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  • Newton’s Cradle

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity is performed by students after they learn about momentum and energy, but before they discuss conservation of momentum or energy. If students have never seen a Newton’s Cradle before, put one on…

  • Independence of Velocity

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity should be completed before discussing with students that a projectile’s motion in the vertical direction is independent of its motion in the horizontal direction. As long as students use their…

  • Torque and First-Class Levers

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity should be done before students have studied the operation of a first-class lever. The activity could be used when discussing simple machines or torque. Although it involves the use of a lever, the…

  • What Is a Radian?

    Book Chapter |

    This is an inquiry activity in which students discover what a radian is. Some students may already know how many degrees are in a radian or how many radians are in a circle, but they rarely know the definition of a…

  • Circular Motion

    Book Chapter |

    This lab is an inquiry activity in that students will likely not know which direction the marble will travel and will discover it with some guidance. It also reinforces the method of preparing a hypothesis before…

  • Tangential Speed

    Book Chapter |

    This lab is purely a thought experiment. Although students are given an introduction to angular speed and tangential speed, they will discover the relationship between the two in this activity. The lab is an inquiry…

  • Distance Versus Time Graphs 2

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity should be performed before students have learned about acceleration but after they have learned about speed. Students should have already completed distance versus time graphs for objects traveling…

  • Moment of Inertia

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity is intended to be an introduction to moment of inertia beyond just mathematical calculations. It provides some background in moment of inertia and allows students to discover that the distribution…

  • Elliptical Orbits

    Book Chapter |

    Although not inquiry, this activity is important for students to understand what an ellipse is and what a focus is, and to break misconceptions about Earth’s orbit being highly elliptical. This is the perfect place to…

  • Hydrodynamics

    Book Chapter |

    This lab is an inquiry activity in that students do not know the answer and have probably never experienced this phenomenon. Most students have seen that water in U-tubes is always equal height on both sides. This lab…

  • Unbalanced Forces

    Book Chapter |

    This activity is one for which you can find a lot of different explanations on the internet, but most of them are wrong. Some say that the soap is ejected from the back of the boat. Others say that water is ejected from…

  • Center of Mass 1

    Book Chapter |

    This activity will help students see that a low center of mass helps objects balance. This is important engineering in car and motorcycle racing and robotics. This activity is inquiry in that students would probably…

  • Center of Mass 2

    Book Chapter |

    This activity is inquiry because students have likely never used this method for determining center of mass. The activity is also useful when building soda bottle rockets for estimating the center of pressure. Students…

  • Center of Mass 3

    Book Chapter |

    This lab is an inquiry activity if it is done before the discussion of how center of mass and balance are related. However, students should have an idea of what center of mass is before they start the lab. Students…

  • Spring Constants

    Book Chapter |

    This inquiry activity should be completed before students have learned about spring constants. It should be pointed out to students that if a rubber band or spring is stretched too much, the spring constant is not…

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