Science Sportacular - Liberty Science Center

Science Sportacular
Science Sportacular is an action-packed 45 minute long assembly
program that explores and demonstrates several key concepts in
physics through the use of demonstrations and examples taken
directly from the playing field.
Mass * Newton’s Laws * Spinning Bodies
* Distribution of Force
Mass
The misconceptions between the terms mass and weight are illustrated and corrected through
the use of various sport-related demos. Students will witness gravity first hand while learning
how the laws of physics always override those of any sport.
Newton’s Laws of Motion
Sir Isaac Newton’s laws governing the motion of objects are covered in a manner never before
demonstrated on stage. Students will learn that physics is present in every sport.
Spinning Bodies
Why do quarterbacks throw spiral passes? How does a motorcycle stay up even around turns?
What makes a curve ball curve? It all has to do with spin. Learn how spinning affects many of
our favorite sports.
Distribution of Force
During this segment of our program, we discuss the importance of wearing a helmet in a very
“sharp” manner. Students will understand the physics behind head injuries, but more importantly
will learn how to avoid them.
Recommended Grade Level: 4-8

Science Sportacular
Program Information
NJ Standards:
NJCCCS 2009:
Standard 5.1.8.A Understand Scientific Explanations
Standard 5.1.4.B Generate Scientific Evidence through Active Investigation
Standard 5.1.8.B Generate Scientific Evidence through Active Investigation
Standard 5.1.4.D Participate Productively in Science
Standard 5.1.8.D Participate productively in Science
Standard 5.2.4.E Forces and Motion
Standard 5.2.6.E Forces and Motion
Standard 5.2.8.E Forces and Motion
Standard 5.4.4.A Objects in the Universe
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the presentation, the audience will know and be able to develop an
understanding that:
Gravity pulls objects toward the earth at the same rate regardless of their mass
Newton’s First Law states that objects in motion or at rest will remain that way
unless acted upon by an outside force
Newton’s Second Law states that the force exerted on an object is equal to its mass
times the acceleration of the object
Newton’s Third Law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite
reaction
Angular momentum keeps objects spinning in a certain plane
Safety equipment protects us by distributing force over a greater area
Program Overview:
The laws of physics describe how objects behave when they are in motion. Sports
involve the motion of people and equipment, both of which adhere to these laws. This
program demonstrates gravity, Newton’s Laws of Motion, angular momentum, and
distribution of force. All topics are explained and demonstrated using actual sport
equipment and many volunteers.
Special Instructions:
*See Equipment requirements next page

Thank you for reserving … Science Sportacular
There are just a few things we will need:
1. Parking:
Safe, legal parking with easy access to our vehicle must be provided.
2. Space:
If booked as an assembly, our program requires large indoor space such as an
auditorium or gymnasium. Please be advised that this space must be available to
us 45 minutes prior to the scheduled start time for set-up and 30 minutes following
the conclusion for breakdown.
(For safety reasons, we cannot have students in the area while we are engaged in the setup
or breakdown of programs.)
3. Equipment
We bring everything, EXCEPT... One large table provided by you (minimum
size two feet wide x six feet long)
(Please have the table set up prior to our arrival so we may begin our set-up promptly.)
We will need access to one normal (grounded) 110-volt electrical outlet.
(Please be sure outlets in the performance area are working and unobstructed.)
4. Restrictions
The audience size is limited to a maximum of 300.
5. Directions
If you know that the online driving directions to your location are inaccurate,
please see the next page.
Please contact us at 201.253.1310
if any of these outlined criteria present an issue.

