After we got that Monolith on it’s way Bong asked a really good question — do wheels work well on other surfaces?
You see, on the Tiny Planet of Technology, the floor is metallic and pretty smooth. But what would happen if the floor was made of carpet? Continue reading
Trying to get across that slippery slope was hard work. If only we had remembered sooner what our friend Science Jim had shared with us a few months ago about friction. So this time when Jim visited we quizzed him a bit more about how friction works. We did a cool experiment that really opened our eyes to the power of friction. But be warned, this little experiment is geared towards the older explorers, but if the parents take over the notetaking tasks younger ones can have fun too! Continue reading
No, no, I’m not talking about basketball (sorry guys!) The word “net”, in this case, is like net worth or net income. It’s a mathematical concept of what is left after everything that applies is added and subtracted.
Let’s talk about how much net force our friend in the picture there experiences while he’s riding that bike of his.
A bicycle rider has the force of air friction pushing against him. He has to fight against the friction between the gears and the wheels. He has gravity pulling down on him. His muscles are pushing and pulling inside him and so on and so on. Continue reading
We’ve done a couple of gravity experiments, but we haven’t talked about another ever present force (think of it as gravity’s little sister) — friction.
Friction is the resistance that one object encounters when it is rubbing against another object. Friction is what makes things slow down. You use friction when you are riding your bicycle and want to stop.
Without friction things would just keep moving unless they hit something else. Without friction, you would not be able to walk. Your feet would have nothing to push against, and they would just slide backward all the time as if you were doing the moon walk.
Friction is a very complicated interaction between pressure and the type of materials that are touching one another. Here’s an activity to help you get the hang of what friction is all about: Continue reading