Praxis: A lesson in friction to help use up any extra energy
By Patty Rooks on July 27, 2019.
praxis@praxismh.ca@PraxisMedHat I don’t know about you, but in my house, the warm weather has allowed for siblings to be inside way too much. There is a bit of rivalry, so this week; I thought I would find a use for all of that extra energy. Challenge your children to this activity and let me know how it goes! Let’s get started! *Remember to ask an adult before doing this experiment. Materials – 2 large books (such as phone books or catalogues) – science helper (preferably a sibling to make this interesting!) Procedure 1. Place the two books side by side on a flat surface. 2. Open the books so they are overlapping. You are going to turn a page from one book and alternately turn a page from the other book overlapping them. I know it is going to take a long time, but continue until both books are combined with one another. 3. Have your science helper pick up one book, and you pick up the other. 4. 1, 2, 3, pull as hard as you can. Who is stronger? 5. Try this again. 6. What happens? What is going on? No matter how hard you pull, the books should not have separated. I hope you tried a few times to see if this is possible. This week we have a lesson in friction. When you overlapped the pages, friction is what resisted the movement and did not allows the books to separate. By overlapping all of the pages in the book, you multiply the force of friction by the number of pages, making it impossible for anyone to separate the books. I hope you had fun trying this out. Patty Rooks, Senior Scientific Consultant PRAXIS, “Connecting Science To The Community”. Contact Praxis at praxis@praxismh.ca, http://www.praxismh.ca, Tweet or follow us @PraxisMedHat, or friend us on Facebook. NOTE our NEW address: #12 826 11 Street S. E., Medicine Hat, Alberta, T1A 1T7 Phone: 403-527-5365, email: praxis@praxismh.ca. 17-16
