Air Resistance and Drag

Lab Brief #4

🎯 Your mission

Predict it first. Then prove yourself right (or wrong).

⚡ The twist

The opposite of what you expect is often what happens.

What you'll learn

Air resistance, also called drag, is a force that pushes against objects moving through the air. A falling feather drifts down slowly because air resistance acts on its wide surface, while a compact stone meets less drag and falls faster.

Key words

force
A push or pull that can make an object move or stop.

Make a hypothesis first

Predict: what happens if you double the force?

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

Get ready

🧰 What you need

string

⚠️ Safety first

Small parts and balloon fragments are a choking hazard — keep them away from young children.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Look at the vocabulary words and write a definition for each in your own words.

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Test Newton's Third Law: blow up a balloon, attach it to a straw on a string, and release. Measure how far it travels with different amounts of air.

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

Watch carefully for any changes and note the time.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Create a data table to organize your measurements.

Question 1 of 3

What type of energy does a moving object have?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 2 of 3

What causes an object to accelerate?

How sure are you?😐 maybe

Question 3 of 3

What unit is force measured in?

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: Pressure and Area All lessons

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

✨ 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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