Script for
Physics of Toys
This slideshow is designed for lower primary. It is meant to guide your presentation, but does not go into each slide in depth. This introduces students to the forces of nature that influence our life. The main focus however is gravity. Since lower primary do not really understand electromagnetic forces on toys they are referred to as electricity, magnetisms, and light.
Slide 1. Physics
of Toys
·
How
does a ball work (gravity)? How does a gyroscope work (spinning, antigravity)?
You may have to describe a gyroscope and how it works, many students have not
seen one.
·
Notice it goes back and forth without falling, spinning resists gravity
Slide 2.
What is a toy?
·
Define a toy.
·
The
earliest known toys are dolls. The
Russian toys would nestle into each other. Puppets are also a form of dolls.
·
Early
toys found in the graves of children in Egypt.
·
The
drawing with hieroglyphs depicts a father giving his children toys. The toys are
engineered to move by the addition of pull strings.
·
They depicted things people saw or did. A frog opening its
mouth and a person grinding seeds into flour
·
Second
oldest known toy is the western yo-yo. How does it work (spinning)? What is
pulling it down (gravity)? What is pulling it up (antigravity)?
Chinese yo-yo also uses gravity and spinning to defy gravity.
·
There is
evidence that they were developed around the same time.
Both are used today. Demo: yo-yo and Chinese yo-yo and explain how it works. The main
point here is motion is antigravity.
Slide 5. Define
Physics
·
Define
physics – it is the study of matter, its motion and its behavior. Essentially it
describes how the world works. Who makes toys (physicists)? You have to know
about physics to make toys.
Slide 6.
Why does a ball fall?
·
The ball
falls because of gravity. What are balls made of? Rubber and Morning Glory
juice, it was discovered that this combination of materials allows it to bounce
(antigravity).
·
Demo:
Ball – Why does it fall (gravity)? Why
does it bounce? It invented with a
special rubber mixture (mixed with morning glory juice.)
·
Demo: Ball and Track - will the ball stay on the track
if I do not move? No, it will fall due to gravity. I can defy gravity by
spinning the ball around the track
Slide 7. Principles of gravity
·
Other
principles that make toys work. We will be exploring motion, magnets and gears.
·
Demo:
Hula-hoop – how does it work? It uses energy of motion to defy gravity.
·
Demo:
Music-box – what is happening? The winding of gears creates motion and the
magnets follow it.
Slide 8. Other types of toys
·
Pull
toys use springs, the pulling creates energy – mechanical energy. Kaleidoscope
uses light. Electronic toys use electricity.
Slide 9.
Most toys today are run by electricity
·
Electricity is the flow of electrons; it powers
electronic games.
In this presentation we will not go into toys that use electricity,
since that is many. Anything that uses a
battery is electronic. Video games need the physics of electricity to work.
Slide 10. Magnetism
·
North and South like each other,
they attract. North and North or South and South repel each other
Slide 11.
Light
·
Another
type of toy uses light. What do you use to see yourself in the morning?
(mirror). When you look in the mirror you see yourself because light bounce off
you and then bounces off the mirror and into your eye. Your brain makes sense of
the light you see reflecting off the mirror.
·
Briefly
mention refraction (light bending) and diffraction (light spreading out) as
other ways light waves can move.
·
Optical
illusions that you see in a Fun House uses light.
·
Electromagnetism is Electricity, and Magnetism, and it includes Light. Toys that
use electromagnetism are relatively new, they only became mass produced a few
decades ago.
Slide 13.
Gravity
·
Gravity
is a different force. Most of the toys you experimented with worked with
gravity. On earth we experience gravity all the time.
Slide 14. Gravity
·
Gravity
on earth attracts objects toward the center. Mention Sir Isaac Newton (3rd
law). If we throw a ball on earth what happens? Gravity would pull it back down.
Would the same thing happen on the moon? The lowered gravity would allow it to
travel further before being pulled down.
Slide 15.
Different Type of Balls and Gravity
·
Balls
are designed to resist gravity. This is done by putting spin on the ball (think
gyroscope and antigravity).
·
Footballs are thrown so that they spin, What does a quarterback in football know
about how to make the ball go farther - spinning motion of a football to
reinforce concept of antigravity.
·
Basketballs also are thrown with spin, soccer
balls have flat surfaces so that there is a good surface to kick, and baseballs
have a cork core surrounded by twine so that they are very dense and can travel
further
Slide 16.
Gears
·
Physics
explains the world around us.
Mechanics uses an understanding of physics to move or create work.
·
Gears
transfer motion and force from one rotating shaft to another.
·
Gears is
an example of producing movement.
Robots are an example of a design to produce movement.
Slide 17.
Design of Structures
·
Review
with students that larger items are also designed
by engineers using the principles of physics .
·
Go over
each of the items and the principles they use.
·
When
they take Physics in high school it will help them understand the principles
more.
Slide 18. Gears
·
When you
ride a bike you push on the petal with your foot, and a chain and gears helps
you make the tires move and you go forward.
·
Can demonstrate the jack-in-the box and music box again
Slide 19. Design of
Play Structures
·
Remind students that physics explains the real world.
·
When they go to the playground have them look around and see how they work and
to remember and engineer or scientists designed them.