Motion in one and two dimensions
Text Resources
Murray, NW 1994, When It Comes to the Crunch: The Mechanics of Car Collisions, World Scientific, Singapore.
Tao, PK 1987, The Physics of Traffic Accident Investigation, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong.
Audiovisual Resources
It is recommended that teachers should view any video before purchase.
Marcom Projects: Collisions, Motion, Force & Gravity, Physics of Fun (Funparks, Circuses and Stunts), Physics of Motion, Roller Coaster Physics, Vectors, Work = Force x Distance
VEA: Gravitation, Projectile Motion
ABC: Pathways to Australian Science - Ep 1: Gravity, Orbits and Asteroids
Classroom Activities
- Excursion to Luna Park
- Circular Motion
- This document features diagrams for several circular motion scenarios such as a car going over a crest, a roller coaster in a loop the loop, a car on a banked curve, a training astronaut experiencing "weightlessness" in a plane, a etc. For each diagram the student is asked to drawn the acceleration vector, the forces acting on the object, an expresssion for Newton's 2nd law involving the forces, and whether "weightlessness" is possible and if so what is the relationship between the velocity and radius. Answers are provided.
Assessment Ideas
- Gravity
- Unit 4 School Assessed Coursework (motion) - A set of questions for use with the article 'Time's up for Mir ...' which was provided at the 2000 conference
IT Applications
- Planet Spreadsheet
- Planet Documentation
- An Excel Spreadsheet 'Planet' contains radius and period data of the moons of the solar system. The document 'Gravity' contains a set of tasks and questions for the Excel spreadsheet. The students investigate how the moons' velocities and accelerations vary with distance from the planet. Values for R cubed /T squared can be obtained for each planet and subsequently the mass of each planet determined.
Useful Websites
Physics of Kung Fu multimedia website designed to engage young people. The website follows a young physicist as she learns how to break through three planks of wood. She keeps a lab book of her thoughts and experiments. The website also includes videos of the techniques, discusses the physics principles involved and shows her calculating the energy required and working out whether she can break the wood, given her size and the speed of her arm.
NASA website showing real time location of all satellites in 3D, useful for showing geostationary satellites.
Applets
There are an increasing number of applets being developed around the world. Some of the developers have written quite a large number across many fields of physics and science in general. Under the “Links” area of this website there is a section for applets where you can select one of the web site of these developers to see the range that they have produced.
Listed below are the applets from these developers for this particular Area of Study. Each has a description to give you some idea of its usefulness and relevance. The first name is the developer, the second is the category or section within their site and the third is the applet’s title.
Please read the descriptions below, and then go to the Links section.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics/Projectile Motion
- You can vary, the initial height, speed and angle, as well as the mass of the object and the gravitational attraction. Air resistance is ignored. The path of the projectile is progressively drawn on a set of x-y axes. As the object moves along its path you can show, either both velocity components, the acceleration vector or the force vector. There is also the choice of displaying the amount of KE, GPE and Total Energy, as the object moves through its flight. For fast moving objects there is also a slow motion option.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics/Elastic and inelastic collisions
- The applet shows a one dimensional collision between rail cars. The elastic collision uses spring bumpers, the inelastic collision is a sticky collision, with both rail cars locking on impact. You are able to vary the mass and the velocity including negative values. As the cars collide a dot representing the centre of mass of the system moves along underneath them. You also have the option of either showing the velocities, momenta as they collide or energies before and after. This can be very instructive.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics /Newton’ Cradle.
- This shows a five ball cradle in which you can vary the number of balls pulled aside from 1 to 4, and then release.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics /Carousel – Centripetal Force.
- This shows a spinning carousel with masses hanging from the edge. They are at an angle as the carousel rotates. You have four choices for the display i) the carousel itself, ii) the carousel with weight, tension and net forces shown on the each of the masses, iii) a force diagram for the mass, and iv) calculated values for frequency, angular velocity, radius, velocity, angle, weight, centripetal force and tension. The aspects you can vary are: the period, the distance out of the suspension points for the masses, the length of the string supporting the masses and the masses themselves.
- Walter Fendt/Oscillations and waves./The Spring Pendulum.
- The display features a mass oscillating up and down on the end of a spring. Beside the spring is a graph against time of one of the following parameters: elongation (which shows variation from mean position), velocity, acceleration, net force (called force) and Total PE and KE. A dot moves along the graph in time with the spring, and the vector quantities are represented by an arrow on the mass. You can vary the force constant, amplitude and mass.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics /Kepler’s First Law.
- This displays the elliptical nature of planetary orbits. The display features the sun and the planet. You can choose to show any of all of the following the orbital path, the axes, and the lines to the foci. You can move the planet to other points in the orbit with your cursor. You are able to choose any of the planets or Halley’s comet. The display also includes the semi-major and semi-minor axes and the eccentricity. The distance from the sun, max, min and for where the planet is are displayed in A.U.’s. You can also design your own orbit by entering values for the semi-major axis and the eccentricity.
- Walter Fendt/Mechanics /Kepler’s Second Law.
- The display features a planet going around the sun. You can add two sectors of equal area with the time in each recorded each time the planet passes through each. The location of the areas in the orbit and their size can be adjusted. Similarly you can select the show the velocity vector on the planet as it revolves. You can select any of the planets or Halley’s comet or design your own orbit. The display also gives the planet’s distance from the sun and the current velocity, as well as max and min values. There is a slow motion option which is useful showing the velocity vector of Halley’s comet.
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