Hovercraft Racers!
Students gain first-hand experience on how friction affects motion. They build hovercraft using air from balloons to levitate craft made from compact discs (CD), learning that a bed of air under an object significantly reduces the friction as it slides over a surface.
Hovercraft racersCopyright By: Liz Heinecke, Scholastic, 2017, https://www.scholastic.com/parents/school-success/learning-toolkit-blog/make-homemade-hovercraft-your-kids.html
Accessed July 29, 2020
Understanding how friction works helps engineers design moving objects so they can be controlled. Sometimes they design materials to increase the friction and other times to reduce the friction. Snow tires may have metal studs that poke into the snow and ice, creating more friction than rubber alone. Rollerblade wheels must be sticky enough for control, but not so soft that they create too much drag or wear out too fast. Engineers also reduce friction between moving parts so that they run smoothly and do not wear down as quickly.
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Explain that friction slows moving objects, but also allows them to be controlled.
- Describe how a hovercraft moves and why it floats on a pillow of air.
- Predict characteristics of surfaces that might influence the amount of friction.
- Explain how having an understanding of friction works helps engineers design moving objects so they can be controlled.