, a tiny point about 1/20th of an inch (5 miles) above the surface
of the Earth.

The Space Station? All of 2 inches (200 miles) above the Earth.

The Hubble Telescope (highest Space Shuttle flight)? 400 miles, or 4 inches
above your scale Earth.

And the Moon?
199 feet away, probably out on the playground or parking lot.

The Sun? Over 14 miles away.

It really helps get an feeling of how nearly round the Earth is, and how far
distances in space are.

[Hand]

3 and 4th grade physics!? Jeez kids are getting smart.

The water ram thread has me thinking about moving water. How about something like:

Given a pulley mounted 10 feet off of the ground is threaded with 3/4" rope. One end is loose and the other is attached to a 5 gallon bucket full of water. How much force would need to be applied to the free end of the rope to move the bucket of water to a height of 8 feet?

I'll be doing an experiment this evening after work. I'm going to see if a 5 gallon bucket of water at a height of 4 feet will generate enough pressure to keep about 30 feet of 1/4" hose charged sufficiently to keep about 15 1/2 GPH drip nozzles dripping.

[JJ_BPK]

I guess I need more smiley faces.

Look at the picture closely, or the fora name..

[PedOncoDoc]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

I guess I need more smiley faces.

Look at the picture closely, or the fora name..

We didn't start playing beer pong until 6th grade...

[JJ_BPK]

Originally Posted by PedOncoDoc

We didn't start playing beer pong until 6th grade...

BINGO..

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by JJ_BPK

BINGO..

7th grade ....

[MR2]

Your funny turned into a toe popper. Should have held fire to see how many more would blunder in.

CSB, that was as fascinating bit of beer pong I've seen in a long time.

[longrange1947]

OK, this may be a bit too easy for them but,

compute Coriolis effect on a round fired due north from the equator with a range of 20 km and height of 2000 yards, TOf of 5.62 seconds, but add the Magnus effect of a 25 mph wind at 90 degrees left to right, as well as Poisson effect.

I know that is a bit easy, but hey they are only 3d and 4th graders.

[frostfire]

phew, for a second I thought spin drift won't be negligible and has to be taken into consideration....

Thanks for the headache, master Rick