Ramps Help!

Lab Brief #2

🎯 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

A ramp makes it easier to move heavy things up to a high place.

Key words · 1 of 2

heavy
Having a lot of weight and hard to lift.
ramp
A flat surface that slants to help move things up or down.

Key words · 2 of 2

move
To change from one place or position to another.

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

ramps

⚠️ Safety first

Have an adult check your set-up before you start, and tidy everything away afterwards.

Step 1 of 4 · Read

Say the vocabulary words out loud. Can you repeat them?

Step 2 of 4 · Do

Roll a ball down a ramp. Try making the ramp steeper. What happens?

Step 3 of 4 · Observe

What happened? Tell a grown-up what you noticed.

Step 4 of 4 · Record

Tell a grown-up your favorite part of the activity.

Question 1 of 3

Does a ramp help move things?

Question 2 of 3

What happens if you make a ramp steeper?

Question 3 of 3

Do heavy things or light things fall faster?

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: Wheels Make It Easy 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: You use this every time you flip a light switch, ride a bike, or kick a ball.

🏆 Stretch challenge (try it this week): Time how long a small ball rolls down something, then change the slope and try again.

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

🏋️Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

Ramps Help!

Next Smart Experiment

Share this experiment

Ramps Help!

Done with science? Try something else

Your Cart (0)