Introduction

 

About Newton        Kinematics        How the Demo Works       Calculation 1       Calculatioin 2

 

  Many high school students learned that Newton's Second Law of Motion (simply Fnet=ma) has great application in many fields of physics. Essentially, this incredible law of motion that Newton came up with became the root of numerous equations and relations in physics, especially, the classical mechanics. Also students learn and practice three important Kinematics equations, but they only seem to use these equations and the law of motion equation mindlessly, substituting the given values in a questions into a suitable equation

 

Actually, many of the theories, laws and equations dealing with motions and energy are hard to understand, and this lead many students to just find the appropriate answers, rather than truly understand the facts and knowledge behind it. The one biggest reason why many of students found these equations hard to understand is because many of these problems involving motions were hard to test out due to too many assumptions. Assumptions such as no friction made it impossible to test out these equations in experiments.

 

This demonstration is designed to make planes to become frictionless so that Students can test out the problems they see in their textbook and in class. Mechanics on inclined plane is chosen to demonstrate since among many other force and motion problems, inclined planes are difficult to understand. Students will calculate the expected theoretical values using the laws they have studied (values that are not affected by frictions) and this demonstration will match the values of their values. And after all, seeing is believing.

 

In this web page, brief introduction of Newton's work and essential kinematics equations will be introduced and discussed. These are needed to calculate many force and motion problems. Also, how this Demonstration works is discussed with the picture footages of the actual demonstration. The 2 copies of Calculation pages and other supporting graphs are found.

 

This demonstration is designed, built, and presented by Jun Lee, UBC Physics major in a Physics major course, taught by Dr. Andrzej Kotlicki and Dr. Chris Waltham. Any Questions, please contact at junnielee@hotmail.com

 

 About Newton        Kinematics        How the Demo Works       Calculation 1       Calculatioin 2