Launching to success

After our exploration of forces we then looked at the different types of forces we could use to launch a rubber or pencil across the room using common classroom items and a bit of experimentation. 

Using a force...

This term our inquiry is The Physics of War. We started with a famous quote:

"War is the mother of invention"

this led to heated debates on whether war is a catalyst for invention and also whether war is indeed necessary in order to speed up the creation of inventions and technologies.

We then started to look at Physics, particularly forces.
A Force is a push, pull or twist. It affects objects by pushing them up, pulling them down, pushing them to a side, or by changing their motion or shape in some other way.

We looked at the different types of forces and chose to display a few of them:

Applied Force
A force that is applied to an object by a person or another object. e.g. a person pushing a desk across the room.

Tension Force
A force that is transmitted through a string, rope, cable or wire when it is pulled tight by forces acting from opposite ends e.g.

Spring Force
The force exerted by a compressed or stretched spring upon any item that is attached to it.

Like your ears...

 A ruler...

The projector screen...

A stapler...

A shirt