Can you feel the force?

In class we are learning all about forces like upthrust, gravity, push, pull, air resistance and friction.

Gravity is a force that acts towards the centre of the Earth.

This means that, wherever you are in the world, "down" is always towards the ground - even though your "down" isn't the same direction as anybody else's.

The gravitational pull of the Earth is what gives objects weight. Thus weight is a force - it's how hard the Earth is pulling on an object. The Earth pulls on every kilogramme with a force of ten Newtons. In other words, an object with a mass of 1kg has a weight of 10N. Gravity is a very weak force, you need a very large mass in order to get a noticeable gravitational pull. An odd thing about gravity - it always attracts objects and never repels them.

This week we were investigating air resistance and testing to see how it affects our spinners:

Here we are feeling the force air resistance with a parachute.

We ensured we carried out a fair invesigation.