Page 11 - Microsoft Word - LessonPlan-Overview.doc
P. 11
Top Scientific Principles
Scientists study motion. They First Law: Objects at rest stay at
study how things move through rest. Objects move uniformly
space and time in order to unless acted on by outside forces.
understand and predict the world. The soccer ball rolls down the field
because you pushed it (or kicked
Newtonian Physics it), and it rolls to a stop because of
air resistance (the ball hits air
The Principles of Galilean particles) and friction (between the
(Newtonian) Relativity are where ground and the ball).
Einstein’s original principles of
relativity came from. The ideas Second Law: F=ma. This tells us
that “I am at rest” don’t mean how much force makes a change in
anything unless you talk about motion. Acceleration (a) is the
your motion relative to something change of velocity. Velocity has
else. two parts: speed and direction (55
mph heading east is velocity.)
There is a natural state of
motion to move at constant When you hit the gas pedal
speed in a straight line. When (accelerator) in the car, the car
you toss a ball, it wants to go in a changes speed (accelerates). When
straight line. But air resistance you make a turn while traveling at
(drag) and gravity are working to constant speed, you are also
bring it to a stop. Launch a changing the velocity (changing
Voyager spacecraft into space and the direction), so traveling in a
it goes in a straight line until it hits circle is also acceleration.
something or is gravitationally
affected by another object. This law also states that
momentum is always conserved.
Newton’s three laws of motion That is, mass multiplied by velocity
(which are based on Galileo’s into a system equals the mass
work) make all motion predictable multiplied by the velocity coming
once we know all the forces acting out. For example…
on the object:
When you aim a billiard ball toward
another, the momentum is
© 2011 Supercharged Science www.ScienceLearningSpace.com Page 11
11
