Summer Olympics – The Science of Swimming

Description

Learn about Newton’s Third Law and Hydrodynamics with these two hands on activities exploring the science of swimming.

Includes 2 hands on activities:

• Marble Marvels – Use marbles to demonstrate action and reaction forces.
• What a Drag – Test the amount of water resistance on objects of different shapes.

Materials required:

• 2 meter sticks
• tape
• 7 marbles
• scissors
• string
• spring scale
• kiddie swimming pool filled with water
• waterproof objects of different shapes (spheres like grapefruits or golf balls, circles like frisbees or CDs, rectangles like wooden blocks or milk cartons, and irregular shapes like kitchen utensils or toys)

Includes:

• Student handout with directions and analysis questions for each hands on activity.