Units of Measurement
Introduces fundamental SI base units (kilogram, meter, second) using physical examples, then builds derived units (joule, watt) through a concrete calculation: raising 1 kg by 1 m in 1 s …
Mechanics Area
One-Meter Cube
A physical one-meter cube helps students visualize the SI unit of volume and the three-dimensional nature of derived units. Three edges from a common vertex are marked in decimeters, forming …
Safety
Density Samples
Identical 473 mL bottles filled with different materials are weighed to show that equal volumes can have very different masses. Students see directly that density is an intrinsic property of …
PASCO Dynamics Cart
A PASCO cart on a track with a motion sensor displays real-time position, velocity, and acceleration graphs simultaneously. Students see the derivative/integral relationships between kinematic quantities as the cart moves.
Air Track
A nearly frictionless glider on an air track demonstrates constant velocity motion (Newton's First Law) and elastic collisions. The track is marked at regular intervals for quantitative measurement of position …
Air Track with Photogates
Photogates on a nearly frictionless air track measure instantaneous and average velocity with millisecond precision. Students see the operational distinction between these two velocity concepts and learn how flag width …
Brachistochrone
Three balls race down different paths (straight, parabolic, and cycloid) to show that the shortest distance is not the fastest route. The cycloid wins because its steep initial drop builds …
Safety
Center of Mass: Rubber Cork Bolas
Two unequal rubber stoppers connected by rope are tossed through a UV beam in a dark room. The stoppers trace complex curves, but a fluorescent tape marking the center of …
Barycenter: Pluto and Charon
Scale model of the Pluto-Charon system demonstrates that both bodies in a binary system orbit their common center of mass (barycenter). Because Charon is so massive relative to Pluto, the …
Camera with Foucault Pendulum
A transparent Foucault pendulum model on a document camera shows how a pendulum's swing plane appears to precess when viewed from a rotating reference frame. By rotating either the disk …
Foucault Pendulum
A pendulum swings over a rotating platform to show that its oscillation plane remains fixed in the lab frame while appearing to rotate for a platform-bound observer. Demonstrates how inertial …
Safety
Coriolis Effect
A ball rolled across a large rotating platform travels in a straight line in the lab frame but follows a curved path relative to the platform. Students see directly that …
Inertia Balance
A horizontally oscillating platform measures mass through inertia rather than gravity. Students observe that the oscillation period depends on the loaded mass, and that plotting vs. yields a straight line …
Safety
Acceleration, Mass
Demonstrates that acceleration is proportional to mass . Contrasting the effort to lift a heavy rock versus a realistic-looking styrofoam boulder gives students a visceral sense that mass measures resistance …
Mass on Thread
Demonstrates inertia by showing that a slow pull on a suspended mass breaks the upper thread, while a swift pull breaks the lower thread. Students see directly how the rate …
Constant Force Spring
Demonstrates that constant-force springs provide uniform tension regardless of extension, contrasting with Hooke's Law springs where force is proportional to displacement. Attaching a mass to the cable produces neutral equilibrium …
Simple Atwood Machine
Demonstrates Newton's Second Law quantitatively using two masses connected over a pulley. A small mass imbalance produces measurable constant acceleration, allowing students to compare predicted and measured fall times.
