Mechanics Demos

Click on the following categories to view a list of demos or scroll down to browse.

One-Dimensional Motion Two-Dimensional Motion Relative Motion	Newton's First Law Newton's Second Law Newton's Third Law Applications of Newton's Laws
Statics of Rigid Bodies Work and Energy Linear Momentum and Collisions	Rotational Dynamics Gravity Miscellaneous

Click on the following titles to view a picture and description of each demo.

One-Dimensional Motion

• Catch a Dollar
• Catch a Meter Stick
• Dropping Ball/Dropping Paper
• Dropping Lead and Cork Balls
• Glass Water Hammer
• Inclined Dynamics Cart
• PASCO Dynamics Cart
• Penny and Feather
• Bumpy Road

Two-Dimensional Motion

• Ball Carrier
• Ball on a String
• Nerf-ball gun
• Air pucks with self-propulsion (no table)
• Pasco Dynamics cart that shoots ball vertically & catches it
• Flattening Earth
• PE-KE Tracks
• Penny and Coat Hanger
• Range of a Projectile
• Rocket launchers
• Simultaneous Fall
• Swing a Pail of Water
• The Monkey and the Hunter
• Throw a Ball
• Ultrasonic Detector and Student
• Watt's Governor
• Whirligig

Relative Motion

• Crossing the River
• Frames of Reference Video
• Pasco Relative Motion track

Newton's First Law

• Ball and Card Apparatus
• Breaking Board Paradox
• Inertia Ball
• Smash your Hand
• Table Cloth Pull
• Air pucks with self propulsion (no table needed)

Newton's Second Law

• Acceleration Block
• Atwood’s Machine
• Cork Float Accelerometer
• Car windshield ornament (fuzzy dice)
• Cups and Weights
• Motion up an Inclined Plane
• Pendulum on a Moving Cart
• Pendulum on a Rotating Disk
• Slinky Drop
• Falling Coffee Filters (terminal velocity)
• Dynamics Fan Cart

Newton's Third Law

• Sailboard
• Foam block (place between "active pusher" and perceived "passive receiver")
• Rope with spring scale in middle (or bungee cords)

Applications of Newton's Laws

• Angle of Repose
• Area Dependence of Friction
• Friction Blocks and Surfaces
• Instructor Sandwich - Two beds of nails!
• Lying on a Bed of Nails
• Static Friction vs. Sliding Friction
• Walking Spool
• Weight Dependence of Friction

Statics of Rigid Bodies, Center of Mass

• Center of Gravity Disk
• Disks of Different Radii
• Double Cone and Inclined Plane
• Map of the USA
• Rope and Three Students
• Bobile build-a-mobile sculpture
• Static Equilibrium
• Tippy Man
• Male vs. Female center of mass--place a chair against a wall.  Have a student (male or female) stand just in front of the chair, then bend over until their back is horizontal and their head rests against the wall also.  Then, ask them to pick up the chair while straightening their back, without pushing off against the wall with their head.  Men find this impossible because of their higher center of mass, while women have no difficulty.

Work and Energy

• Bowling Ball Pendulum
• Loop-the-Loop
• Rattleback
• Stopped Pendulum

Linear Momentum and Collisions

• Collision Balls
• Double Ball Bounce
• Egg in Sheet
• Happy and Sad Balls
• Happy and Sad Balls 2
• Superball and Ping Pong Ball
• Water Rocket
• Colliding air pucks with self-propulsion (no table needed)
• Bullet hitting melon (or other model "head" for forensics demo)
• Blood spatter simulation (forensics)
• Modeling car crashes with different vehicles
• Understanding Car Crashes Video (30 min.)

Rotational Dynamics

• Balanced Bat
• Bend a Beam
• Bicycle Wheel and Rotating Platform
• Bicycle Wheel Gyroscope
• Dumbbells and Rotating Platform
• Falling Meter Sticks
• Faster than "g"
• Gyroscope
• Hooke's Law
• Inertia Wands
• Mini Gyroscope
• Racing Disks
• Shear Book
• Spinning Book around its' Axes
• Torsion Tube
• Physics, Dance and the Pas de Deux (video--good for mostly rotational dynamics; runtime 30 min.; search on Kenneth Laws on TRIPOD or ask Suzanne)

Gravity & Astro

• Orbits in a Spherical Cavity
• Conic Sections (purchase from Sargent Welch)
• Center of Mass of Earth and Moon (or other two body system)
• Effect of rotation on a planet (also see rotational motion)

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