SCIENCE NOTES

Newton’s First Law

Introduction
Ever seen the Captain Underpants movie? Remember the montage at the beginning of
all the pranks Harold and George have played at their elementary school? In the teacher
chair prank, Harold and George have rigged a chair to push whoever sits down high into
the air. When the chair skyrockets the teacher out of the chair, there’s a large spring
pushing the teacher up into the air. This spring is using a force to push the teacher into
the air. If you have access to YouTube you can watch a short clip of the movie here.

Force
What’s a force? Don’t get confused with Star Wars “May the force be with you.” In
physics a force is a push or pull in a particular direction. A force is needed to make a
stationary object start moving; for example, a SpaceX rocket sitting on the launchpad
can’t blast off without a force pushing it into space. In the case of the rocket, a chemical
reaction provides a large force pointed from the ground upwards into space.

Contact Forces
Throwing a ball is an example of you applying a push force to the ball. Let’s look in detail
at this example to get a better sense of what a force actually is. You pick up a ball, raise
it above and behind your head. Then you muster all your strength and push the ball
forward using your hand. You’re applying a force to the ball. There are different amounts
of force you can apply to the ball; for instance, a toddler throwing a ball will apply a
much smaller force than Clayton Kershaw, the pitcher for the LA Dodgers.
 Here’s a really important note. This is something that most students (and many adults!)
don't understand physical forces. Let’s use an example of kicking a ball in a straight line
across the ground. When you kick the ball, how long does the force last? After the ball
leaves contact with your foot, is your foot still pushing on the ball? The force only lasts
as long as your foot is in contact with the ball, touching the ball. Once your foot is no
longer touching the ball, you stop
applying a force to the ball. Once
the ball travels away from your foot,
it will continue moving in a straight
line at constant speed unless acted
upon by a net force. A net force is
the sum of all forces present.

Inertia
A moving object will only slow down,
speed up, or change direction if an
outside force pushes or pulls it. This
property is called inertia. The best way
to describe inertia is that an object in
motion will continue moving in a straight line at constant speed unless acted upon by a net
force. A net force is the sum of all forces present.

Isaac Newton
The property of inertia is also known as Newton’s First Law. What does that mean? Sir
Isaac Newton was an English scientist who lived in the early 1700s and was the first to
explain the relationship between forces and motion. If you’ve ever heard of Newton
you’ve probably heard the cliched story of Newton sitting under a tree thinking about the
force of gravity and having a revelation when an apple falls on his head. While this story
is unlikely to be true, as a scientist Newton might have asked, “If an apple falls to the
ground, why doesn’t the Moon fall to the ground?” The answer is because the moon is
moving. If you could reach out, stop the Moon in its orbit and then let go, the Moon
would fall to the surface of the Earth. Boom!

Newton’s Three Laws

Newton developed three laws describing the relationship between forces and motion in
the early 1700s. These three laws are the fundamental building blocks to the study of
the physics of motion. In this course you will develop a basic understanding of these
three laws, and build a foundation to apply these ideas to more advanced topics in high
school. Can you think of an example from your everyday life of inertia and Newton’s first
law? This may seem tricky. Think back to the example we mentioned earlier of pushing
your chair into the table after eating a meal. You apply a force, push the chair, and then
let go of the chair. What happens next? The chair will slowly come to a stop or crash
into the table. Wait, what? Why does the chair slowly come to a stop? That doesn’t
sound like Newton’s First Law—what’s going on? Isn’t the chair supposed to continue
moving in a straight line at a constant speed unless acted upon by a net force?

Friction
Ever heard of friction? Friction is a sticking force between two surfaces; the strength of
the friction force depends on what materials the surfaces are made of and how hard
they are pressed together. How fast the chair comes to a stop depends on how hard you
pushed it, what the floor is made of, and how heavy the chair is. If your floor is on thick
carpet the chair will stop almost immediately because the friction force is so high; if
your floor is an ice rink, the chair will continue moving across the ice for a while because
the friction force is much lower. In the case of the chair being pushed across the floor,
Newton’s first law still applies—it’s just that the chair is being acted upon by a net
friction force, which is why the chair slowly comes to a stop.

Net Force
When you push a chair across the floor, the force of friction between the floor and the
chair legs causes the chair to slowly come to a stop. The important thing here is to
realize that the forces point in different directions. The force you apply to push the chair
points in the direction you want the chair to go. But the friction force points in the
opposite direction. This is where the concept of net force becomes really important. We
said above that the net force is the sum of all forces acting on an object. In the case of
our chair, we’re applying a force to push it across the floor and the friction force
between

The chair legs and the floor are pushing in the opposite direction (and back towards us
in this case). Check out the diagram below.

NASA’s New Horizons

Let’s look at a real-world example of Newton’s First Law and the idea that an object in
motion will continue moving in a straight line at constant speed unless acted upon by a
net force. In 2006 NASA launched the New Horizons spacecraft with the mission to
explore and photograph the mysterious dwarf planet Pluto. The New Horizons
spacecraft spent almost a decade flying towards the edge of our solar system before
reaching Pluto. The spacecraft was launched from Earth using an upwards-directed
force provided by a chemical reaction inside a rocket. Once the rocket cleared the
Earth’s atmosphere, it fell away from the New Horizons spacecraft, which then began its
long journey out of the solar system. Once it’s in space, there are very few forces acting
on the spacecraft. Far out in the solar system away from any planets, the net force is
essentially zero. Can you think of any forces that can act on the New Horizons
spacecraft? If NASA remotely turns on the rockets/thrusters to change the direction or
speed, that’s a force acting on the spacecraft. Otherwise, there aren’t any other forces
acting on the New Horizons spacecraft and it will continue moving in a straight line at
constant speed unless acted upon by a net force. You can find more information about
the New Horizons spacecraft and its mission to Pluto here.

Lesson 1-2: Newton’s Second Law

Applying a Force Changes an Object’s Motion
In the last lesson we discussed Newton’s First Law and the idea that an object in motion
will continue moving in a straight line at constant speed unless acted upon by a net
force. If an object is moving, the object will continue moving in a straight line at a
constant speed unless you apply a force to change that motion. How do we describe
what happens when we apply a force to the object? The applied force will change the
motion of the object, and the amount of change will depend on the ratio of the applied
force to the mass of the object.

Wait, what?

If you apply a force to an object, the force will change the motion of the object. If you
push your chair to the table after a meal, you cause the chair to move. What happens to
the object depends on two things: 1) how strong the force was and 2) the mass of the
object. In the case of the chair example, how fast the chair moves depends on how hard
you push the chair and how heavy the chair is. Applying a force to a mass results in an
acceleration.

