The Thinking Fountain provides this simple experiment for understanding friction and it relationship to energy.

Explore the forces at work when pulling against a cart, and pushing a refrigerator, crate, or person. Create an applied force and see how it makes objects move. Change friction and see how it affects the motion of objects.

A collection of experiments where students can learn about how friction works and affects the physical world. At the end, students design a tortoise to win by slowing it down using friction. Lesson includes explanation of the concept of...

Students learn about the concept of pushing, as well as the relationship between force and mass. Students practice measurement skills using pan scales and rulers to make predictions about mass and distance. A LEGO MINDSTORMS NXT robot is...

Use your knowledge about friction to help Carrie get to the Invigatron before someone steals it. Following the activity, read more about friction and resistance, and then take a quick quiz to check for understanding.

This lesson will introduce the concept of friction and explain how it can affect forces. It is 4 of 5 in the series titled "Friction."

An interactive playground for students to explore the physics of roller coasters. Learners investigate by changing the variables of force, velocity, friction, and vectors. Energy bar charts are displayed as the coaster car moves along...

Explore the forces at work when you try to push a filing cabinet. Create an applied force and see the resulting friction force and total force acting on the cabinet. Charts show the forces, position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time.

You have probably heard the word "force" before in conversations. Here are a few examples: "the rocket had a lot of force at blast off" or "the force of the storm blew the roof off the building." What is force? Force is defined as a push...

Explore how friction between a surface and tires affects the movement of a bicycle.

Covers the meanings of force, friction, and gravity, and the differences between magnetic and elastic spring force, and between weight and mass. The effect of air resistance on an object's motion is also touched upon.

This program gives students a visual representation of the forces on a block that is on an inclined plane. The students can watch how force gravity, force normal, and force friction change as the angle of the plane changes. Students can...

In the first of two lessons of this curricular unit, students are introduced to the concept of friction as a force that impedes motion when two surfaces are in contact. Student teams use spring scales to drag objects, such as a ceramic...

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Understand the effects of magnitude of force pairs between objects. Know the differences between kinetic and static friction.

Students use LEGO MINDSTORMS robotics to help conceptualize and understand the force of friction. Specifically, they observe how different surfaces in contact result in different frictional forces. A LEGO robot is constructed to pull a...

Students learn about various forces and how they relate to everyday life in this interactive learning module.

This University of Minnesota site provides a series of contextually rich, real-world problems demonstrating force and Newton's second law of motion.

[Free Registration/Login may be required to access all resource tools.] Definition of force, how it relates to motion, and force as a vector.

This simulation of a pendulum will demonstrate how friction and force have to change to keep the mass in the same position on the pivoted rod.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Learn about kinetic friction and how objects slide to a stop under the influence of friction.

By taking a look at the energy of motion all around us, students learn about the types of energy and their characteristics. They first learn about the two simplest forms of mechanical energy: kinetic and potential energy, as illustrated...

Students are introduced to the concepts of torque, power, friction and gear ratios. Teams modify two robotic LEGO vehicles by changing their gear ratios, wheel sizes, weight and engine power, while staying within a limit of points to...

A lesson about friction can be found on this website. Students will experiment to see how motion and frictional force affect the game of football.

Review the key concepts, equations, and skills for friction, including how to find the direction and magnitude of the friction force.