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WHAT WILL YOU DO?:
Inertia makes things difficult to stop as well as hard to get started. You will conduct two fun demonstrations to illustrate these principles. You'll learn about Sir Isaac Newton and his first 2 laws of motion.
Do you know how to tell a hardboiled from a raw egg without cracking it open? This experiment will teach you how. You also will learn that inertia is the science principle behind why we wear seat belts.
STEPS TO FOLLOW:
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Demonstration 1:
Spin an uncooked egg on its end in the rimmed pan.
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Touch it lightly with your finger. As soon as it stops, take your finger away.
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Observe what happens. When you touch the egg, you stop the shell from spinning, but inertia keeps the egg white and yolk moving. When you remove your finger, the moving contents make the egg start spinning again.
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Try the demonstration again with the hardboiled egg. What happens when you stop the egg, then let it go? Since the egg is hardboiled, all the contents move together. We call this a rigid body. When the shell is stopped, so are the contents, and the egg remains stopped. The contents of the egg have no more inertia.
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MATERIALS:
1 Raw Egg In Shell
1 Hardboiled Egg In Shell
Rimmed Baking Dish, Plate, Or Pan (To Help Keep Egg From Spinning Off Table)
Small Wagon Or Cart With Wheels
Small blocks
Stack Of Books
Square Piece Of Plywood Or Very Sturdy Cardboard
Brick Or Heavy Book
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Demonstration 2:
Place the edge of the plywood on the stack of books, with the other edge on the table forming an inclined plane. Place the brick at the edge on the table. This will hold the board in place as well as form a barrier for the wagon. Put the blocks in the wagon and hold the wagon at the top of the board.
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Release the wagon and let it roll down the board.
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Observe what happens when the wagon hits the barrier. The wagon stops, but the blocks inside continue to move. The inertia of the blocks causes them to fly out of the wagon and over the barrier.
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