Acceleration
Let’s take a while and discuss what acceleration is. It’s a very difficult concept, actually,
and it does not match the everyday English usage of the word acceleration. In everyday
usage, the word means to speed up. Decelerate means to slow down. In physics we use
the word acceleration to describe a CHANGE in motion. It can be the change from not
moving to moving. The change from moving to not moving. The change from moving
fast to moving slowly, or from moving slowly to moving fast. The change from moving
in a straight line to moving in a circle. Any change in speed or direction counts as
acceleration.

When you push on the chair and cause it to move, the effect of the force causes the
chair to accelerate. The chair is moving, but it’s also changing its speed as it moves. The
longer you push on the chair and/or the harder you push on the chair, the more the
speed will change. This is a description of Newton’s Second Law and it’s useful to write
this description using a mathematical equation. The change in motion of the object (a
for acceleration) is equal to the ratio of the applied force (F for force) to the mass of the
object (m for mass):

a = F/m

You may be familiar with the term acceleration from your everyday life, but remember
the usage in physics is a little different. For instance, you often hear about how fast
sports cars can accelerate. The Tesla Model S P100D with Ludicrous mode can
accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 2.5 seconds. That means the speed changes from 0
mph to 60 mph in only 2.5 seconds. That’s a very fast change, and so it takes a lot of
force! In this short video clip, you can see someone’s cell phone get pinned to the back
seat of the Tesla during this acceleration. Click here to watch the video.

Newton’s Second Law

Let’s spend some more time talking about Newton’s Second Law in the case of applying
a force by pushing on the chair. We said that applying a force to a chair will change the
motion of the chair—causing it to accelerate and move. The resulting acceleration
depends not only on how strong the force is, but how heavy the mass/chair is. We
describe this using the equation .
What happens to the acceleration of the chair if you push with more force? The
acceleration increases. F goes up; a goes up.

What happens to the acceleration of the chair if you push on a heavier chair with the
same amount of force? The acceleration decreases. Mass goes up, so goes down.

Stop—red light. Does this make sense to you? Do not go any further until this makes
sense to you. In the equation for Newton’s Second Law, F is on the top of the
equation/ratio, and m is on the bottom. Think back to your math classes about
fractions. What happens to a fraction when the numerator (quantity on the top of the
fraction) increases? The value of the fraction increases. For example if you start with
2/4, then 2/4 = 0.5. If you increase the numerator to ¾, then 3/4 = 0.75. What happens to
a fraction when the denominator (quantity on the bottom of the fraction) increases? The
value of the fraction actually decreases. For example, if you start with 2/4, 2/4 = 0.5. If
you decrease the denominator to 2/5: 2/5 = 0.4.

Pushing a Chair Across the Floor

Let’s go back to and the example of pushing a chair and talking about it in a
different way. If you want to accelerate the chair, you have to apply a force to the chair.
Pushing a Chair - How to Increase the Acceleration

If you want to increase the acceleration on the chair, you have to do one or both of the
following: increase the amount of force applied to the chair (push harder), or decrease
the mass of the chair. Maybe you remove your little sister from the top of the chair to
decrease the mass and try pushing again.

Pushing a Chair - Friction

Remember the friction force from the last lesson? Is there friction involved when you try
to push your chair across the floor? The answer is most definitely yes! Remember
talking about how the type of floor you push the chair across will make a big difference?
For example, if you push a chair across thick carpet you’re going to have to push really
hard or the chair won’t move at all. If you push a chair across an ice skating rink, one
solid push can send the chair accelerating across the entire rink. What’s the difference
between the carpet and ice? Friction! The important thing to remember about friction
right now is that if you want the chair to move at all, you have to apply enough force to
overcome the force of friction. In more technical terms, if you want an object to move,
there needs to be a net force on it. Remember the net force is the sum of all forces and
the net force needs to be positive (greater than zero). For a chair resting on a thick
carpet, you have to apply a really big force to get the net force to be positive (and
greater than the force of friction).

Pushing force must be greater than friction force in order for the chair to move across
the floor.

Try this at home and school. Find at least 3 different chairs and/or different floor
surfaces. Try pushing each chair with the same amount of force. Which chairs or floor
surfaces are the easiest to push against? Which chairs or floor surfaces do you have to
push harder to make the chair move at all?

Lesson 1-3: Newton's Third Law

Newton’s Third Law
Newton’s Third Law applies to objects crashing together and says that when two
objects collide, the force they exert on each other is the same in magnitude and
opposite in direction. If you’re not familiar with the word magnitude, it means strength.
Remember the first Despicable Me movie with the “villain” Vector? Vector describes
himself as a villain committing crimes with both direction and magnitude. Click here to
watch a short movie clip.
Back to Newton’s Third Law, which we just described by saying that when two objects
collide, the force they exert on each other is the same in magnitude and opposite in
direction. When two objects interact (or crash or collide), the force they apply to the
other object is always the same, but the effect of the force is NOT always the same.
What is the effect of the force? It’s the acceleration—remember Newton’s Second Law?

Collision of Two Objects

Often you hear Newton’s Third Law described as “for every action there is an equal and
opposite reaction.” However, this can get a little confusing. It’s important to remember
that the force is equal in magnitude and opposite in direction. When two objects collide
the force that object A applies to object B will always be equal in magnitude but
opposite in direction to the force that object B applies to object A. The force of object A
on object B will always be the same as the force of object B on object A, but the effect
does not have to be the same—the effect can be different. Don’t forget that the effect is
the acceleration.

Force on Object A

Here’s a really important note to keep in mind. When we talk about In the
example above we’re really talking about two different “versions” of this equation: the
acceleration on object A depends on the ratio of the force applied to object A divided by
the mass of object A. The force here is the force ON object A, not by object A. Likewise,
the acceleration on object B depends on the ratio of the force applied to object B divided
by the mass of object B. The force here is the force ON object B, no by object B. Look at
the figure below to further clarify this idea.

Sample Collisions
Let’s explore some example collisions. In each collision determine whether the forces
and the accelerations are the same. Remember that in physics, acceleration means
“change in motion,” so slowing down and stopping can also be an acceleration.

We’ll work through one collision together and then you’ll have a few opportunities to
practice on your own. Collision #1. A red car runs into a wall traveling 50 mph. Ouch. In
the picture below, use arrows to show the size and direction of the following forces: 1)
the force of the car on the wall and 2) the force of the wall on the car. The bigger the
force, the bigger your arrow should be. Be sure to label the forces.
Are the two forces the same? Is the acceleration of the car the same as the acceleration
of the wall? Explain.

