Science education
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The case of falling bodies project
 


The case of falling bodies project

B) Teaching with Experiments

Work sheet  

 

In order to perform the experiment you need the following materials:

  1. Six empty plastic bottles
  2. Water
  3. Olive oil
  4. Alcohol
  5. Two table tennis balls that are filled with tinny metal shots in order to weight 36,5 gr and 47 gr.

Now you are ready to perform the experiment!

Fill two of the bottles with water, two of the bottles with olive oil and two of them with alcohol. All bottles should be filled up to the same height.

Put the light ball under the water in the first bottle and the heavy ball under the water in the second bottle.

What will happen if you let them drop in the water simultaneously and from the same height?

 

Now, let them drop in the water simultaneously and from the same height.

What happened? Which ball hits the bottom first? Why?

 

Put the light ball under the olive oil in the third bottle and the heavy ball under the olive oil in the fourth bottle. What will happen if you we let them drop simultaneously and from the same height?

Now, let them drop in olive oil simultaneously and from the same height.

What happened? Which ball hits the ground first? Why?

The time between the two hits of the heavy and the light ball is

a) the same in oil and in water
b) shorter in oil than in water
c) longer in oil than in water

Why is that?

 

Put the light ball under the alcohol in the fifth bottle and the heavy ball under the alcohol in the sixth bottle. What will happen if you we let them drop simultaneously and from the same height?

 

Now, let them drop in alcohol simultaneously and from the same height.

What happened? Which ball hits the ground first? Why?

The time between the two hits of the heavy and the light ball is

a) the same alcohol and in oil and in water
b) shorter in alcohol than in oil and much sorter than in water
c) longer in alcohol that in oil and much longer than in water

Why is that?

If you let the two balls fall in the air from the same height what will happen?

Now let the ball fall from the same height in the air.

What happened? Why?

Would this happen with any two weights that fall in the air? Why?