Safety
Leaking Cup Drop
A cup with a hole leaks water when held stationary but stops leaking when dropped. In the cup's freely falling reference frame, the effective gravity is zero, eliminating the hydrostatic …
Third Law Tug-of-War
Two volunteers pull on connected force meters (dairy scales) while seated on rolling platforms. The scales always read equal forces regardless of who pulls harder or who is heavier, directly …
Safety
Fan Cart and Sail
Demonstrates Newton's Third Law and the distinction between internal and external forces. Without the sail, the fan pushes air backward and the cart accelerates forward. With the sail attached, all …
Action-Reaction Cart
A heavy pendulum suspended on a wheeled cart demonstrates Newton's Third Law: push the cart and the pendulum swings opposite, or swing the pendulum and the cart rolls opposite. Makes …
Center of Gravity Board
Experimentally locates the center of gravity of an irregular board by hanging it from different points and marking plumb lines. Students see that the CG must lie along every vertical …
Center of Meter Stick
Sliding hands along a meter stick always converge at the center of mass, regardless of starting position. Comparing a uniform stick (hands meet at 50 cm) with a weighted stick …
Loaded Disk
Demonstrates that rotation appears smooth when viewed about the center of mass but wobbles when viewed about the geometric center. Students see directly why center of mass is the natural …
Leaning Ladder
A figure climbs a ladder leaning against a block, demonstrating that mass *distribution* — not total mass — determines stability. The system is stable with the figure at the bottom …
Spool with Ribbon
Demonstrates the counter-intuitive nature of torque. Depending on the angle of the ribbon, the spool rolls toward the pull, away from it, or slides without rotating. The critical angle where …
Weighted Disk
Demonstrates how a non-uniform mass distribution affects rolling motion. On a level surface, the disk always rolls back to place its center of mass at the lowest point. On an …
Tidal Distortion
Demonstrates how the Moon's differential gravitational pull creates two tidal bulges on opposite sides of Earth. Students see that tides arise from gravitational gradients, not uniform attraction. Extend the discussion …
Safety
Gravity Well
A stretched neoprene sheet models a 2D gravitational potential well. Students observe how mass creates a depression and how smaller objects orbit, spiral in, or escape depending on launch velocity. …
Conic Sections
Visual aid for understanding conic sections -- circles, ellipses, parabolas, and hyperbolas -- as planar cuts through a cone. Connects the geometry to orbital trajectories under gravity: orbit shape depends …
Chainhoist
Demonstrates mechanical advantage in a differential pulley (Weston hoist). Two locked sheaves of slightly different radii produce a large force multiplication, illustrating how simple machines trade distance for force.
Safety
Pulley Hoist
Sit in a chair and lift yourself using a threefold-purchase tackle (MA = 6). The pulling force is one-sixth your weight, but you must pull seven times as much rope …
Yo-Yo and Counterweight
Demonstrates how mechanical constraints produce counterintuitive motion. As the yo-yo unwinds and falls, its decreasing effective radius releases string, causing the balanced counterweight to descend rather than rise -- challenging …
Impulse on Clay
Identical clay balls dropped onto hard and soft surfaces show how impact duration affects peak force. The clay permanently records the deformation, making the impulse-momentum theorem visually concrete: same momentum …
Spring-Loaded Carts
Demonstrates conservation of momentum using two spring-loaded carts that push apart from rest. By adding mass to one cart, students observe the inverse relationship between mass and velocity when total …
Safety
Rocket Car
Demonstrates rocket propulsion via Newton's Third Law and conservation of momentum. Expelling gas in one direction accelerates the cart in the opposite direction, showing that rockets need no external medium …
Moment of Inertia Meter Sticks
Demonstrates that mass distribution, not total mass, determines rotational inertia. Students rotate sticks with identical mass but different mass placements, directly feeling the dependence of moment of inertia.
Balancing the Sword
A meter stick with adjustable clamp masses is balanced vertically on an open palm. With masses high, the large moment of inertia slows angular acceleration, giving time to correct — …
Hoop and Disk Race
A hoop and disk of equal mass and radius race down an incline. The disk always wins because its mass is closer to the rotation axis, giving it a smaller …
Hooke's Law
Verifies Hooke's Law by hanging masses from springs and measuring extension. Comparing springs with different spring constants shows that is a property of the specific spring, and the linear force-displacement …
Safety
Stiff Springs
A spring with a very large spring constant demonstrates what "stiff" means quantitatively. Three kilograms stretches it only about an inch, and it cannot be fully compressed by hand — …
Series and Parallel Springs
Hang identical masses from single, series, and parallel spring configurations to show how effective spring constants combine. Students see that series springs stretch more and parallel springs stretch less than …