Answer: Newton’s Third Law says the force will always be equal in magnitude and
opposite in direction. So yes the forces have the same magnitude (remember
magnitude means strength) but they point in different directions. The acceleration of the
car is not the same as the acceleration of the wall. Remember acceleration means
change in motion. The wall is not moving before the collision and is not moving after the
collision -- so the wall has had no change in acceleration. However, the car has
experienced a large acceleration -- a large change in motion. Before the collision the car
was traveling at 50 mph and after the collision the car stopped. The car experienced a
large acceleration, a large change in motion -- it came crashing to a stop!

Now work through the next two collision problems on your own.

Lesson 2-1: Gravitational Force

Introduction
So far Unit 1 looked at forces where objects need to be in contact to apply force, like
throwing a ball. You can’t apply a force to a ball without touching, or being in contact,
with the ball. But some forces exist where the objects don’t need to be in contact or
touching to apply a force.
Gravitational Force

Let’s start with a personal demonstration: something you can do by yourself right now.
Pick up your keys, hold them straight out in front of you at arm's length, and let go. Note:
If you don’t have keys you can use a book or a pen, etc.—just don’t use your phone! What
happens? This may seem really simple, but there’s a lot of great physics happening.
Your keys fall to the ground as soon as you let go. Before you let go, your keys were at
rest with zero velocity and zero acceleration. As soon as you let go, the keys start
accelerating towards the ground, going faster and faster. There’s that word again:
acceleration. Remember that acceleration is the result of a force acting on a mass
(Newton’s Second Law). So if your keys are accelerating towards the ground when you
let go, there must be a force acting on them. What is the force, and where is it coming
from? Turns out the Earth is exerting a force on your keys, a force called gravity.

Gravity is a force that attracts any two masses towards each other. Usually we see
gravity at work when a really massive object such as the Earth is involved, or another
planet. The result is that objects are attracted towards the center of the planet. If you
are on the Earth, you are attracted towards the center of the Earth. If you are on Mars,
you are attracted towards the center of Mars. The gravitational force between two
objects with two different masses depends on how big both masses are, and on the
distance between the centers of the objects. However, everything on the surface of the
Earth is approximately the same distance from the center of the Earth, so the
gravitational force on you, or your keys, or your baby sister, depends only on the mass of
you, or your keys, or your baby sister.

Objects of Different Mass Fall at Same Rate

What’s really interesting is that objects of different masses fall at the same rate. This
means that you could repeat your personal demonstration using a different object than
keys. For example, try a bowling ball and a marble. All three objects—keys, bowling balls,
and marbles—will fall at the same rate. In the next activity you’ll get to test this by
dropping an egg and a watermelon from a second (or third) story window. Sounds fun,
right?

Acceleration of Gravity is the Same for All Objects on Earth

There’s one more weird thing we need to talk about before we start dropping food out
the window. Using physics words, different masses falling at the same rate means that
the acceleration of all objects towards the ground is the same, regardless of the object’s
mass. We already learned that . So if a is the same for two objects, but m is
different, that means the forces are different. As we said above, the gravitational force
on an object depends on the mass of that object. So the Earth exerts a different force
on an egg than it exerts on a watermelon. But because the force depends on the mass,
it turns out that the acceleration does not depend on the mass! Because the
acceleration is the same, the egg and the watermelon will hit the ground at the same
time. Isn’t that cool?

Acceleration of Gravity
The acceleration of gravity is the same for all objects on the surface of the Earth. Every
object on the Earth’s surface follows Newton’s Third Law -- the object and the Earth
each exert gravitational forces on one another that are equal in magnitude but opposite
in direction. The gravitational force between two objects with two different masses
depends on the product of the two masses. Remember that the mathematical product
means you multiply the two masses together. However, the effect of the forces differ --
an object like a flea definitely notices the force from the Earth, but the Earth doesn’t
notice the force from the flea. The gravitational force is always attractive. This means
that two masses are always attracted (pulled) towards one another, never pushed away.
 Lesson 2-2: Electric Forces
Introduction
Have you ever rubbed your head with a balloon? What happens? Your hair stands up!
What do you think causes your hair to stand up and be attracted to the balloon? The
answer is electrical force.

Electrical Charge and Force

Electrical force is a physical property that occurs between particles or objects and
causes them to attract or repel each other. Unlike the push and pull contact forces that
we discussed in Unit 1, electric forces are non-contact forces, meaning they can occur
even when the particles or objects do not touch.

Just as gravitational force depends on the mass of objects, electrical force depends on
the amount of net electric charge an object has and how close the objects are together.
The closer together the two objects, the stronger the electric force. Electric charge is a
property of the protons and electrons inside atoms. A proton has a positive electric
charge. An electron has a negative electric charge.
Charged Particles
With electric forces, opposite charges attract. Positively-charged particles are attracted
to negatively-charged particles; this means they are pulled together. However, charges
that are the same repel each other, or push them away. So positively-charged particles
will repel other positively-charged particles, and negatively-charged particles will repel
other negatively-charged particles.

Electric Force
Charged particles don’t have to be moving or accelerating; they can be holding still and
the electric force is still present, holding the charges together. When the charged
particles aren’t moving, we describe the electric force as the electrostatic force. The
strength of the electric force depends on how many protons and/or electrons are
present.

Static Electricity
In a few minutes we’ll explore what happens when you rub a balloon on your head. When
you rub two objects together, you can create static electricity. The rubbing rearranges
electrons between the two surfaces, creating a net negative charge on your hair and the
balloon. If you then press the balloon against the wall, the negative charges on the
outside of the balloon will be attracted to positive charges on the wall, and the attraction
will cause the balloon to stick! Static electricity is also what allows you to shuffle your
feet across carpet and then reach out and shock your sister when you touch her. You
discharge the built-up static electricity and experience it as an electric shock.
 When the charged balloon gets near the neutral, uncharged wall, it attracts all the opposite
charges closer to the charged balloon.

Lesson 2-3a: Magnetic Forces

Magnetic Force
Now let’s shift gears and talk about another important non-contact force. A magnetic
force is a non-contact force that a magnet exerts on other materials, including other
magnets. A magnetic force can exist even if particles are not touching. You’re probably
familiar with the idea that some types of metal, including iron, are magnetic. Can you
describe the properties of a magnet? Think about the magnets on your refrigerator at
home. Magnets can either attract or repel matter. Magnets have two different “ends”
called poles. The technical term is pole rather than end, but for the bar magnets we’re
going to use, calling it an end will simplify the terminology for you. Magnets have two
different ends: one positive end and one negative end. Just like electric charges, a
positive magnet end is attracted to a negative magnet end but repels another positive
magnet end. Likewise, a negative magnet end is attracted to a positive magnet end but
repels another negative magnet end. Let’s play with some bar magnets and iron filings
to get a better sense of what a magnetic force is.
 Lesson 2-3b: Electromagnets
Electromagnets
You’re probably familiar with Tesla electric cars. Have you ever wondered how they
work? Teslas use an electromagnet to run the engine. What’s an electromagnet, besides
a fun word? An electromagnet is a magnet produced by electricity traveling through a
metal wire. Note that copper wire works the best. The main idea of an electromagnet is
that coils of wire can behave like a magnet. As an example of a very simple
electromagnet, it is possible to magnetize an iron nail by wrapping coils of wire around
it and attaching the two ends of the wire to a battery. You can remove the nail and the
coils of wire will still act as a magnet. Electromagnets are used extensively in industrial
settings to lift large quantities of magnetic materials, such as scrap iron, auto parts, and
drilling pipe on oil rigs. Electromagnets are essential parts of electric generators and
electric motors. They are also used in doorbells, speakers, car starters, washing
machines, electromagnetic brakes and clutches. They are also part of the design of Elon
Musk’s hyperloop transportation system. Click here to read more about the hyperloop
transportation system.

