Principal Sponsors
Makes grants to address the most serious social and environmental problems facing society, where risk capital, responsibly invested, may make a difference over time.
National Science Foundation
An independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote the progress of science.
King Saud University seeks to become a leader in educational and technological innovation, scientific discovery and creativity through fostering an atmosphere of intellectual inspiration and partnership for the prosperity of society.
The O'Donnell Foundation is devoted to building model programs to enhance the quality of education.
Forces and Motion
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).
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Teaching Resources
Main Topics
- Force
- Position
- Velocity
- Acceleration
Sample Learning Goals
- Predict, qualitatively, how an external force will affect the speed and direction of an object's motion.
- Explain the effects with the help of a free body diagram.
- Use free body diagrams to draw position, velocity, acceleration and force graphs and vice versa.
- Explain how the graphs relate to one another.
- Given a scenario or a graph, sketch all four graphs.
Tips for Teachers
The teacher's guide (pdf) contains tips created by the PhET team.
Teaching Ideas
| Title | Authors | Level | Type | Updated |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Forces and Motion
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Sarah Borenstein | MS | Lab | 9/1/13 |
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Forces and Motion Lesson
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UTeach Middle School PhET Team | MS | Lab | 6/22/12 |
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Rules for Forces
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jim cibulka | MS HS |
Lab CQs |
3/7/12 |
Forces and Motion: Balanced and Unbalanced Forces, and Predicting Changes in Motion (Inquiry Based)
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Emily Moore, Kathy Perkins, Trish Loeblein, Courtney Fadley | MS | Lab | 7/19/11 |
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Concept questions for Physics using PhET (Inquiry Based)
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Trish Loeblein | HS UG-Intro |
CQs | 7/7/13 |
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Algebra-based Physics Semester one lessons, clicker questions, and schedule in pdf (Inquiry Based)
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Trish Loeblein | HS UG-Intro |
Lab CQs HW Demo |
7/20/13 |
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Force and Motion activity 2: Relating graphs and free body diagrams using Moving Man and Forces 1D (Inquiry Based)
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Trish Loeblein | HS UG-Intro |
CQs Lab |
7/7/13 |
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Forces and Motion activity 1: Predicting speed and directions changes (Inquiry Based)
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Trish Loeblein | HS UG-Intro |
Lab CQs |
7/7/13 |
| Force and Motion | Caroline Kenneally | HS UG-Intro |
HW Demo CQs |
9/5/12 |
You can submit your own ideas and activities.
Translated Versions:
Software Requirements
| Windows | Macintosh | Linux |
|---|---|---|
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Microsoft Windows
XP/Vista/7 Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later |
OS 10.5 or later
Sun Java 1.5.0_19 or later |
Sun Java 1.5.0_15 or later |
Credits
| Design Team | Third-party Libraries | Thanks To |
|---|---|---|
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