Friction Helps You Walk

Lab Brief #25

🎯 Your mission

Understand the idea. Then look for it everywhere.

⚡ The twist

Speed isn't the same as force. Don't mix them up.

What you'll learn

Friction helps you walk. Without friction, your feet would slip on the floor!

Key words

friction
A force that slows things down when two surfaces rub together.

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where does the energy go?

Say your guess out loud — then find out if you were right.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the new words. Can you say each one?

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Push a toy car across the carpet, then across a smooth floor. Measure how far it goes each time.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Compare what happened to what you predicted.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Tell the class one thing you learned today.

Question 1 of 3

What kind of surface has the most friction?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What does friction do?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What force keeps you on the ground?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Mind = blown

🔥 A bolt of lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun.

Nice work!

You got 0 of 3 right.

Next: The Wedge Machine All lessons

🎯

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✨ More to explore

🌍 Where you see this in real life: This is why airplanes can fly and why rockets reach space.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): This week, find one thing in your house that turns one kind of energy into another.

👨‍👩‍👧 For the dinner table: “Show me something at home that uses this kind of energy.”

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