You can build a very simple electromagnet using a battery, a wire, and a nail. In the next
activity you will build your own electromagnet and explore what factors affect the
strength of the magnet.

Lesson 3-1: Kinetic and Potential Energy

Important Note
This unit introduces several equations for different types of energy and momentum. You
will not be asked to perform mathematical calculations using these equations. However,
you will be expected to understand the equations, the variables within the equations,
and be able to predict what will happen if certain variables are increased or decreased.
You will also be expected to identify and interpret graphs of kinetic and potential energy.

Energy
Has anyone ever told you “Wow, you have a lot of energy today!” Or maybe you hear a
sports announcer describing a marathon runner in the Olympics saying “Oh no, she ran
out of energy before she finished the race.” Energy is probably a word you’re familiar
with. What is energy? Can you define it? In physics, energy is defined as the ability to do
work. There are many different kinds of energy used in physics, some of which you may
already be familiar with. Moving objects have kinetic energy; potential energy is stored
in objects depending on their position within a gravitational, electric, or magnetic field;
chemical energy is released by breaking chemical bonds; light carries radiant energy;
and objects have a certain amount of thermal energy based on their temperature. We
could be more specific and say that the Olympic marathoner ran out of chemical energy
in her body. If someone says you have a lot of energy, it might be because you’re running
around and jumping up and down. In this example, you have both kinetic and potential
energy. For this unit, we will focus on kinetic energy and potential energy. The next unit
will focus on heat and thermal energy.

Kinetic Energy

When is the last time you played tag? How about freeze tag? Playing tag means lots of
running around, stopping, turning, freezing—lots of motion. And playing tag requires lots
of effort, lots of energy. Kinetic energy is energy due to motion. If an object is moving, it
has kinetic energy. Every person playing tag has lots of kinetic energy, and their amount
of kinetic energy is constantly changing as they pivot and swerve, start and stop. Kinetic
energy can be transferred between objects or transformed into other types of energy (
heat, light, chemical, etc.).

The kinetic energy of an object depends on the mass of the object m and its velocity v.
However, the kinetic energy is
Kinetic Energy =

If you’re playing tag and you crash into someone else, you both fall down and stop
moving. When you stop moving, your velocity goes to zero, and therefore your kinetic
energy also goes to zero.

Non-Linear Relationship Between Velocity and Kinetic Energy

The kinetic energy depends on the velocity squared—remember your math, velocity
squared means velocity multiplied by velocity. What effect does this have on the kinetic
energy? If you increase the velocity, the kinetic energy will increase much more quickly
than the velocity will. Because the velocity is squared in this equation, if you double the
velocity, the kinetic energy will increase four times as much! Note, the mathematical
terms for this behavior where the velocity and kinetic energy increase at different rates
is called non-linear behavior. So, what is the difference between linear and non-linear
behavior? Think back to Newton’s Second Law: . If you double the force, the
acceleration also doubles—this is linear behavior.

The images below shows a plot with two lines: the orange line shows a linear increase,
while the purple line shows a non-linear increase. If you remember from math class, this
particular non-linear increase shown in purple is called a quadratic function, or a
variable squared.

Practice Question
You’re riding your bike to school. Suddenly a dog starts chasing you down the street and
you triple your velocity—go three times as fast—to get away from the dog. Describe
what happens to your kinetic energy when your velocity triples but your mass stays the
same.
 Lesson 3-2: Transforming
Energy
Changing from Kinetic to Potential Energy
Have you ever ridden a roller coaster? Are they your
favorite thing in the world? Your worst nightmare?
Somewhere in between? Regardless of how you feel
about roller coasters, they “work” because of physics!
The physics of energy to be exact. Roller coasters
contain cars without motors, tracks with hills of
varying heights, and lots of screaming riders waving their hands around as the cars race
down the track. Hopefully you’re noticing two kinds of energy involved with roller
coasters: energy of motion (cars racing down the track) and energy of position (hills of
varying heights). Remember that energy of motion is kinetic energy and stored energy
is potential energy. Wait, how can roller coasters use both kinetic and potential energy?
Energy can change, or switch, back and forth between kinetic energy to potential
energy, which is exactly what happens on roller coasters or when you ride a bike up and
down a hill. Remember the skate park activity you completed at the end of the previous
lesson? Riding a skateboard up and down the ramps at a skate park is also an excellent
example of energy switching back and forth between kinetic and potential energy.
Energy can also be transferred from one object to another, which we will discuss in
detail in Unit 4.

Roller Coasters
Let’s look at how roller coasters work in detail. A motor pulls the train of cars up the
track to a tall height. As the cars reach the top of the hill, they are moving very slowly but
have the greatest potential energy because of their tall vertical position above the
ground. The cars begin to roll down the steep hill; the potential energy of the cars
decreases as they get closer to the ground and their vertical height above the ground
decreases. But as the cars get closer to the ground, their velocity and kinetic energy
increase. When the cars hit the bottom of the hill their potential energy is much smaller,
but their kinetic energy is the largest (maximum) because they’re traveling at their
greatest velocity. The total amount of energy in the cars is still the same, but the
maximum amount of potential energy at the top of the tallest hill is converted to the
largest amount of kinetic energy at the bottom of the tallest hill. As the cars climb up
the next hill, they begin to slow down. The higher the cars move up the track towards the
 top of the next hill, the more their kinetic energy drops. But the cars are increasing their
vertical position above the ground, and as a result their potential energy is increasing.

As the kinetic energy decreases, the potential energy increases. And the opposite is also
true, as the potential energy decreases, the kinetic energy increases. Potential energy and
kinetic energy are inversely related—as one increases, the other decreases—but the total
amount of energy in the roller coaster system remains the same. Isn’t that cool?

