Part 2 – 15 minutes
Explain Newton’s first law that an object remains at rest until acted
upon by an outside force or remains in motion till acted upon. We are
going to place a sail on the boat. We will then place the boat in a pool
with a fan exerting a force on it. The student will measure how far this
force moves the boat.
Show the first part of this video discussing Newton’s first law.
- Explain the students will need to create an unbalanced force with the
fan in order to push against their sails and move their boats.
- Hand out the clay, toothpick, straw, tape, index card, scissors and
colored pencils.
- Design a sail on the index card, foam sheet or wax paper.
- Cut it out and color.
- Use a small blob of clay to hold the mast of the boat.
- Tape the straw or toothpick to the index card to act as a mast.
- Stick one end of the straw or toothpick into the clay. Tape the clay
down if necessary.
- Get the stopwatch ready and place the boat in front of the fan, in the
water.
- Time three seconds and measure how far the boat went.
- Calculate the surface area of the sail.
- Record on the board the surface area of the sail and how far the boat
went.