Fun with FORCES

In science lessons we have been learning about forces.  A force can be a push, a pull, a twist or a turn.  We found out about friction which is created when two surfaces rub together. 

Try rubbing your hands together.  What do you feel?

That's right! They should feel like they are getting warmer because there is a high level of friction.

Some friction can be useful like when you want to stop your bike.  When you apply the brakes the rubber wheels rub against the road surface creating high friction to stop your bike. 

If you were going down a slide would you want there to be a high or low amount of friction?

We made some flying machines to show how friction works.

You each piece of string horizontally then the machine flies up the string creating friction.

Then we moved on to looking at air resistance.  This effects how things fly through the air.  We found out that a flat sheet of A4 paper would take more time to reach the ground than a screwed up ball of paper.  This is because the sheet of paper has a larger surface area so the force of air resistance is greater.

We made some Zappy Zoomers to see how the shape of flying machines affects the way they fly.  They have to aerodynamic with a narrower end at the front.  We took them outside to test them. 

  To be continued......