Total energy = kinetic energy + potential energy

If kinetic energy, then potential energy

If kinetic energy, then potential energy

Roller Coaster Videos

Relax and enjoy watching this collection of roller coaster videos from National Geographic
Kids. It’s a compilation of 13 videos: short videos teaching about roller coasters separated
by longer, just-for-fun videos. Feel free to skim through the fun videos if you like, but please
watch the short (30 second) teaching videos. I bet you’ll learn something!

Click here to watch the videos.

Lesson 3-3: Momentum, Impulse, and

Conservation of Momentum

Introduction

In 2018, the Philadelphia Eagles won their first NFL Super Bowl Championship, lead by
quarterback Nick Foles. Foles started the season as the backup quarterback and got
the opportunity to start, lead, and finish the Super Bowl when the starting quarterback
Carson Wentz was injured mid-season. At halftime during the Super Bowl, media
announcers and coaches were all talking about the “momentum” that the Eagles were
carrying into the second half. We can imagine a locker room talk by the Eagles coaches
sounding something like this: “We need to carry this momentum all the way to the end
and finish strong.” What did the coaches and announcers mean when they talked about
momentum?

Momentum
People use the term momentum in sports to describe a team that is on the move and is
going to be hard to stop. Momentum is a physics term that is frequently used in
everyday speech. Momentum is a property of mass in motion—if an object is moving,
then it has momentum. The amount of momentum an object has depends on two
things: how much mass the object has, and how fast the object is moving. We can
define the momentum of an object as the mass of the object multiplied by the velocity
of the object. In physics we use the variable p to represent momentum, and we can
write an equation for momentum as the following:

Linear Relationship Between Mass, Velocity, and Momentum

The momentum of an object depends equally on the mass of the object and the velocity
of the object. If you increase the mass of an object, the momentum will increase. If you
increase the velocity of an object, the momentum will increase. I bet you already know
this, if you think about it this way. Which would you rather be hit by: a Mack truck
moving at 60 mph, or a Honda Civic moving at 60 mph?

If ⇑ velocity, then ⇑ momentum

If ⇑ mass, then ⇑ momentum

The reverse is also true. If you decrease the mass of an object, the momentum will
decrease. If you decrease the velocity of an object, the momentum will decrease. In
most real-world examples, the mass of the object doesn’t change, so any change in
momentum is caused by a change in velocity. Again, I bet you already know this if you
think about it like this. Which would you rather be hit by: a Mack truck moving at 60 mph,
or a Mack truck moving at 5 mph? If you’re fuzzy about what a Mack truck is, think of
Lightning McQueen. Remember his transport truck that he rolls out of during the first
movie while asleep? Mack, his transport truck, is a Mack truck. :-)

If velocity, then momentum

If mass, then momentum

Objects that are at rest—holding still and not moving—have zero momentum. If an
object’s velocity is zero, its momentum will also be zero.

Momentum Makes Sense

You’re probably more familiar with momentum that you realize. The idea of momentum
tends to make sense to people, more so than the concepts of acceleration or inertia that
we looked at in Units 1 and 2. Let’s imagine for a minute a Hummer and a moped are
traveling at the same velocity down the street. The Hummer has a much larger mass
than the moped and, as a result, the Hummer will have (much) greater momentum.
What happens if the Hummer and moped run into a pedestrian crossing the street? A
pedestrian getting run over by a Hummer is a definite trip to the hospital with critical
injuries and possibly death. A pedestrian getting run over by a moped still might go to
the hospital, but the chances of dying are much lower. Why the difference? The greater
mass and resulting greater momentum of the Hummer cause greater damage and harm
to the pedestrian.

Momentum and Impulse

We introduced the concept of momentum as describing mass in motion, and said that
the more mass and/or the more velocity an object has, the more momentum it will have.
The more momentum an object has, the harder it will be to stop the object. To stop an
object with momentum, say the Hummer driving down the street in the example above,
you have to apply a force against its motion for a given period of time. In the case of the
Hummer, the vehicle needs to have some excellent brakes that apply a frictional force to
the wheels and bring the vehicle to a stop over a period of time.

We talked about the Philadelphia Eagles having lots of momentum during their Super
Bowl Championship win in 2018. We can talk about the momentum of a single offensive
football player, say quarterback Nick Foles, running the ball down the field. A defensive
football player on the opposing Patriots team, say Eric Rowe, will try and tackle Foles to
stop his momentum. Rowe has to apply a force for a given amount of time in order to
stop Foles. Remember if Rowe can stop Foles from moving—change his velocity to
zero—Foles’ momentum will also go to zero and the play is over.

Connection to Acceleration
You can change the velocity of an object by applying a force for a given amount of time.
This change in velocity changes the momentum. Think back to Units 1 and 2. We
described a change in velocity as an acceleration—a change in motion. If you apply a
force in the same direction as the object is moving, the acceleration will result in an
increase in velocity. If you apply a force in the opposite direction as the object is moving,
the acceleration will result in a decrease in velocity. It doesn’t matter whether the
applied force results in the object speeding up or slowing down, the velocity of the
object changes. And if the velocity changes, so does the momentum.

Impulse
Physicists call any change in momentum an impulse. In most cases, the mass of an
object stays constant and any change in momentum is caused by a change in velocity.
The velocity changes as a result of a force acting for a specific amount of time.

The momentum impulse equation is

In this equation F is the force applied to any object, over time duration t, where an
object of mass m is moving at a velocity v. Remember the momentum is . Since
we're really talking about a change in momentum here, it's . Now most objects
in the real world that we're interested in investigating a change in momentum for don't
change their mass, so really it's a change in velocity or .

If you apply a force to an object for one second (small amount of time), the change in
momentum will be small. If you apply the same force to an object for ten seconds (a
larger amount of time), the momentum added will be much larger.

If , then momentum

For a given change in momentum, you can decrease the force experienced by an object
by increasing the amount of time the force is applied over. In other words, if you look at
the momentum impulse equation and want to keep the change in momentum side of
the equation constant ( ), you can decrease the force and increase the t, or
increase the force and decrease the t, and still have the impulse side of the equation
( ) be equal to the change in momentum side of the equation ( ).

