Forces in the Playground

#force #physics #ngscience #playground
Today, we're visiting a place familiar to all of us - a playground. It's not just a place of fun and laughter; it's also a fantastic real-world setting to explore and understand the concepts of force and motion.

So, let's embark on this exciting journey and uncover the science hidden in plain sight at a playground.

Let's start with the concept of motion. In science, motion is defined as any change in the position of an object over time. In other words, when an object is in motion, its position changes compared to something else. A simple example of setting something in motion is kicking a ball. When you kick a ball, you are changing its position from where it sits on the ground to wherever it lands. While the ball is sailing through the air, its position is changing, so it's in motion. When it lands and comes to rest, its position is no longer changing, it is a rest and no longer in motion.

We can describe motion in different ways. Take a swing, for instance. When you're on a swing, you experience back and forth motion. You move away from and towards the swing set, creating an arc in the air. This is a perfect example of to-and-fro motion.

Next, consider a slide. When you slide down, your movement is in a straight line from the top to the bottom.

How about a seesaw? When you ride on a seesaw, you move up and down. As one end goes up, the other goes down. This up and down motion is another way objects can move.

Lastly, think of a carousel. On a carousel, you move round and round in a circle.

A lot of what we know about motion and the forces behind them comes from a very smart scientist named Sir Isaac Newton. He came up with some important laws about motion that help us understand why and how objects move in the way they do. One such law is that when an object is at rest, meaning not in motion, it will remain at rest until a force acts upon it. Take a swing in a playground, for example. When a person sits on the swing, they are not in motion. But when someone applies a force to the swing, like a push or a pull, the swing starts to move. This shows Newton's law in action: the swing stays still until a force (the push or pull) makes it move.

Newton also stated that an object in motion will stay in motion unless acted upon by an external force. For example, when you throw a ball, you set it in motion. And when you catch the ball, you apply a force that stops its motion.

Now, let's delve into the example of the swing again. When you are no longer being pushed, the back and forth motion of the swing gradually slows down, and eventually, you stop moving. This slowing down happens due to two main forces: gravity and friction.

Gravity is the force that pulls everything towards the Earth. When you swing upwards, gravity is pulling you back down and as you go up again on the other side, it slows you down. This process repeats, but with each swing, you go a little less high than before.

Friction is the resistance that one surface or object encounters when moving over another. In the context of a swing, there are two types of friction at play. First, there's the friction between the ropes or chains of the swing and the top bar where they are attached. This friction works against the motion of the swing, gradually reducing its speed.

The second type of friction is air resistance, which is the force air exerts against a moving object. As you swing, you and the swing have to push through the air. This creates a force that resists your motion, known as air resistance. This air resistance, along with the friction at the swing's pivot point, works to slow down the swing's motion, eventually bringing it to a stop.

Gravity and friction are also in action when you move down a slide. As you sit at the top of the slide, gravity is the force that pulls you towards the earth, causing you to slide down. The steeper the slide, the greater the force of gravity, and the faster you'll go. However, as you're sliding down, there's also friction between you and the surface of the slide. This friction opposes your motion, slowing you down and eventually stop moving.

Think about some other ways things move in a playground. How do forces like pushes and pulls, gravity and friction affect their motion?

Thanks for learning.