A zip line is a way to glide from one point to another while hanging from a cable. Design and create a zip line that is safe for a hard-boiled egg. After designing a safety egg harness, connect the harness to fishing line or wire connected between two chairs of different heights using a paper clip. Learn to improve your zip line based on data. Attach a motion sensor at the bottom of your zip line and display a graph to show how smooth a ride your egg had!

Explore the forces at work when you try to push a filing cabinet. Create an applied force and see the resulting friction force and total force acting on the cabinet. Charts show the forces, position, velocity, and acceleration vs. time. View a Free Body Diagram of all the forces (including gravitational and normal forces).

Move the sun, earth, moon and space station to see how it affects their gravitational forces and orbital paths. Visualize the sizes and distances between different heavenly bodies, and turn off gravity to see what would happen without it!

Hands on Physics is a co-production of Blue Ridge PBS ECHO and Virtual Virginia. The episodes were all recorded in the demonstration physics lab at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

This demo illustrates that two objects fired horizontally or dropped vertically (from the same height and with the same initial x or y velocity, respectively, will hit the ground at the same time.
VA SOL PH. 2d

Hands on Physics is a co-production of Blue Ridge PBS ECHO and Virtual Virginia. The episodes were all recorded in the demonstration physics lab at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.

This demo includes a stuffed monkey and a “tranquilizer dart” to demonstrate that In a uniform vertical gravitational field with negligible air resistance, horizontal and vertical components of the motion of a projectile are independent of one another with constant horizontal velocity and constant vertical acceleration.
VA SOL PH. 2d

Repeated motion is present everywhere in nature. Learn how to 'make waves' with your own movements using a motion detector to plot your position as a function of time, and try to duplicate wave patterns presented in the activity. Investigate the concept of distance versus time graphs and see how your own movement can be represented on a graph.

Try the new "Ladybug Motion 2D" simulation for the latest updated version. Learn about position, velocity, and acceleration vectors. Move the ball with the mouse or let the simulation move the ball in four types of motion (2 types of linear, simple harmonic, circle).

Study the motion of a toy car on a ramp and use motion sensors to digitally graph the position data and then analyze it. Make predictions about what the graphs will look like, and consider what the corresponding velocity graphs would look like.

Build your own system of heavenly bodies and watch the gravitational ballet. With this orbit simulator, you can set initial positions, velocities, and masses of 2, 3, or 4 bodies, and then see them orbit each other.

Video Description:  How does NASA test ideas, like the Mars Helicopter, before they are even built? Find out more about this revolutionary helicopter and how NASA uses mathematical modeling to turn complex ideas into solvable equations that help shape future missions. Video Length:  3:20.NASA eClipsTM is a suite of online student-centered, standards-based resources that support instruction by increasing STEM literacy in formal and nonformal settings.  These free digital and downloadable resources inform and engage students through NASA-inspired, real-world connections.NASA eClips Real World segments (grades 6-8) connect classroom mathematics to 21st Century careers and innovations.  They are designed for students to develop an appreciation for mathematics through real-world problem solving.

Blast a Buick out of a cannon! Learn about projectile motion by firing various objects. Set the angle, initial speed, and mass. Add air resistance. Make a game out of this simulation by trying to hit a target.