Purpose  

Students will learn about Newton's Laws.

Students will perform hands-on activities related to Newton's

Laws.

1. Meet Sir Isaac Newton Sir Isaac Newton is an

important scientist who merged math and science

He developed theories which explain how and why things move in our world things move in our world

Born: 4 Jan 1643 in Woolsthorpe, Lincolnshire, England

Died: 31 March 1727 in London, England

Explore Newton's First Law - The Law of Inertia Let’s look at Newton's First Law

An object at rest tends to stay at rest and an object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted on by an unbalanced force.

Your body keeps wanting to move forward, even though the car stops! If you were not wearing a seatbelt and you were traveling very fast, your body could continue to move forward through the windshield!

This property of matter is called inertia.

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Examples of Newton’s First Law This next picture shows how Newton's First Law

applies to moving vehicles. Watch the ladder to see what happens to objects in motion.

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Examples of Newton’s First Law

Let’s look at a hammer falling on the floor.

When the hammer falls, the head keeps traveling toward the ground even after it hits. 

What happened? What part ofNewton’s 1st law do we seein the hammer?

Newton’s 2nd Law We won’t spend a lot of time with this,but

it’s nice to get to know Newton’s second law: The force of an object is equal to its mass

times its acceleration Ever wonder why coaches tell you to put your

weight into it?

An inexperienced person, using just his hand (mass of .7kg), might exert 35 N of force. A karate sensei (master) will be able to use his entire body's mass (70kg) in breaking bricks. The 3500 N of force he would use could easily break several bricks !

Well, a karate master can exert a tremendous force to break boards and bricks.

Mass:The amount of matter in an

object

Acceleration: How quickly an object increases

speed

Newton’s 2nd Law (continued) Here are a few more examples:

You’ve heard that Superman is faster than a speeding bullet. Both have a relatively small mass (compared to the world around them) but have incredibly fast acceleration. They exert A LOT of force

A slow moving train has very little acceleration, but has a huge mass! It exerts A LOT of force, too!

Explore Newton's Third Law - The Law of Interaction Read about Newton's Third Law:

For every action there is an equal

and opposite reaction.

Actions are also called “forces” What do you do to make an object

move?

Think of a force as a push or a pull

Forces can be big or small

Examples of Newton’s Third Law

What happened?

What forces affect motion? Friction

Friction is a force acts between surfaces of objects that touch. It is usually what slows down moving objects

Will a basketball bounce forever if you don’t touch it? What makes it stop?

Let’s explore friction!

How could you decrease friction when moving a heavy box across a gravel driveway?

How could you increase friction on an icy surface?

Other Great Websites about Newton’ Laws For information about Newton’s Laws:

http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/curr/science/sciber00/8th/forces/sciber/newtons.htm

For information about Sir Isaac Newton:http://www.newton.cam.ac.uk/newtlife.html