Lab Activity: Bowling Ball Races: Investigating Motion
Conceptual Physics
Objective: Use a broom to guide a bowling ball through an obstacle course to investigate how
forces acting on an object affect the motion of the object.
Materials: broom, bowling ball, obstacle course, team mates, stopwatch, your skills of
observation.
Vocabulary and Concepts:
Force: a push or a pull
When forces are balanced, object is at rest or moving at constant speed in a straight line.
When forces are unbalanced, object accelerates.
Procedure: Each team will determine which member will guide the bowling ball through an
obstacle course. As the team member guides the bowling ball through the course,
other teams record the number of times the ball hits the wall, and how long it took.
Times and water bottle/wall penalties will be recorded on a white board. Return to the
class room, and answer the questions below.
Responsibilities of the team:
 Guiding the bowling ball through the course.
 Timing for other teams
 Counting how many times the ball hit the wall. (3 second penalty per hit)
 Recording if the ball hit the radiator (5 second penalty)
Answer the following questions on a separate sheet of paper. You may refer to the video to help
answer any questions.
1. Sketch a diagram of the obstacle course. Mark start and stop, “No Touch Zones” and the
direction the ball was guided through the course. Mark on the course where the ball was
pushed (and in which direction) and where it was not touched. Mark areas where the ball was
accelerated and when it moved at constant speed.
2. What had to be done to get the ball started? Why? What happened if it was pushed to hard?
3. Describe the ball’s motion in the areas where the ball was not touched.
4. Was it necessary to touch the bowling ball to keep it moving? How did it move when it was not
touched? Are the forces balanced or unbalanced?
5. Describe changes in the ball’s motion in areas where it was touched.
6. Was the bowling ball accelerating when it changed direction? Where to forces balanced or
unbalanced?
7. What was the source of the unbalanced force acing on the bowling ball?
Amin, Salma
Carillo, Daniela
Chavarria, Beatriz
Crespo, Marlon
Davis, Caitlyn
Elysee, Sandley
Formisano, Alexa
Glassman, Amanda
Hartman, Michael
Hernandez, Christopher
Karababa, Ilayda
Larhrissi, Amine
Lowe, Kira
Lynch, Thomas
MacPhail, William
Morales, Elyse
Skoda, Isabella
Vaitzman, Daniel
Vega, Andrew
Vicente, Henry
Weinkselbaum, Ben
Winick, Mallory
Yin, Jonathan
No Touch Zone
No Touch Zone
STOP
START