Our Traveling Science Educators normally use MapQuest for directions. Most times the
directions are accurate. However:
If directions from online services to your venue are inaccurate or difficult to understand,
please use this form to clearly print or type directions to your location.
If there are any special instructions we must follow once we get to your location, please
note them below.
Please use this form only. Do not substitute!
Venue (program site):
Date of program:
Contact name:
Telephone:
Estimated driving time from Liberty Science Center: _____ Hours _____ Minutes
To ensure our timely arrival, we MUST know how long it takes to reach you.
Directions (Must start from Exit 14B of the N.J. Turnpike or the Holland Tunnel):
Please return via mail:
Or by fax:
Liberty Science Center
Traveling Science Program
222 Jersey City Boulevard
Jersey City, NJ 07305-4699
201.434.6100 Attn: Traveling Science Program
In case of inclement weather, call 201.253.1280 as early as possible. Please
reschedule for the next working day at 201.253.1310.
Please return this form no later than two weeks prior to our visit.

Science Sportacular Assembly Program
Pre-Visit Activity Guide
This packet contains some simple classroom activities utilizing everyday,
inexpensive (or even free!) items. Please feel free to duplicate these pages as
needed - they are sent on plain white paper to ensure the best quality of
reproduction.
We suggest that these activities be conducted before our visit in order to
familiarize students with some of the concepts we will explore together during our
Sportacular presentation. However, they may be performed after our visit to
serve as a reinforcement of the concepts covered in the program. If and when
you choose to use these activities, or whether or not the activities are appropriate
for your class, is entirely at your discretion.
If you have questions about any of the enclosed activity procedures, please
contact our Science Educators Associate Director at 201.253.1472.

I. Activities Exploring Gravity and Weight
Center of Gravity: Lean on Me
Materials:
Students of similar height
Male and female students
A wall
All objects have a point where they are held in balance by the force of gravity. This
balancing point is called the center of gravity because it is the place where the whole weight of
the object seems to center.
Activity #1
Procedure:
1. Pair students of similar heights.
2. Have everyone point to where they think their center of gravity is.
(*In most people standing up, their center of gravity is located about one (1) inch below the
navel.)
3. Have the students who are similar in height stand back to back shoulder to shoulder,
and heel to heel.
4. Next have the students bend over and attempt to touch their toes while keeping their
backsides together.
*This is an impossible task as the student’s center of gravity moves forward and makes their
back to back stance unstable
Activity #2
*Only females will be able to accomplish this task since their center of gravity is just a little lower
than that of males. When a male bends over in this stance, he places his center of gravity
beyond his toes. A female maintains her center of gravity above her feet and can straighten up
with little difficulty. This does not always work with young children.
Continued…

Procedure:
1. Choose two students, one male and one female.
2. Have the students face a wall.
3. Have students stand two (2) of their own foot lengths away from one another.
4. Have the students bend over (using their hands for support) and place their heads
against the wall with their bodies bent at a 90-degree angle at the waist.
5. Have both students place their hands on their knees to keep their legs straight and
their hands from being used to push-off from the wall.
6. Now have both students stand back up to an erect position without using their hands
for support, bending their knees or moving their feet.

Gravity Getting You Down?
Materials:
Plastic cup
Thin string
Paper clips
Small nail or thumbtack
Paper
Rubber band
Assorted small objects (pencils, marbles, stones, grapes, etc.)
Objects have weight because gravity pulls on them. The greater the pull of gravity on
an object, the more it weighs. People do not feel their weight if there is no gravity pulling on
them or if they are floating freely. When you bounce on a trampoline you feel weightless when
you are up in the air, however the feeling will only last until you come down to earth again.
The pull of the earth’s gravity is less as you go further out into space; therefore we would
weigh less in space. Astronauts float about in their spacecraft because there is little gravity to
pull them down.
Mass and weight are proportional to each other. The more mass a person has, the
more they will weigh. The greater the mass the greater the pull of gravity will be on that person.
Procedure:
1. Hammer the nail or press the thumbtack into a vertical surface.
2. Loop the rubber band inside the paper clip and hang the paper clip from
the nail or thumbtack
3. Make 3 holes on the rim up the cup and thread the string through the top to make a
handle. Tie the ends together and then tie them to the end of the rubber band.
4. Make a scale for your balance, using a piece of paper fixed behind the rubber band.
Mark how far the rubber band moves when an object is weighed
Use this balance to compare the weight of small objects. How do their weights
compare to their mass?

