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Unit 2: Motion Page 15
in place and counteract inertia if see what does on inside the cans
the car suddenly stops. as they roll down the ramp. Which
one has just the can rolling down
Did you know that Newton had the ramp, and which has the entire
help figuring out this First Law? contents locked together as it rolls?
Galileo rolled bronze balls down an The can of the chicken soup will
wood ramp and recorded how far rotate around the soup itself, while
each rolled during a one-second the clam chowder acts as a solid
interval to discover gravitational cylinder and rotates together. So
acceleration. And René Descartes the inertial mass of the clam is
(the great French philosopher) much greater than the inertial
proposed three laws of nature, all mass of the soup, even though the
of which Newton studied and use in cans weigh the same.
his published work.
All of these thinkers (and many
more) had to overcome the long- Experiment: Ta-Da!
standing publicly-accepted theories
that stemmed from the Greek Ever wonder how magicians work
philosopher Aristotle, which was no their magic? This experiment is
small feat in those days. Aristotle worthy of the stage with a little bit
had completely rejected the idea of of practice on your end. Here’s how
inertia (he also thought that weight this activity is laid out: First, watch
affected falling objects, which we the video below. Next, try it on
now know to be false). But your own. Last, watch the video at
remember that back then, people the very bottom.
argued and talked about ideas
rather than performing actual For this incredibly easy, super-
experiments to discover the truth amazing experiment, you’ll need to
about nature. They used words and find a plastic cup, hard covered
reason to navigate through their book, toilet paper tube, and a ball
world more than scientific that’s a bit smaller then the
experimentation. opening of the cup but larger than
the opening of the toilet paper
Who wins, and why? tube.
The chicken soup wins, for a very 1. Put the cup on a table.
simple reason. Imagine that the
cans are transparent, so you can
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