Mechanics Demos

Click on any link in order to view the demonstration with an instructional video. Additionally, there are procedure/activity plans listed for some of the demonstrations below. If you have an idea for an activity plan, download the demonstration template from the navigation panel, fill it out and email it to Ankit Poudel.

Airplane Wing Model

A portion of a airplane wing made out of cardboard and plastic is mounted to a scale. One will below air over the wing with a vacuum to show how the wing can rise and fall.

Airtrack

Long metal track that has air being blown through tiny holes on the track to make a near frictionless surface. Cars sit on the track and can be pushed in one direction to demonstrate collisions.

Same Angle, Different Arcs

Series of pulleys with different radii with string wrapped around. Demonstrates for a given rotation, the arcs of two different size circles are not the same.

Archimedes Principle

Small tank with water to demonstrate Archimedes principle.

Several rigid molecular models.

Single pulley with a string wrapped around it that masses can hang on either side. Demonstrates equilibrium/non-equilibrium of forces.

Balancing Man

A man riding unicycle is mounted on a stand. This man does not fall down as there is balance of center of gravity.

Wooden ball attached to a string to be swung in a circle to show circular motion.

Car that has a spring loaded ball bearing that, when released, shoots straight up in the air. If the car is in motion, the ball will land back in the tube every time.

Variety of objects used to demonstrate Bernoulli principles.

Metal bar with holes drilled into it that sticks directly to the chalkboard. Hangers are on each side and one can hang mass on the hangers to demonstrate equilibrium of forces and torques.

Variety of objects to show the center of mass.

Double pendulum that can swing through itself. Depending on initial conditions, can also exhibit periodic motion.

Piston with cotton in it, when compressed fast enough the cotton catches fire and flashes. Sample Lesson Plan

Student will stand (or sit) on rotating table with hard plastic wheel. Spin the wheel and have the student flip the wheel over and see that he/she starts to rotate on the stool, flip it back over and observe that they stop.

Have student sit on rotating stool and tuck hands and feet in. Spin the student and then have them stick their hands and feet out and observe that their angular velocity slows. Can also be used with students holding 1 Kg masses in each hand and just extend and retract arms. Sample Lesson Plan

Let the hard plastic wheel dangle. When the wheel is not spinning, it wants to lay flat. When the wheel is spinning, it tries to stand up and will precess. Sample Lesson Plan

Conservation of Angular Momentum - Activity 4

Demonstrate conservation of angular momentum with heavy spinning metal disk. CAUTION: Keep hands away from disk when spinning, let slow down either naturally or reverse the device used to speed the disk up.

Coupled Pendulum

Two equal-length pendulums are coupled by connecting their lever arms. When one pendulum is set in motion, its energy is transferred to the other pendulum via the coupling. After some time, the first pendulum comes to a stop when all its energy has transferred to the second pendulum. Then the process reverses. The two normal modes of oscillation can be demonstrated and their frequencies measured in class. The beat frequency can also be measured and compared to the difference between the normal frequencies.  

Bluetooth speaker that will play frequency that is swung around your head to demonstrate the shift in sound when the speaker is approaching you or moving away from you.

A football implanted with a sound generating device which when thrown demonstrates the Doppler effect.

Several Earth-moon/solar system models.

Falling Water Bottle

If we drop a bottle of water while water is flowing out, We can see that water stops flowing out. The bottle and water drop fall at the same rate.

Steel gyroscope to demonstrate conservation of angular momentum.

Place a hoop and a disc of the same radius on an incline and release them at the same time to see which one will reach the bottom first. Demonstrates moments of inertia and conservation of energy. Sample Lesson Plan

Ball dropped and shot horizontally at the same time will hit the ground first. Sample Lesson Plan

Use hydraulic press to show the effects of pressure. Place a board in the press and have a student pump the press and show that the board is easily broken.

Block is placed on adjustable incline with string attached to it that will lay over a pulley at the end of the incline. Masses can be attached to the string. Sample Lesson Plan

Inertia Collection

We hold five simple demonstrations to illustrate Newton's First Law of Motion, also known as the Law of Inertia: (1) Elbow and Penny, (2) Diving Egg, (3) Mass on Cardboard Ring, (4) Tablecloth and Plates, and (5) Inertia Apparatus. 

A heavy ball is suspended from a ring stand by string. Attached to the bottom of the ball is another string. If one pulls fast on the bottom, the bottom string will break every time because the inertia of the heavy ball cannot be overcome in such a small amount of time. If one pulls slowly, the top string breaks. CAUTION: Heavy object falling-keep feet clear.

Kepler's Law

We can show Kepler's law using a cardboard, a string and a marker pen. The square of time period of a planet's orbital motion is proportional to the cube of the semi-major axis.

Ball bearing is placed at top of loop the loop and released and it will go around the loop. If placed on the other side it will not make it around the loop because of the lack of energy. Demonstrates conservation of energy. Sample Lesson Plan

Assortment of masses and colored sprig with different spring constants are laid out to demonstrate the dependence of the restoring force on spring constants. Can also be used to show periodic motion. Sample Lesson Plan

Three or more metronomes are placed on a board that is free to roll. Even if placed on the board out of sync, the beat frequency and freely moving board will damp out all other frequencies until all of the metronomes are either in sync or not oscillating at all.

Two bars of identical mass do not twist with the same angular velocity or ease. The reason is that on of the bars has all of the mass located at the center of the bar and the other has the mass equally distributed at the each end causing two different moments of inertia. Sample Lesson Plan

Cannon is aligned such that if there were no gravity or air resistance the ball would travel in a straight line and strike a hanging target. when the ball is fired, the target is released and the ball still strikes the falling target every time. Sample Lesson Plan

Simple hanging bob to be used as a pendulum.

Tip over the tube with a penny and feather and observe that the feather falls slower. Removed the air and observe they both fall at the same rate. Sample Lesson Plan

Large block confined to a vertical path. Pull it up and let it drop to drive nails into a block of wood.

Resonance

Frequency of pendulum depends on the length of the pendulum. If one pendulum is vibrated under natural frequency, it cause to vibrate other pendulums having same length.

Modified fire extinguisher attached to bike. When extinguisher expels gas, the bike is pushed forward. Safety Note: The release valve can be quite loud, so we recommend the operator of the bike wear earmuffs or earplugs. CAUTION: Contents under pressure should not be directed towards audience.

CO2 cartridge is placed in this apparatus and when the cartridge is pierced, the the thrust makes the arms spin. Sample Lesson Plan

Simple scale to demonstrate introductory physics concepts.

The gun is cocked back and action is held in place by string, the user then loads the slug in the front of the gun. User lights a match and when the string breaks it launches the slug out of the gun. In order to conserve momentum, the gun moves back as it launches the slug. Sample Lesson Plan

Sound Tubes

We have about a dozen of these flexible tubes of different lengths that you can spin to hear different sounds as the air resonates through the tubes. 

Displace the torsion spring by rotating the apparatus clockwise or counter-clockwise. Release and the apparatus will exhibit periodic motion.

Several tuning forks to show constructive and destructive sound wave interference, energy transfer, or doppler effect.

Wooden arrows with magnets in them to demonstrate vector properties. Vectors stick directly to chalk board and can be fixed in all three directions (x,y,z).

Water is placed in a bucket and is swung in a circle to show that the water will stay in the bucket even when swung upside down. Sample Lesson Plan

Track how air moves around a variety of stationary or spinning objects. NOTE: Need 72 hours notice to guarantee dry supply.