May the Force be with you Scientific Knowledge & Conceptual Information

EXPLORE
Blimp Rocket: Thrust or Bust!
Newtons 2nd & 3rd Law
(Driving Forces. 2)

Knowledge Misconception
The following are the short list of scientific Michael Allen outlined following
ideas about force before moving on to misconceptions of forces in his book
challenge and refine our views: Misconceptions in Primary Science:

Forces cause changes in motion and are Heavy objects fall at a greater speed than
not, unlike momentum and energy, light objects
associated with the motion itself. A ball in flight has a force that is
Forces are our way of describing the way propelling it forwards.
external effects (pushes, pulls, gravity, Forces always act in pairs that are equal
support) can influence the motion of and opposite.
things. If an object is moving, more force is being
A force is an effect on an object, not a applied in the direction of movement.
property of the object r its motion. If you An object at rest has no forces acting
want to explain a change in motion upon it.
(speeding up, slowing down, swerving), There is no gravity on the moon.
then you must look for an external effect Gravity becomes stronger the further you
and not at the object or something inside are from the ground.
it.
Forces occur in action-reaction pairs.
Thus, if your standing body pushes down
on the ground, the ground will push back
o you.
Pairs or sets of forces will add together to
affect motion. But, as the addition must
take into account direction, opposing
forces can control each other out.
Common forces include contact forces
(physical pushes or traction from the
ground, friction, air or water resistance
opposing motion, force from wind) and
field forces (gravity, magnetic forces,
electric field forces).

EXPLAIN
Extreme Physics Rollercoaster = Mass x Acceleration
(Full-on Force)
Knowledge
The Law of Conservation of Energy
Energy can neither be lost nor created;
energy is only transferred from one form to
another
Potential Energy
Energy stored in a system of forcefully
interacting physical entities
Gravitational Energy
Potential energy associated with the
gravitational field
Kinetic energy
Energy of an object is the energy, which it
possesses due to its motion
ELABORATE
Chicken Chuckers Classroom Catapults:
Newtons Laws of Motion 1-3
(Joining Forces)
Knowledge
Force and Motion
Forces act on stationary and moving objects.
The forces acting on stationary objects are
balanced. They cancel each other out so we are
often not aware of them. When forces are acting
on a moving object, the effect depends on the
size of the force and the mass of the object
(Primary Connections).
Newtons Laws of Motion
The theory of movement we accept as the
official scientific view was largely developed by
Isaac
Newton in the 17th century. Newton argued that
we should think of force as causing changes in
motion rather than motion itself. Forces are the
way we describe the effect of external
influences on an object. Forces do not always
result from direct contact. Take the case of
Misconception
Energy
An object at rest has no energy.
Students confuse energy with force
Energy is fuel or something that is stored
inside an object (i.e. Batteries)
Only objects in motion have energy
(Skamp, 2012)
Misconception
Force
Forces relate only to living things
Things, such as gravity, friction or jet
propulsion, are not forces, but people can
apply force.
Constant motion requires a constant
force Rather than constant motion
resulting from no force and a net force
causing speeding up or slowing down or
deflection.
The amount of motion is proportional
to the amount of force
Faster-moving objects are thought to
have or need a greater force, whereas,
according to the scientific notion of force,
an object, such as with a spacecraft, can
be moving very fast even with no force on
it.
gravity. Newton showed that the weight force If an object is not moving there is no
acting on an object is due to gravitational force acting on it, and if a body is
attraction from the Earth and that this force, moving there is a force acting on it in
which causes apples to fall, is also the force that the direction of motion. This is not true.
keeps the moon orbiting the Earth. (Skamp, For instance, there is no forward force on
2012) a rolling or sliding object friction will act
First Law of Motion in a direction opposite to the motion.
An object at rest remains at rest and an object
in motion remains in motion with the same Energy
speed and in the same direction unless acted Students confuse energy with force
upon by an unbalanced force Energy is fuel or something that is stored
Second law of motion inside an object (i.e. Batteries)
The acceleration of an object is directly Only objects in motion have energy
proportional to the net force acting on the (Skamp, 2012)
object, and is inversely proportional to the mass
of the object.
Third Law of Motion Machines
For every action there is an equal an opposite Machines must have a motor.
reaction. Machines are only inanimate objects.
(The Physics Classroom) (Deakin University)
Energy
Kinetic energy is the energy stored in a moving
object. Energy storage can be thought about in
terms of kinetic and potential energy. In the
example of a stretched rubber band, potential
energy is stored as the particles within the
rubber band move further apart, stretching the
chemical bonds of the particles. Kinetic Energy
is related to the speed as well as the mass of an
object, The greater the speed or mass of a
moving object the grater the kinetic energy.
(Skamp, 2012)
Simple Machines
Forces have the capacity to affect the motion or
change the shape of objects. The history of the
invention of technologies designed to move or
modify objects (such as piles of dirt, doors or
bicycles, or even ourselves) is the history of
how we have learnt to modify the action of
forces to our advantage. We are talking here of
the principles of simple machines, which can:
Magnify a force applied
Reduce a force opposing motion
Change the direction of a force
Speed things up or slow things down.
(Skamp, 2012)