Inertia Tricks

The wheel goes round and round, round and round. Learners observe four demonstrations that use a spinning bicycle wheel. After the demonstrations, the class discusses the forces involved with a gyroscope. Discussion questions tie inertia...

Students explore the light spectrum. The teacher uses holographic diffraction grafting film on an overhead to demonstrate the true nature of color. After observing a vivid rainbow, students recognize that white light is composed of all...

Wow! Your class will love experimenting with the laws of inertia. Steve Spangler shows how to remove a tablecloth filled with dishes and glasses of water without spilling a drop. Use this resource to lead into a discussion of gravity and...

Wow! Your class will love experimenting with the laws of inertia. Steve Spangler shows how to remove a tablecloth filled with dishes and glasses of water without spilling a drop. Use this resource to lead into a discussion of gravity and...

Can you make a stopped egg spin again without touching it? A Veritasium video attempts to do this using inertia. It discusses the differences between attempts with hard-boiled and raw eggs. It explains the science of inertia and opens up...

You might not be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but you could certainly pull a tablecloth out from under a place setting! Display inertia and Newton's first law of motion for your future physicists or magicians by performing this...

You might not be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but you could certainly pull a tablecloth out from under a place setting! Display inertia and Newton's first law of motion for your future physicists or magicians by performing this...

A teenaged Jack Spangler demonstrates how reducing air pressure in a bottle can pull a boiled egg inside. Then dad does a similar demonstration using liquid nitrogen to reduce the air pressure. Even though the result is the same, the...

If you have a rotating office chair in your classroom, you can have physics pupils participate in this simple, yet effective demonstration of angular momentum. One partner sits in the chair, arms outstretched, holding heavy weights. The...

Students build their own mini experiments to learn about inertia.  In this activity based lesson students use several objects to run mini experiments that teach them about force and inertia.