1) What's your personal experience with flying on anything like a trapeze?
I used to be a gymnast, so I would swing on the uneven bars. I've also been on swinging monkey bars. However, for an actual trapeze, I think I've been on one, but not way up high like they actually are in the circus.
2) What applications to "real life" do swinging objects have?
Monkeys swing! Swings and monkey bars at the playground. Pendulums and yo-yo's swing. Hammocks swing. Metronomes swing. Trapezes swing!
3) What is your prediction if two people are on one trapeze and one person is on another trapeze and the all let go at the same time? Explain.
I think that the trapeze with two people will stop swinging almonst instantly because the force of both of the people pushing off a different direction will steady it. I think that the trapeze with one person will swing back-and-forth for awhile before stopping.
4) What understanding or ideas do you have about the science of swinging back-and-forth objects?
I think that if you get an object swinging at a steady speed it will keep swinging back-and-forth until it is stopped.
EXPERIMENT
One washer swinging from the pendulum - 12 swings in 10 seconds. Make a prediction for two, three, and four washers.
Two- 24 swings
Three-36 swings
Four-48 swings
We think that it will increase by 12 swings each time because the more weight the more force and thus, more swings.
ACTUAL
The average for one washer (swung 4 times) was 11.5 For two, three, and four washers the average was 12. Questions me/my lab partner have come up with now are:
Does mass even matter with pendulums?
What does this show us about mass and gravity?
Does the length of the rope matter which is being swung from?
QUIZ
If a child is swinging on a swing, and gets one big push on a swing with one shorter rope and one longer rope, what will the swinging experience be like?
I think that the swinging experience will be unbalanced, because as we learned through inquiry in our science lab a shorter string swings more times, and a longer string swings less time.
