Preview - Ap Physics 1 Mechanics

Model of Falling Ball striking Floor.

The students must press set up and go to run the simulation. 

Note: You can make the model run faster by sliding the model speed icon to the right.

In this simulation, we are modeling a basketball with 7 "atoms" connected by springs. So each turtle (circle) in the simulation feels the force of gravity, the force of the springs it is connected to, and the force of hitting the ground. 

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

What is the state of motion of the upper two middle turtles when the lowest one first makes contact with the floor? Why is this so? Which law(s) of Newton is in play here?

What exactly does the area under the force vs time graph equal?

Why does the ball not achieve it original height after one bounce? How does the simulation demonstrate this?

Is the ball always undergoing a change in momentum during this simulation? Why do you know this?

What is the value of the ball's momentum at some point during the initial fall? If the mass were doubled, what would it be?

Draw the force vectors on the ball as it is falling and during contact with the ground.

Note: Draw your sketch in the sketchpad below

What, exactly, represents heat in this model. Do you think that heat could lift up the ball to its original height again?

Force Considerations

Change the strength of the impact force(How do you do this?) and see what happens?

Change the strength of the spring force holding these turtles together, what happens? How do you do this?

What do you think elasticity represents in this model or in the whole physical world?

What line would you have to edit to make this model appropriate for a falling ball on the Moon? If the acceleration due to gravity on the Moon is 1/6 the value on Earth, what value would you change in this code line?

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.