Airbags
Have you ever seen an airbag open in a car? Hopefully you’ve never been in a car crash,
but maybe you’ve seen the aftermath of an accident, with the large white airbag balloon
open in a car, in a spot a person normally sits in. What do airbags do? Why do cars have
them? Airbags prevent or reduce the damage to people in the event of a car accident by
inflating and providing soft cushioning and restraint. By increasing the amount of time it
takes for the person to slow to a stop, the force experienced by the person decreases.
Airbags are a great example of the momentum impulse equation in use in your everyday
life. Remember the MythBusters episode you watched in Unit 1 where the cars ran into a
brick wall at different velocities? Let’s use the example of the car traveling at 100 miles
per hour just before it slammed into the brick wall. If you knew the car’s mass, you could
calculate its momentum. When the car crashes into the brick wall, it applies a large
force to the wall and the wall applies a force to the car that is equal in magnitude and
opposite in direction. Remember Newton’s Third Law? Do you remember how crushed
the car was? The entire front end of the car was smashed in. We just discussed that you
can decrease the force experienced by an object by increasing the amount of time ( t)
the force is applied over—this is exactly what airbags do. Airbags increase the amount
of time that a car crash occurs over; more specifically, they increase the amount of time
over which a person crashes into the steering wheel or dashboard. By increasing the
amount of time, the airbags can decrease the strength of the force felt by the people
inside the car, thus reducing the severity of their injuries.

Check Your Understanding

Before we move on, let’s check your understanding by look at one common
misconception relating to physics in cars. We said that you can decrease the force
experienced by an object by increasing the amount of time ( ) the force is applied
over, and used airbags in cars as an example. What about the brakes in your car? How
do they work? Are they an example of impulse? The answer is no -- the brakes in your
car are not an example of impulse or momentum -- they are an example of friction.
When you step on the brake pedal, it squeezes the brake pads around the inside of your
wheel (the drum). The pads squeeze around the rotating drum and apply a frictional
force, which will cause your car to come to a stop. The harder you step on the pedal, the
tighter the pads squeeze, the greater the applied frictional force, and the faster your car
will come to a stop. It is also true that if you hold the brake pedal down for longer, a
greater frictional force will be applied. The greater the frictional force applied to the
brakes, the more quickly the car will come to a stop. The photo below shows a silver
drum/wheel, with blue brakes (the pads are inside the plastic casing).

Conservation of Momentum
We’ve spent some time talking about momentum and examples where the momentum
is important. Most of those examples involved collisions, or things crashing into one
another. What happens to the momentum an object has when it crashes into
something? For instance, what happens to the momentum of the Hummer when it hits a
pedestrian? Does it just disappear? The answer is no. In a collision, momentum is
transferred from one object to another.

Physicists call this conservation of momentum. Conserved means constant, or not

changing. If you have a collision between two objects, you can add up the momentum of
the two objects before the collision, and it will be the same as the added-up momentum
after the collision. It’s a little fussy; it only counts for collisions in an “isolated system.”
More on that in a minute.

Ever played a game of pool (sometimes called billiards)? The point of the game is to use
the white cue ball to knock your balls (either stripes or solids) into the pockets (holes) in
the pool table. First player to get all their balls into the pockets wins. It’s a game filled
with physics: collisions, momentum, and kinetic energy! Using your pool stick, you apply
a force to the white cue ball and give it velocity (and therefore momentum and kinetic
energy). If your aim is good, it collides with another ball on the table. The second ball
was holding still when it was hit by the cue ball. What happens to the two balls on the
table when they hit each other? The energy and momentum from the moving white cue
ball is transferred to another ball on the table and the ball that was holding still starts to
move. Conservation of momentum says that the total momentum of the two objects
before the collision is equal to the total momentum of the two objects after the collision;
the momentum doesn’t disappear. So the white cue ball transfers some (maybe all) of
its velocity, kinetic energy, and momentum to one of your balls on the table, and then
(hopefully!) rolls into a pocket.
Isolated Systems
Back to the idea of an “isolated system,” it’s pretty easy to think of collisions where it
doesn’t seem as though the momentum is transferred! Think of a car crashing into a
brick wall. Although the car stops, the wall doesn’t keep going. Where did the
momentum go? It was transferred to the wall, but the wall is attached to the Earth. And
the Earth didn’t notice that tiny bit of extra momentum!

In the billiards example, the cue ball and the target ball do count as an isolated system.
But if you hit the table with your cue, then you have to include the table as part of the
system. We’ll come back to the billiards example in Unit 4 when we discuss collisions in
detail.

Lesson 4-1: Collisions

Collisions
We introduced the idea of collisions in Unit 3 but kind of skirted around the topic. Now
we’re going to dive into the world of collisions and talk about how energy (and
momentum) are transferred during collisions. We experience the results of impulse and
momentum in our daily lives through collisions. Examples of collisions include two cars
running into each other or a car running into a wall (remember Unit 2), a rubber ball
colliding with a wall, and a defensive football player colliding with the offensive
quarterback. These examples demonstrate two different kinds of collisions: inelastic
and elastic. In elastic collisions the amount of kinetic energy in the system stays
constant. An example of a perfectly elastic collision might be a collision between a ball
and a stretched-out rubber band; the ball will compress the rubber band and then
bounce back. The kinetic energy was temporarily stored in the rubber band, and then
given back to the ball. That’s a good way to remember the name “elastic”: if you can
store the energy in an elastic band, you can get it back!

Partly Elastic Collisions

However, most collisions are neither perfectly elastic nor perfectly inelastic. For
example, if a rubber ball is dropped from the top of the Empire State Building, when it
hits the ground it will bounce back into the air but won’t bounce all the way back to the
top of the building. The ball still has some kinetic energy after the collision with the
ground; the energy was stored in the rubber, and then converted back to kinetic energy.
However, not all of the energy was given back, so it has less kinetic energy than it did
before the collision. As the ball moves upwards, that kinetic energy is transformed to
gravitational potential energy. If the collision had been perfectly elastic, it would make it
all the way back up to the top of the Empire State Building!
Deformation
In the discussion of potential energy in Unit 3, we talked about dropping your phone on
the cement. Your phone had potential energy when it was in your hand, and the potential
energy changed to kinetic energy as your phone increased velocity as it fell towards the
ground. What happens when your phone hits the ground? We said that energy is
conserved, that it doesn’t disappear. So what happens to it? When your phone hits the
ground, it has zero height above the ground so its potential energy is zero. Just BEFORE
the collision with the ground, the potential energy has all been converted to kinetic
energy, and it is moving fast. However, after it hits the ground it has zero velocity, and
thus zero kinetic energy. What happened to all the energy? While it might seem like the
energy magically disappeared, take a look at your phone and you’ll see that it’s been
deformed. If the screen is cracked, broken, or shattered or the body of the phone is
crumpled, dimpled, or cracked, all of these are examples of deformation. All the
potential energy changed into kinetic energy and was then used up deforming
(changing) the object. Energy didn’t disappear when your phone hit the cement, it just
resulted in a broken phone.

Note: For this class it’s important that you can identify the two different types of
collisions (elastic and inelastic) and give an example of each. You will also be expected
to identify given examples as either elastic or inelastic collisions.

