Lesson 4 of 15 · Forces

Experiment⭐ 30 XP⚡ Spark Lab

Carpet Slows the Ball

🧪Lab Brief #4

Carpet Slows the Ball.

🎯 Your mission

Run the experiment. Find out what really happens.

⚡ The twist

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

🤯

Mind = Blown

⚡ Static electricity is the same physics as lightning, just smaller.

🔮

Make a hypothesis first

Guess: where does the energy go?

What You'll Learn

When you roll a ball on carpet, it stops faster than on a smooth floor. That is friction!

Key Words

Tap a word to see its definition.

Materials Needed

ramps

Safety First

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

Steps

Step 1 — Read

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

Step 2 — Do

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

Step 3 — Observe

Did anything change? Point to what is different.

Step 4 — Record

Point to the things you used in the activity.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 3

What makes a ball roll?

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

🌍

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 this in real life 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.”

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

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Ready?