Physics Activities

Physics Activities

Newton’s Laws Activities
1st Law (Inertia)
Coin, Card & Can
Catch coins off elbow
Run & drop a ball in a bucket
Sledgehammer to the chest
Nut Drop Activity (t^2)
Whack-a-Stack activity
Break It
Inertia (Ball in a Cup)
Jerk
Impulse Demonstrations
Dividing an Apple
Coke Bottle Inertia
14 Nails on 1 / Center of Mass
Martian Hat
Pen & Embroidery Hoop

Conservation of Energy
Simple Pendulum
Resonant Pendulum
Coupled Resonant Pendulums
Pendulum Snake

2nd Law (Force)
Weight vs. Mass / F=MA
Catapults, Siege Engines, & Trebuchets
Tower Challenge
Bed of Nails
Falling Leaky Bucket
How Far Will an Object Fall in x Seconds
Squats on a Bathroom Scale
Atwood Machine
Float Accelerometer
Calculate Acceleration Due to Gravity

3rd Law (Equal Opposite Reaction)
Wooden Racer
Double bounce
Newton’s Cradle
Skateboard Dynamics Cart & Alcohol Explosion
Skateboard Fan Cart/Newton’s Sailboat
Throw Weight While Standing on Skateboard
Distortion Loops

Matter & Thermodynamics
Curveball maker
Ring & Ball Activity
Balloon vs. Flames
Regelation of Ice activity
Hand Boiler toy activity
Convection Current
Cold Metal
Pie Pan Convection
Plasma Sphere
Leidenfrost Effect
Double -Walled Calorimeter activity
Thermometer & Steel Wool Activity
Torchelli Tube
Heating Rubber Bands
Peltier Effect / Thermoelectric Cooling
Seebeck Effect
“Putt Putt Boat”

Mechanics
Large reaction carts
Moments of Inertia/Rolling Stuff
Nose Basher
Block and Tackle
High Road/Low Road
Anti-Gravity Wheel
Lever & Fulcrum Activity

Motion in Two Dimensions
Shoot and Drop Activity
2 Ball Shoot & Drop activity
Greek Waiter
Ballistic Car
Water Spinner Centripetal Motion activity

Bernoulli’s Principle Activities
Hair dryer & ping pong ball
Blow between 2 empty cans
Can Jump
Bernoulli Bags
Lift a card by blowing through a spool
Frictionless CD Puck
Funnel and Ball
Jumping Dime

Properties of Air
Vortex Generator
Can Crush
Freezing by Evaporation
Bottle with 2 corks
Glass of Water and a Card Trick
Straw through a potato
Descartes Diver
Barometer activity
Blow Out a Candle with C02
Paper Weight
The Magdeberg Tumblers
Feeling Pressured
Vacuum Pump Activities
Raketti Block / variation
2 Liter Bottle Smoke Rings
Air Resistance Balloons
Bernoulli’s Pen / Bjerknes Tube
Bernoulli Tubes
Blowing a Wad of Paper Into a Bottle
Wind Vane

Torque/Angular Momentum
Tower crane activity
Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
Torque beam (or torque bar?)
Pulleys
Strange Balance
Maxwell’s Wheel
Big Torque
Spinning Pennies, More Tails
Spinning Penny in a Balloon
Pick Up a Marble with a Bottomless Cup
Rotational Inertia Wands
You’re the Tops
Euler’s Disk

Optics & Light
Impossible Triangle & Ball and Crate
Bounce a Laser Off a CD & DVD
Spectroscope activity
Ghostly Image (on your retina)
Crooke’s Radiometer
Make things glow
Bird in a Cage
Out of Sight
Disappearing Glass
Selective Light Scattering in a Colloidal Sollution
Floating Frankfurter
Vanishing Postage Stamp
Squirming Palm Optical Illusion
Depth Spinner Optical Illusion
Benham’s Disk
Water Light Guide
Fluorescein & Polyethylene Glycol
Why Do Stars Twinkle?
Soap Film Interference
Lucite Lens & Dioxide Glass
Simple Telescope
Homemade Solar Cooker
Homemade Kaleidoscope

Hydraulics & Fluids
Pascal’s Vases / Communicating Vessels
Water Vortex
Water Surface Tension & Soap activity
Bubbles and Surfactants
Pascal’s Demonstrator
Reaction to Buoyant Force
Velocity of Efflux
Siphon activity
Specific Gravity Bottle for Liquids
Hero’s Carton
No Sucker
Cold Boiling Water
Surface Tension activities
Egg Physics
Heavy Finger
Brim to Brim
Center the Cork
Cohesion Plates
Water Thermometer/Toricelli Tube
Water Level / Poor Man’s Pascal Vase
Sink or Float
Floats Your Boat
Ice sticking out of a full glass of water
Water Proof Hanky
Hydrostatic Scale

Physical Science
Celt Spoon
5 Things You Don’t Know About Fire
Eratosthenes Earth Circumference
Why Is The Sky Blue?
Tired Weight activity
Water Geyser
Resonance activity
Critical Angle Optics
Stalactites in a Hurry
Heat Treatment

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