Lesson 11 of 12 · Energy Transfer

Experiment⭐ 30 XP⚡ Spark Lab

Why Astronauts Float

🧪Lab Brief #11

Energy Transfer.

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

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

🤯

Mind = Blown

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

🔮

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where does the energy go?

What You'll Learn

Astronauts on the space station are not beyond gravity — it is still about nine tenths as strong there as at the surface. They float because they and their spacecraft are falling around the Earth together, and everything falls at the same rate.

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Materials Needed

plastic cup
water
tray
phone with slow-motion video

Safety First

Do this over a tray or outdoors and mop up spills at once.

Steps

Step 1 — Read

Read the explanation above and note the two key terms before you start.

Step 2 — Do

Drop a cup with a hole in it, full of water, and watch whether water leaks out during the fall. Film it in slow motion and explain what you see using free fall.

Step 3 — Observe

Record what actually happened, including anything that did not match what you expected.

Step 4 — Record

Write a conclusion that answers the question this lesson opened with, and state your uncertainty.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 2

Astronauts on the space station float because they are:

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

🌍

Where you see this in real life

This is why airplanes can fly and why rockets reach space.

🏆

Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life 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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