Newton’s Laws of Motion Web Quest
Today you are going to look at motion a little more closely. Go to the following web sites
and answer the questions that follow. Good luck, have fun and don’t forget to wear your
seatbelt!
Part One: Newton’s 1st Law of Motion
Write down Newton’s 1st Law of Motion:
Go to the following web site and answer the following questions:
http://www.physicsclassroom.com/mmedia/index.cfm
Watch the following animations, write down what happened and explain it using Newton’s
1st Law of Motion.
1. The Car and The Wall
What happened:
Explanation:
2. The Motorcyclist
What happened:
Explanation:
3. The Truck and Ladder
What happened:
Explanation:
Go to the following web site and try to shoot a cannonball around the world.
http://www.physics.purdue.edu/class/applets/NewtonsCannon/newtmtn.html
4. Set the velocity as high as it can go. Fire the cannon. What direction does the
cannonball want to go? Why?
5. What was the velocity when you finally made the cannonball go around the world?
6. Explain the cannonball going around the Earth using Newton’s 1st Law of Motion (I
want you to use terms like “inertia” and “outside force”).
Part 2: Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion
Write down Newton’s 2nd Law of Motion:
Go to the following web site and answer the questions that follow:
http://www.walter-fendt.de/ph14e/n2law.htm
This web site is an application where you have a wagon (on top of the table) tied to a
hanging weight. You can control the weight of the wagon, the weight of the hanging mass
and the friction force. When you hit “start”, the hanging weight exerts a force on the
wagon, overcomes its inertia and the wagon moves. The simulation stops on the wagon
travels a distance of 0.5m.
7. Fill in the table:
M
Time to reach 0.5
(grams) meters
10
50
100
200
400
600
8. As you increased the mass of the wagon, what happened to the time it took for
the wagon to move 0.5 meters?
9. How would Newton’s 2nd Law explain this?
10. For this part, keep M = 100 and fill in the following table:
m
Time to reach
(grams) 0.5 meters
1
10
50
75
100
11. As you increased the mass of the hanging weight, what happened to the time that
it took for the wagon to move 0.5 meters?
12. How would Newton’s 2nd Law explain this?
Part Three: Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion
Write down Newton’s 3rd Law of Motion:
Go to the following web site write down the five action forces and their reaction forces
from the page. http://www.physicsclassroom.com/Class/newtlaws/U2l4b.cfm
13.
Action Force(s)
Reaction Force(s)
Part 4: Friction
In this section, I want you to search on your own for definitions and examples of
each of the following types of friction:
14. Static Friction
Definition:
Examples:
15. Sliding Friction
Definition:
Examples:
16. Rolling Friction
Definition:
Examples:
17. Fluid Friction
Definition:
Examples:
Part 5: Collisions
Since you are taking a crash course on Newton’s Laws of Motion, you may as well really
crash some things together. Go to the following web site:
http://www.fearofphysics.com/Collide/collide.html
Enter the settings from the table below, run the program and write down what happened
and an explanation using Newton’s 1st Law of Motion. For the last three spots, pick your
own settings.
Vehicle #1
Settings
Vehicle #2
Big Red Truck
0 mph
SUV 30 mph
SUV 30 mph
Motorcycle 30
mph
Scooter 90 mph
SUV 0 mph
Big Red Truck
30 mph
Big Red Truck
30 mph
What happened?
(How did each vehicle
move?)
Explanation (Why did
both vehicles move the
way that they did?)