II. Activities Exploring Newton’s Laws
Getting Things Moving
Objects that are still do not want to move and objects that are moving do not want to stop.
This tendency of something to stay still or keep moving is called inertia. (The word comes from
the Latin word for “lazy.”) To make something start or stop moving you must overcome its
inertia. Inertia can be overcome by pushing or pulling an object. These pushes and pulls are
known as forces. The heavier something is, the more force it needs to start it or stop it from
moving.
Is it easier to start something by moving it quickly or slowly? Try this experiment to find out.
Materials:
Thread
Two heavy books
A board about a foot wide and a foot long
Two empty sodas cans
Procedure:
1. Tie a length of thread around two heavy books.
2. Rest a board across two empty cans and put the books on top.
3. Gently pull the thread.
4. Now keep the thread slack and give it a really hard tug.
The books should start moving quite easily.
This time the thread should break because the books have too much inertia
to start moving quickly.

Friction Slows Things Down…
One way of moving things is to slide them over another surface. Think about pulling a sled.
Does it slide more easily on ice or on a concrete path? When two rough or uneven surfaces rub
together an invisible force called friction holds them back and makes moving difficult. Moving is
easier when there is little friction between two surfaces.
Investigate Friction
Smooth or even surfaces produce less friction. That is why it is easy to zoom down a shiny slide
in the park.
Materials:
A smooth piece of wood or a flat desk
A metal tray
A matchbook
A stone
Piece of wood
An eraser
An ice cube
Procedure:
1. Arrange a selection of objects in a line along the edge of a smooth piece of wood or a
desk.
2. Slowly raise the piece of wood or the desk until the objects begin to move. Make a note
of the objects that move first.
3. Repeat the experiment using the metal tray.
Do the objects move more easily… or less easily down the metal tray? Do you have to lift the
metal tray higher than the wooden board/desk before the objects will move? Which surface has
the lowest friction?
How it works:
Some of the objects move more easily than others because there is less friction between their
outer surface and the surface of the board/desk or tray. Feel the objects that move easily. They
should feel smooth, with no rough surfaces.
Friction always makes it harder to move things but this can sometimes be very useful. For
example, the friction between the soles of your shoes and the ground stops you from slipping
when you walk, and the wheels of a car could not grip the road without friction.
Can you think of any situations in which friction helps us play a sport?
Here are some examples:
• The studs on soccer shoes increase friction to stop the players slipping on the grass.
• Friction allows the players to kick the ball. Without friction it would slide off their feet.

Newton’s Second Law: Smooth Sailing
Acceleration is the rate of change in velocity. Velocity is the rate and direction with which
an object travels. The gas pedal in a car is called the accelerator because by pressing on it we
can change the velocity (how fast the car is going). There is a formula for acceleration:
F=ma Force = mass x acceleration
This formula shows us that objects with more mass need greater forces in order to accelerate.
The following experiment will show how heavier objects need a greater force to move.
Materials:
2 empty plastic bottles, preferably small water bottles
Hair dryer
Jellybeans
Long tub of water
Procedure:
1. Cut the plastic bottles into an L-shape so that there is a cup part with a sheet of plastic
sticking up like a sail.
2. In one place a few jellybeans, just to give it some weight. In the other place as many
jellybeans it can hold without sinking.
3. Place both “ boats” into a long tub full of water.
4. Turn on the hairdryer (be careful not to drop it in the tub) and blow air on the boats,
racing them across the tub
You will see the boat with the least mass will have a greater acceleration. Its speed will
change faster with less force.
The formula F = ma only works if you are accelerating on a surface, like a car on a road
or a runner on a track. If objects are dropped and freefall through the air, they will fall at the same
rate (9.8 m/s) regardless of their mass. This is because of the force of gravity.