Lesson 4-2: Heat and Temperature

Introduction

Take a moment to stop, take a deep breath, and take stock of your surroundings. Are
you hot? Cold? Just right? What’s the weather like where you live? Are you using air
conditioning or a heater to keep your body at a comfortable temperature? In this lesson
we will talk about heat and temperature. Heat and temperature affect our lives every
day, multiple times throughout the day. They influence the clothes you wear, whether
you turn on the heater or air conditioning in your home and car, whether you have to
shovel snow or get sweaty walking outside, or deciding if your pizza is too hot to eat.

The temperature of our planet and global climate change have become hot topics
around the world. For good reason, since every living organism on Earth is affected by
the temperature and climate. When scientists and politicians and teachers talk about
the Earth getting warmer, what are they actually talking about? What is heat and where
does it come from? When something warms up, what is it gaining or losing? When
something cools down, what is it gaining or losing? What’s the difference between heat
and temperature?

Heat
Heat is just another form of energy. Remember in Unit 1 when we talked about friction?
Try rubbing your hands together rapidly. Your palms will heat up. A frictional force
converts energy of motion (your hands moving) into heat energy. If you have ever
touched the wheels of a train just after it stops, you will discover that they are very hot
from the friction of the wheels against the rails. The same is true of the brake pads on
the wheels of your car: if you touch them after driving down a steep hill, they will be
warm or even hot. The pads squeeze against the wheel, creating a frictional force, which
slows you down. The frictional force converts the kinetic energy of the wheel into heat
energy.

Temperature
Living organisms tend to have a good sense for what the temperature is because often
their survival depends on staying within a certain temperature range. For instance,
cold-blooded animals don’t produce their own heat energy and must get it from their
environment. Snakes living in the wild get their heat from the sun, or from a warm rock.
Pet snakes living in a glass tank get their heat from a special heat lamp. If you’ve ever
come across a snake while outside in the early morning or late at night, when it’s cool,
the snake will be coiled up trying to keep itself warm. But come back in the middle of
the day when the sun is out and it’s warm, and the snake will be slithering around
looking for something to eat.

Warm-blooded animals, like humans and birds, produce their own heat energy through
chemical reactions inside their body. Have you ever noticed that you start to shiver
when you get really cold? The shivering is your body’s attempt to increase its energy and
temperature.

While the idea of temperature is pretty familiar, you might find it’s more difficult to give a
definition of temperature. Stop and write down a definition of temperature. Can you do
it? If you’re struggling, you’re not alone. One ridiculously simple definition of temperature
is what a thermometer reads. You’re probably snorting and rolling your eyes at this
definition; don’t worry, I am too. Really good definitions of temperature require
knowledge of kinetic energy. Since you’re comfortable with kinetic energy after Unit 3
(right?!), we’ll use the following definition for temperature: a measure of the average
kinetic energy of the particles in a sample of matter. Think back to Science 7 and our
discussion of atoms, molecules, and the different states of matter: gas, liquid, solid.
Remember that? We talked about how the difference between a gas and a liquid and a
solid is how close together the molecules are and how much energy they have. Well,
now we can be more specific and say that the temperature of a substance depends on
the kinetic energy of the atoms and molecules, and that the state of matter depends on
the temperature. This kinetic energy IS the heat energy.

Temperature and Kinetic Energy

Up until this point we’ve talked about the kinetic energy of a macroscopic object that
was moving from one point to another. When we talk about temperature being a
measure of the kinetic energy of a particle, the kinetic energy can involve either moving
particles or jiggling particles. If the state of matter is a gas, then it will be the kinetic
energy of the particles moving around. If the particles are stuck in one spot, in a solid, it
can be vibrational kinetic energy— particles jiggling back and forth in the same
location—vibrating in place. Have you ever eaten a bunch of sugar and then had to sit at
a desk in school? Maybe your arms and legs are tapping, moving up and down, but
you’re (unfortunately) still sitting in the seat. In this example, you have lots of vibrational
kinetic energy.

Let’s say you go home after school and want to make mac n’ cheese. Yummy! What do
you do? You put a pot of water on the stove and turn on the stove. The stove provides
heat to increase the temperature of the metal pot and the water inside the pot. How can
you tell the temperature of the water has increased? Steam starts rising from the pot,
bubbles are forming in the water because each molecule of water is gaining kinetic
energy, and if you touch it—ouch! The water is super hot and you get burned. If you
stuck a thermometer into the water, you would see the temperature increase. As the
temperature of the water increases, so does the kinetic energy of each particle.

Lesson 4-3: Heat Transfer

Introduction
It turns out that there are only three basic ways to transfer heat energy. In all cases of
heat transfer, the heat is transferred from the higher temperature object to the lower
temperature object. There is no such thing as transferring cold! Air conditioners take
heat out of their surroundings, while heaters add heat in to their surroundings. Examples
of all three types of heat transfer can be found in the kitchen. The three methods are
conduction, convection, and radiation. We will discuss each of these methods of heat
transfer in detail.
Conducting Materials
Different materials are better at conducting heat or electricity than others. Metals have
atoms with electrons that are only loosely connected or held by the nucleus, and these
electrons have more freedom to move around within the metal and thereby transfer
more heat. As a result, metals are excellent conductors. You’re probably more familiar
with metal conductors than you realize. The electrical wiring inside your house,
electronics, appliances, and even your smartphone is made of copper. Copper is a metal
and an excellent conductor of electricity.

The strength or weakness of heat conduction in different materials surrounds us in our

kitchens. If we return to the example of a mug of hot coffee on the kitchen counter, your
choice of mug has an effect on conduction. If you use a metal mug, the mug will get hot
much faster than with a ceramic mug, as the heat is being conducted more quickly.
This is also why we tend to use metal pots and pans on the stove; your stove works by
conducting heat from the burner to the pot, and then from the pot to the food. Most
chefs prefer metal pots, as they react more quickly to adjusting the burner than a
ceramic pot would. If you bake your cookies in a glass pan, you might have to bake
them for longer than you would in a metal pan.

Insulating Materials
We’ve said that metals are excellent conductors of heat, but some metals are better
than others. Silver is the very best heat conductor, copper is next, and among commonly
used metals in the kitchen, aluminum and then iron. Materials that are poor conductors
include wool, wood, paper, cork, and plastic foam. Poor conductors are called
insulators. Molecules in insulating materials have electrons that are firmly held by the
nucleus, and these electrons are not free to move around. As a result, they don’t transfer
heat or electricity.

