Can our eyes detect changes in an object's motion? The video's narrator picks two unsuspecting volunteers to be at the center of an acceleration study. The resource compares the view of a distant landscape with an up-close observation of a falling tennis ball to show that human vision sometimes struggles with both a lack of motion and the subtleties of acceleration.

Concepts

acceleration, sense of sight, making observations

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Additional Tags

science

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Instructional Ideas

• Watch the video, then partner students to design a series of small-scale acceleration experiments to test other possible variables, such as color and shape, to see their impact on perception
• Use the resource in both physical science and anatomy classrooms as a study of how our eyes work

Classroom Considerations

• Assess the class' knowledge of acceleration and speed before viewing the video

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• The explanations in the video are easy to understand and appropriate for a wide range of ages
• The tennis ball prop makes the experiment very easy to duplicate in the classroom

Cons

• None