Newton’s Third Law: Off to a Good Start
Newton’s Third Law states “for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
What does the 100 yard dash have to do with Newton’s third law? For this activity you will need
just a few blocks of wood and a stopwatch.
Materials:
Procedure:
Two students
Stopwatch
Pencil and paper
2 blocks of wood (1 part of 2x4, 1flat piece)
Wall or curb
Space to run
1. Set up a start line and a finish line, 10-20 yards apart
2. Set up a “starting block” by leaning the flat piece of wood against a wall or curb and
place the other block further from the wall.
3. Have one student race from the start to finish line from a sprinter’s position off the
blocks; the other student will time the run. Run 3 trials.
4. Repeat the trials, this time from standing position.
When Olympic runners line up at the starting line, their feet are usually perched on small
ramps. These ramps are called starting blocks. When a race begins, the runner will push off on
the starting block. At the same time, the block is pushing back on the runner’s foot with the
same amount of force. This equal but opposite reaction is what allows a runner to have a fast
start.
The average time for the trials off the starting blocks should have been faster than the
trials from the standing position.

III. Activities Exploring Distribution of Force
Bed of Cups
Materials:
4’ x 4’ sheet of cardboard
100 Dixie cups
Procedure:
1. Place enough cups top down on the floor to support the piece of cardboard, leaving
roughly 5 inches in between the cups.
2. Place the cardboard on the cups, and have a student lie on their back on the cardboard.
(The cups should crumple).
3. Next arrange the cups on the floor so they completely cover a 4’ x 4’ area, leaving no
space between the cups.
4. Again place the cardboard on the cups and have a student lie on the cardboard.
In the first scenario, the cardboard could not support the student’s weight because the
force was not evenly distributed- a few cups received most of the weight and most received
very little. No cups were crushed in the second scenario because the weight was evenly
distributed over all the cups.
You can also demonstrate the distribution of force with a chicken’s egg.
We normally perceive eggs as fragile objects, easily cracked and broken. So asking a
student to crush an egg in their hand would seem like a simple task, correct?
Material:
Egg, uncooked
Procedure:
1. Have a student place the egg in the palm of their hand, have them wrap their fingers
around the egg and squeeze as hard as they can. As long as their fingers are evenly
distributed, it is almost impossible to crush the egg.
2. Next ask them to hold the egg in their hand and place the tips of their fingers as close
together as possible on the middle of the egg and squeeze.

IV. ActivitiesExploring Spinning Bodies
The High Heat
Each pitch in a professional pitcher’s arsenal uses a different type of spin. Even the
fastball is spun to keep it accurate. When the spinning baseball travels through the air, areas
of high and low pressure can be found on different sides of the ball. The high pressure will
“push” the ball towards the low area. Breaking pitches like curveballs and screwballs are a
great example of this. Try to throw a Styrofoam ball and see if you can make it in the majors!
Materials:
Procedure:
Baseball sized Styrofoam balls
Enough space to be able to throw the Styrofoam ball
1. Fastball: Hold the ball between your thumb, fore, and middle fingers. When you throw
the ball, let the ball slip off the ends of your fingers. This will usually result in backspin,
allowing the ball to travel in an upward motion.
2. Curveball: Using the same grip as a fastball, when you throw the ball, snap your wrist.
This gives the ball a completely different spin from the fastball, sending the ball “down
and away” from a right-handed pitcher to a right-handed batter.
3. Screwball: The same pitch as the curveball, except that the snap of the wrist is in the
opposite direction. The ball will move to the opposite side of the plate then the curve,
“down and in” to a right handed-batter.
When the ball spins, air moves over the surface of the ball. Depending on which way
the ball is spun one side of the ball travels into the air (the bottom on a fastball) or along with the
air (the top of a fastball). High pressure is created when the surface travels into the air and
when the surface travels with the air, low pressure is created. That high pressure “pushes” the
ball in the low pressure, making the fastball rise, and the curveball curve.
The Exploratorium: www.exploratorium.org – Thrown for a Curve