Convection
The second method of heat transfer is convection, or heat transfer as a result of a
moving liquid or gas, which is also called a fluid. Convection is circulation caused by
temperature differences in air or water. When a fluid moves, it creates a current. A
simple example of a current is water flowing downstream in a river. When you heat
water in a pan on the stove or heat the air in a room, convection works the same in both
cases. When a fluid is heated at the bottom, the molecules at the bottom gain kinetic
energy and begin to move faster, spread apart, become less dense. Because it is less
dense, it begins to rise upwards. Denser, cooler fluid moves in below to fill in the empty
space left by the warmer fluid. This upwards motion followed by downwards motion
creates a convection current, which stirs the fluid as it is heated. A convection current
consists of warmer fluid moving away from the heat source and cooler fluid moving
toward the heat source. Note, convection as described here requires the force of gravity
to work; convection won’t work side-to-side but only vertically up and down.

When you put a pot of water on the stove, heat is conducted from the burner to the
bottom of the pot, and then from the bottom of the pot to the water at the bottom of the
pot. (Yes, the sides of the pot get warm, but the bottom will always be hotter because it
is in contact with the burner.) You have now created a situation where the water on the
bottom of the pot is much hotter than the water above it. The water can’t conduct the
heat fast enough, because conduction is slow. What happens? You’ve seen it! Bubbles
form, and some of the hotter water burbles up to the top, and pushes some of the colder
water back down. This is convection in action! This keeps happening until the water is
all the same temperature. If you leave the pot on the hot burner for long enough, the
extra heat will cause the water to change phase from a liquid to a gas and boil off. The
next time you heat up a can of soup on the stove, watch it. Convection is easy to see in
soup because the “particles” (noodles, rice, spices) will move up and down with the
fluid, making it easier to visualize where the convection currents are and what’s actually
happening. If you have access to YouTube, you can watch a simple lab demonstration of
convection in water using blue and red dye:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H06ZA2xmo

Convection in the Atmosphere

If you’ve ever flown on an airplane, you’ve probably seen another example of convection.
Convection happens all the time in the atmosphere, and bumpy clouds such as the ones
shown below form as a result of convection. Each cloud bump in the photo below is
formed by a convection current, or parcel of air that rises up. The image below was
taken from inside the Space Shuttle.

Radiation
The last method of heat transfer is radiation, which you experience every day. Thermal
energy from the Sun travels through space and the Earth’s atmosphere and warms the
Earth’s surface. How does the Sun’s energy get to the Earth? Through electromagnetic
radiation, which includes visible light. Electromagnetic radiation is energy—radiant
energy to be exact. This radiant energy can be described as electromagnetic waves,
which includes a variety of types of waves: radio waves, microwaves, infrared waves,
visible waves, ultraviolet waves, x-rays, and gamma rays. Some of these types of waves
you might have heard of; others might be unfamiliar. You will learn more about
electromagnetic waves in your high school science courses. For the purposes of this
course, it’s important that you understand what radiation and radiant energy are and
how they work. The radiant energy travels from the Sun to the Earth via radiation and is
then absorbed by the Earth, by rocks, by your body, by solar panels, you name it. If you’re
cold, sitting in the sun can help you warm up. Why? Because you’re absorbing radiant
energy from the Sun, which will increase your temperature.

Radiant Energy
All substances that absorb radiant energy also emit—give off—radiant energy. For
example, a hot pizza can be both an absorber and emitter of radiant energy. Put the hot
pizza outside on a cold winter day and the pizza will emit lots of radiant energy. Put the
same pizza in a microwave oven and the pizza will absorb radiant energy. Cool, huh?

Radiation in the Kitchen

Heat transfer by radiation is relatively rare in the kitchen, but it does happen in
microwave ovens! Your microwave uses electric power to generate microwave radiation,
and the radiation is absorbed by the food in the oven. Water molecules are partial to this
kind of microwave radiation, and absorb it preferentially. This is why the water in your
mug will get hot, but the mug will not. If you were using conduction, the mug would also
have to get hot! This is why microwave ovens are much more energy efficient than a
conventional oven. All of the heat goes directly into the food.

In all cases of heat transfer, the heat is transferred from the higher temperature object to
the lower temperature object. There is no such thing as transferring cold! Air
conditioners take heat out of their surroundings, while heaters add heat in to their
surroundings.

Conduction vs. Convection

These three different types of heat transfer might seem a little confusing, and maybe
you’re having trouble remembering which is which. It can be especially confusing to
remember the differences between conduction and convection; the spelling of the two
words is almost identical and yet the processes are very different. The following activity
is designed to help you become more comfortable with understanding and
remembering conduction and convection.
Start with the following thought experiment. Why can you hold your fingers beside a
candle flame without harm, but not above the flame? The answer is because of
conduction and convection and how each process works. Thermal energy from the
candle flame travels upward by air convection: the air right inside the flame is heated up,
and then it rises. But air is actually a poor heat conductor; air is an insulator. Because air
is a poor conductor, very little thermal energy is conducted sideways to your fingers. If
you want to test this out at home, ask your parents to help you perform the
demonstration.

HEAT TRANSFER ASSIGNMENT NOTES:

1) Thermal Energy, also known as "Heat Energy" is about the movement of molecules.

2) Cold objects and hot objects have molecules that move at different speeds. Cold objects'
molecules have low energy and in-turn move slower, and hot objects' molecules have
high energy therefore move at faster speeds.

3) Conduction, Convection, and Radiation

Lesson 4-4: Conservation of Energy

Rube Goldberg Machines
A fun and often silly example of conservation of energy is a Rube Goldberg machine.
Ever heard of one? A Rube Goldberg machine is a machine capable of performing
simple tasks in a complicated and unusual way. Rube Goldberg was an early 20th
century cartoonist and engineer and created cartoons depicting machines that took a
very complicated path to complete a simple task. Today you see Rube Goldberg
machines in the movies and in the kid’s board game “Mousetrap.” Click here to read an
article with descriptions and clips of several different Rube Goldberg machines in
movies. Interestingly, most of the movies are from the 1980’s—using a Rube Goldberg
machine to cook you breakfast was apparently a popular theme! Watch the movie clips
from Pee Wee Herman and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to get the best sense of the
“physics” of a Rube Goldberg machine.
It turns out that Rube Goldberg machines aren’t just goofy or fun, they’re an excellent
example of conservation of energy. Think back to the Pee Wee Herman and Chitty Chitty
Bang Bang movie clips. The contraptions use gravitational potential energy and convert
it to kinetic energy to crack egg shells. The machine in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang begins
with a small train that pushes the dinner plate, transferring energy from the train to the
dinner plate. In the Pee Wee Herman clip, a candle (heat energy) burns through a rope,
and the anvil’s gravitational potential energy is converted to kinetic energy used to turn a
belt. In a Rube Goldberg machine when the kinetic energy of an object changes, energy
is transferred to or from the object.

NOTES ARE DONE (CLICK CTRL+F AND THEN KEYWORDS TO FIND

SPECIFIC THINGS.)