Balanced and Unbalanced Forces

Lab Activity

Name: ______Score: _____/10

  1. Correctly answer the question of the day. If you do not answer this correctly the first time, you will be given a different question to decrease your chance of random guessing. Architects are working with engineers to build a lecture hall. How can they build it so that echoes are reduced and speech is not heard as garbled sound?

Circle the best answer choice:

A)build smooth marble walls, ceilings, and polished floors

B)construct many flat walls, angled ceilings, and smooth floors

C)use an ultramodern design of metal walls, pillars, and seats

D)build walls out of porous materials, upholster the seats, and add carpets

  1. Obtain a set of building blocks.
  1. The object of this is to build as high as you can with the blocks.
  1. Devise a strategy with your partner of how you will try to get the highest tower.

Write down your strategy here or draw an example

Get your teacher’s initials before beginning construction. ______

  1. Construct your tower.
  1. With each piece you add, you have the option of stopping and obtaining your highest measurement or going on with another piece. When you stop, you must get your teacher to verify your final height. If your tower crashes, you must start over.
  1. Highest height ______cm Teacher’s initials ______
  1. Did your tower crash? ______If so, why did it crash? If yours did not crash, why did some of the other towers around you crash?
  1. If your tower did not crash, why did it not crash? If your tower crashed, what could have prevented this?
  1. What did you learn about balancing forces in this activity?
  1. Prior to a tower crashing, what was the value of the NET force? (circle one: GREATER THAN, LESS THAN, or EQUAL) to zero
  1. If the tower is not moving, the forces were (circle one: BALANCED or UNBALANCED).
  1. After to a tower crashing, what was the value of the NET force? (circle one: GREATER THAN, LESS THAN, or EQUAL) to zero
  1. If the tower is crashing, the forces were (circle one: BALANCED or UNBALANCED).
  1. While the tower was standing upright, what kind of friction was there between the tower pieces and the lab table? (circle one: KINETIC or SATIC).

PaperTowerBuilding Lab

Mrs. B-Z

Assemble a team of classmates so that you have 3-4 teammates. Assign a role to each teammate and enter his or her name on the corresponding line below. If you have less than 4 on your team, put someone’s name down for two tasks.

  1. Design Drafter (draws the designs) ______
  1. Constructor (puts the tower together) ______
  1. Paper roller (rolls paper and tapes it) ______
  1. Data collector (measures all items) ______

THE GOAL:

Using only newspaper and tape, you are to construct the tallest tower you can.

Creation:

1. How do you want to construct your tower?

a)How many pieces of newspaper do you think you will need? ______

b)How can you get that much newspaper? ______

c)You may only put one 10-cm piece of tape on the newspaper and one 10-cm piece at the end of each piece to fasten it to the tower.

d)How wide do think your tower will need to be? ______

e)How tall do you think your tower could be? ______

f)What would cause (think in terms of Newton’s first law) the tower to fall over? ______

g)Draw three designs of your tower. Be sure that each design has dimensions including metric units for length, width, and height. Incomplete drawings will cause your group to get behind and possibly lose points. Take time to do it right the first time.

Design 1:

What we like about this design? (list at least 3 things using complete sentences)

1.

2.

3.

What we think may cause this design to fall and how we can improve on it (list at least 3 things)

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement ______

Is this the design you plan to build? Circle YES or NO Teacher’s initials ______

Design 2:

What we like about this design? (list at least 3 things using complete sentences)

1.

2.

3.

What we think may cause this design to fall and how we can improve on it (list at least 3 things)

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement ______

Is this the design you plan to build? Circle YES or NO Teacher’s initials ______

Design 3:

What we like about this design? (list at least 3 things using complete sentences)

1.

2.

3.

What we think may cause this design to fall and how we can improve on it (list at least 3 things)

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement: ______

Suggested improvement ______

Is this the design you plan to build? Circle YES or NO Teacher’s initials ______

STEP 2: Construction

Although there is one person listed as the constructor, this task cannot be done by one person alone. The constructor must put the pieces of paper that have been rolled by the paper roller together according to the designer’s plans. While this is being assembled, the data collector must be constantly measuring each piece of paper and the overall height, length, and width.

Drawing of final product (metric measurements must be on this drawing according to what the data collector measured—don’t forget SIG FIGS!)

What was the biggest challenge in creating your tower? ______

How are Newton’s laws applied to your tower? ______

If you had to create another tower, what would you do differently? ______

Were the forces on your tower balanced or unbalanced? ______

How can you tell if they were balanced or not? ______

______

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