Do heavier objects fall faster, slower or at the same rate?
Galileo did this experiment from the top of the Leaning Tower of Pisa with melons! Here is a version you can do at home.
You will need:
✅3 Eggs
✅A needle
✅A bowl
✅A saucepan and stove
✅Kitchen scales
✅Dust pan, brush etc.
✅ Mouthwash
1. Weigh your eggs to select three as close to the same size as you can.
2. Place one of the raw eggs safely to one side.
3. Help your child to hard boil one of the eggs. It will need about 10 minutes. Allow it to cool.
4. Wash the third egg well. Help your child to use the needle to make a small hole in either end of the egg. Poke the needle into the hole and wiggle it a bit to burst the yolk.
5. Blow into the top hole whilst holding the egg over the bowl. You should be left with a shell.
Be careful not to eat any raw egg. Use a little mouthwash after doing this.
6. Now weigh your eggs again to find out their new masses. You now have three objects that have different masses, but are still pretty much the same size and shape. Therefore the air resistance on them will be fairly equal.
7. Take your three eggs to a suitable high point where you can drop them and don't mind making a bit of a mess!
8. (Optional) If you have the facility, video this next bit on your phone so you can watch it back. If you have a slow-mo function. Use it.
9. Drop the two eggs and the eggshell at exactly the same moment.
Watch carefully to see if they land at the same time or different times.
10. Clean up. Maybe have an omelette.
The Science at Work
I could spend a long time typing this, but that would be re-inventing the wheel. So I will refer you to these excellent key-stage appropriate explanations that have already been written. With diagrams.
1. Show your child this famous video clip of an experiment that was done on the moon. The moon has almost no atmosphere, so air resistance does not affect how the objects fall.
2. Get to grips with the difference between MASS and WEIGHT by getting your child to measure their MASS in kilograms and then use this table to calculate their WEIGHT on different planets.
E.g. I have a mass of 75kg on the moon.
75kg x 1.62 m/s² = 121.5 Newtons
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
I heard in the ether that there was a Facebook group called "Christans Against Dinosaurs". So, I searched for it out of morbid curiosity. Please join me on a tour of the oryctodromeus hole I fell down. First, what I understand is the OG group.🧵 1/15
In response to the Christian threat the Dinosaurs have formed their own Facebook Group. Apparently the Dinosaurs outnumber the Christians 4:1. I am concerned that there may not be enough Christians to feed all the Dinosaurs. Hopefully, most of them are herbivores. 2/15
The Battle Royale is now in progress! Move over lions. The Christians have a new adversary entering the arena! The Raptor Resistance. 3/15
This has reminded me of a tale, passed down through three generations of my family, about a weapons test that went humorously wrong. (Although not as spectacularly as the Panjandrum.)
My Grandfather Graham Lee was one of the scientists working on the Bouncing Bomb with Barnes Wallis (whatever the film might suggest, Wallis didn't do it all himself). He was a chemist specialising in explosives and furzes.
Here he is with my Grandma, Dad and Auntie Ann.
During the time when they were testing & training at Ladybower Reservoir in Derbyshire, they had to ensure each dummy bomb was confirmed at the bottom of the reservoir or recovered at dawn. This was to ensure enemy espionage did not get wind of the design or the plan of attack.
As we once more restrict our movement to help save lives, here is a reminder of the deities in the Idol Scribblings pantheon who can help us get through this.
A worshipper of Sloth can flick through all 999 television channels like a Catholic prays their way around the rosary. idolscribblings.blog/2020/03/29/slo…
If you would prefer your Wine Marten with white text for a dark coloured garment (which will hide the splashes of Claret), click here... redbubble.com/shop/ap/579541…
(I am always impressed that Buttercup pushes The Man in Black off Carl Wark so hard that he lands nine miles away in Cave Dale. That's a good angry shove you've got there girl.)
Anyway back to the holiday.
Played a bit of Historic Graveyard Bingo in Castleton.
I scored for, "The stonemason accidentally ran out of space".