Free Fall Tower

Name ______Date ______

Free Fall Tower

The purpose of this lab is to learn and apply new vocabulary words. You will also recreate Galileo’s experiment from the famous Leaning Tower of Piza by dropping various items from the top of the tower to discover how objects fall.

Prior Knowledge

Answer the following two questions.

1. Patty climbs a tree. While sitting on a branch, she drops a leaf and an acorn at the same time. What would happen? ______

2. Patty decides to try another experiment. From the same branch, she drops a large, heavy rock and a small pebble. What would happen? ______History of the Tower of Piza The tower is located in Pisa, Italy. It was built in three stages over 177 years! Construction began in 1173 and after three floors were built, it began to lean because the soil below it had lots of clay in it and couldn’t support the weight. Construction stopped for 100 years. The next two floors were built. This time the walls on one side of the tower were built taller than the other side to try to get the tower to straighten. More time passed and the last floor was added in 1319. Seven bells were added (one for each note on the musical scale) because it was designed to be a bell tower. In 2001, the tower was reinforced so now it won’t tip over and people can walk to the top and stand at the very spot Galileo stood when he worked on his experiment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaning_Tower_of_Pisa Vocabulary

Word Definition Picture

vacuum

free fall

Procedure

1. You and your groupmates will complete this lab on one laptop. Be sure that all members of your group get to set up experiments.

2. All members of the group must record the data on their lab sheets.

3. I expect your work to be legible, complete with labels, and accurate.

4. Open Safari on your laptop.

5. Go to explorelearning.com

6. Click on green log-in button in the upper right hand corner.

7. The username is: math2010-11

8. The password is: msad75

9. Click on the light blue 6 Force tab

10. Click on Launch Gizmo 11. Turn your laptop so the screen is facing the teacher at this step. This way, I will know when everyone is ready to begin the experiments.

Before you begin the experiment, click on Air.

Use the item with no parachute.

Circle the item that you Drag and drop each item to the Write the item that fell to believe will fall to Earth top of the tower Earth first, Or write both first. Or, circle both items if both fell to Earth items if both will fall to Write the speed of each item. at the same time. Earth at the same time. Use m/s for the label. ping-pong ball golf ball Ping-Pong ball and Golf ball

soccer ball watermelon Soccer ball and Watermelon

golf ball watermelon Golf ball and Watermelon

golf ball soccer ball Golf Ball and Soccer ball

Now click on vacuum.

Use the item with no parachute Circle the item that you Drag and drop each item to the Write the item that fell to believe will fall to Earth top of the tower Earth first, Or write both first. Or, circle both items if both fell to Earth items if both will fall to Write the speed of each item. at the same time. Earth at the same time. Use m/s for the label. ping-pong ball golf ball Ping-Pong ball and Golf ball

soccer ball watermelon Soccer ball and Watermelon

golf ball watermelon Golf ball and Watermelon

golf ball soccer ball Golf Ball and Soccer ball

What was learned in this simulation? ______

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