Friction and Inertia: Toy Cars

Note: This lesson is best taught after the Day 3 lesson, "Friction." If students have not participated in that lesson, make sure that you dene the word "friction" and give a short explanation. Objectives: 1. Students will observe that different surfaces produce different amounts of friction. 2. Students will understand the concept of inertia and learn the importance of seat belts in cars. Vocabulary: Friction: The resistance that results when two surfaces rub against each other. Inertia: A resistance to a change in motion . Newton's First Law of Motion: An object at rest or in motion will remain that way unless acted on by an external force. Materials needed: a car, ball, or top for each group 5 ramps 5 smooth surfaces 5 carpet strips 5 felt strips 5 sandpaper strips 5 Matchbox cars 5 yardsticks books or other objects to use to prop up the ramps and to crash cars into "Car Race" observation sheet for each group or student (25) 5 protractors clay

Introduction:
Begin by asking students to dene the word "friction" (the resistance that results when two surfaces rub against each other). Ask them for some examples of things that show a lot of or very little friction. (Ice skating has very little friction, pulling something heavy without wheels may have a lot of friction). Ask, "If you push a ball on a wood oor what will happen?" (It rolls away) "Does a wood oor produce a lot of friction?" (No. There is little friction between the ball and

the oor.) "What if you don't touch the ball? What will happen to it?" (It will just sit there.) Explain that this is what we call "inertia" a resistance to change in motion. Tell students that in this lesson they will learn some more about friction and they will learn about Newton's First Law of Motion. Explain that Isaac Newton was a physicist in the seventeenth century. One of the important things he did was formulate three laws of motion. The rst law states that an object at rest will stay at rest or an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force.

Activity 1: Inertia
Materials needed: a car, ball, or top for each group Procedure: 1. Divide students into groups of four or ve. 2. Give each group a car or a ball. 3. Have the students place the toy in the middle of the table and observe what it does. They should observe that the toy doesn't move. 4. Now instruct the students to push the toy. Ask them what happened. 5. Explain that they are observing Newton's First Law. Pushing the toy exerted an external force which caused the toy to move. Ask, "What made the toy stop?" (Students may say, "The car/ball slowed down until it stopped." Suggest to them that the friction between the toy and the table caused it to stop this was the external force that caused it to stop moving.) 6. Tell the students they will now experiment more with inertia and friction. Gather cars and balls from the students.

Activity 2: Car Race

Materials needed: (for each group) ramp smooth surface carpet strip felt strip sandpaper strip Matchbox car

 yardstick books or other objects to use to prop up the ramp "Car Race" observation sheet for each group or student protractor Procedure: 1. Pass out "Car Race" observation sheets to each student. 2. Give each group the different surfaces to observe. 3. Ask students to look carefully and feel the four different surfaces. On their observation sheets they should try to rank the surfaces from one to four. One will be the surface on which they think the car will go the furthest, four will be the surface on which they think the car will travel the shortest distance. 4. Now give each group a ramp and something to raise it up a few inches off the ground. Also give each group one toy car and a yardstick. Let them set up the ramp on the oor. Each student should take turns being the driver in this activity. 5. The group should rst measure either the height of the ramp or the angle of the ramp (older students can use a protractor to gure out the angle). 6. Have each group take the strip of smooth surface and place it on the ramp. The "driver" should place the car at the top of the ramp with the back of the car lined up with the end of the ramp. The "driver" should then let the car go (tell the students not to push the car let gravity be the external force that causes the car to go). Have the students watch the car go down the ramp and wait for it to come to a stop. 7. As a group they should measure the distance the car traveled, measuring from the bottom of the ramp to the front of the car. If the car stopped before reaching the bottom of the ramp they can measure from the front of the car to the bottom of the ramp and put a negative (or minus) sign in front of the number. 8. Record the distance in Trial #1 on the observation sheet. Have them repeat the test two more times and record the distance under Trial #2 and Trial #3. 9. Tell students to replace the smooth surface with the carpet strip and repeat the test. Do this for each surface. 10. When all surfaces have been tested and distances recorded, have the students gure out the average distance for each surface. (They should add their three distances together and then divide by three help younger students with this exercise). 11. Each group should now take their averaged numbers and see if their predictions

were correct. Discussion: Questions: 1. Were your predictions about the surfaces correct? 2. Which surface created the least amount of friction? How do you know? 3. Which surface created the most friction? How do you know? 4. Can any of these surfaces be compared to real road conditions? If so, give an example of the type of road condition. 5. Think of three more surfaces you could use for this experiment. Which of those surfaces would create the most friction? the least friction? Why?

Activity 3: Crash Test

Materials needed (for each group): ramp toy car ball of clay book or other object for car to crash into Procedure: 1. Gather surfaces from last activity and put them aside. 2. Give each group a small ball of clay (about the size of a large pea). 3. Have the students place a book or some small heavy object a few inches from the bottom of the ramp. Instruct them to place the toy car at the top of the ramp and let it go. 4. Tell students that in the last activity an outside force acted on the car to make it stop. What was that force? (friction) What outside force is acting on the car this time? (the book) What happened to the car when it hit the book? 5. Now have the students take the small ball of clay and set it gently on top of the car. They should NOT press down on it to make it stick hard. It should only be on well enough not to roll right off. Have them repeat the experiment. What happens to the

ball of clay? (It should be thrown off the top of the car when the car crashes.) Ask how this relates to Newton's First Law of Motion (and object at rest remains at rest or an object in motion remains in motion unless acted on by an outside force). The students should observe that the car was acted upon by the book and stopped. However, the clay was not a part of the car and stayed in motion because it was not acted upon by an outside force. Ask if they have ever been in a car when the car stopped suddenly. What happened? If they weren't wearing a seat belt what could have happened? Newton's First Law explains why our bodies want to continue to move forward when the car stops quickly.

Wrap-up
Let students draw or write about today's activities. Have them write denitions of the words and principles they learned today. Older students may want to write a few sentences about why seat belts are important.