Newton Gets Me Moving
Students explore motion in space.Copyright 2006 NASA, Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Soyuz_TMA-7_spacecraft2edit1.jpg
Students explore motion, rockets and rocket motion while assisting Spacewoman Tess, Spaceman Rohan and Maya in their explorations. First they learn some basic facts about vehicles, rockets and why we use them. Then, they discover that the motion of all objects—including the flight of a rocket and movement of a canoe—can be described by Newton's three laws of motion.
Whenever engineers work on something that moves, they use Newton's laws of motion to help describe how it is going to move. This includes cars, trains, boats, bicycles, skateboards, roller coasters, airplanes and rockets. Really, Newton's laws of motion explain the movement of anything that is—simply—in motion. Knowing how a vehicle will move is very important when designing a successful vehicle. And, similarly, knowing how a rocket will move is very important to designing a successful rocket. Understanding Newton's laws helps engineers figure out how much fuel is needed, how big the rocket must be, how much the rocket can weigh, how long the rocket must burn, and even how fast the rocket will go.
After this lesson, students should be able to:
- Describe the characteristics and function of rockets.
- Identify and explain Newton's three laws of motion.
- Describe how Newton's laws relate to engineering, rockets and paddling.