Physics on the Road Manual
Hopper Popper
Can a ball bounce as high as its release point? (Assume the ball is dropped and not thrown)
Can a ball bounce higher than its release point? (Assume the ball is dropped and not thrown)
Can a ball bounce higher than a superball?
If a ball were cut in half, would it bounce higher or not as high as a whole ball?
Action and Reaction
How are rockets propelled in outer space? (No warp drives!)
You are standing on a sheet of ice where oil has been spilled, making it impossible to walk due to lack of friction. If you are wearing all the usual winter clothes, how could you get to the shoreline?
Inertia and Impulse
You have a stack of washers and you want to remove the bottom washer from the stack without disturbing the others. How could you do that?
Someone has opened two, full pop bottles, and has the upper one upside-down, mouth-to-mouth with the lower one so no pop spills. There is a $100 bill between the two pop bottles, and you are told you may have the $100 if you can get it out from between the bottles without spilling the pop. How do you do it?
Bed-of-Nails
Someone tells you it would be perfectly all right to lie down on a bed made of 1800 nails hammered into a 6' x 30" sheet of plywood. All the nails have their points sticking straight up. Would you lie down on this bed? Would it help to have more or fewer nails?
Barrel Crunch
How would you crush a 55 gallon oil drum by using only air?
Vacuum Chamber
What would happen to marshmallows if you took them into outer space?
What would happen to a balloon if you took it into outer space?
When rocket engines ignite in outer space, could you hear them if you were on a different rocket ship? Could you hear them if they were the engines on your own rocket ship? Can sound travel through water? Can sound travel through solid material, like steel or wood?
Pencil Shoot
How could you push a dowel rod through a 1/2" piece of plywood? (Would it be helpful to send along the piece of plywood and dowel rod to be used in the show? These could be passed around among the classrooms that would be attending the show.)
Vortex Generator
How could you blow out a candle that is 20 feet away?
Laser Light Show
If you could shine a beam of light into a loudspeaker and have the beam reflected back out of the speaker, what would happen to the reflected light beam when music is being played on the speaker?
How could you use light to measure someone's pulse?
Van de Graaff Generator
How could you make a person's hair stick out in all directions from their head without using mousse?
How could you make aluminum pie plates levitate and fly through the air without using any wind? (Aluminum is not magnetic.)
Laser PA System
When you use a telephone, electrical signals carry the audio information. Would it be possible for a beam of light to carry the same information?
Would it help any if the light beam were a laser?
How could you get the signal to go around corners?
If you have questions about Physics on the Road please send email to Roger Boyce.
