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This Direction of Force Around a Van de Graaff—Negatively Charged interactive also includes:
Learn about the direction of magnetic force with a very attractive interactive! Young physicists move a positively charged object around a negatively charged Van de Graaff generator and observe the direction of the forces present. A handy tool also allows users to observe the path the draggable object takes using force arrows.
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Concepts
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Instructional Ideas
- Ask learners to sketch the generator and draggable object and predict the direction of the forces, then compare their sketches to the interactive
- Have younger students describe why the charged objects in the resource behave the way they do to test their understanding of magnetism
- Turn on the force pointers tool so pupils can see the direction change as the positively charged object moves around the generator
Classroom Considerations
- The resource is written for a beginner's level in terms of knowledge of direction of force
Pros
- Users can examine the direction of force on each part of the simulation independently
- The interactive is easy to use and operates well
Cons
- None