March 24, 2017
We have a box of Keva blocks at every science session, and this time, it was the highlight of the planned activities. Build a tower that is leaning, we asked the kids, as tall as you can. At which point does it collapse? Where was its base of support? Where was its center of gravity? We had the participants balance a long plank on their fingers: the center of gravity was at the center of the plank. They then repeated the same exercise with a small weight attached to one side of the plank, and found the center of gravity proportionally shift toward the weight. More balancing activities followed: playing on a seesaw, balancing a book on one’s head, balancing on one leg, and playing BlueOrange games Chickyboom and CooCoo the Clown.
Vocabulary: Center of gravity, base of support, force
Learn More: http://www.algarcia.org/AnimationPhysics/BalanceTutorial.pdf
Watch: http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~mjcarlso/ST/ST029_Center_of_Mass.mp4