VanCleave's Science Fun

Your Guide to Science Projects, Fun Experiments, and Science Research

Archives for 2010

Heat Transfer: Conduction

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Conduction (or heat conduction) is the transfer of thermal energy between neighboring molecules in a substance due to differences in temperature. Thermal energy is always transferred from a region of higher temperature to a region of lower temperature. The transfer of thermal energy continues until  each region has the same temperature. Heat Conduction takes place […]

Unbalanced Forces Acting On Wishbones

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Eighth Grade Science Standard (TEKS 8.6A) Demonstrate and calculate how unbalanced forces change the speed or direction of an object’s motion. Unbalanced Forces cause an object to accelerate (change speed and/or direction). The three diagrams represent balanced forces and unbalanced forces acting on the ends of a wishbone. These are forces applied by the hands […]

Forces that Break a Wishbone

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The action/reaction pair of forces described in Newton’s Third Law of Motion ALWAYS act on different objects. One way to identify an action/reaction pair of forces is to describe them. If each description is the reverse of the other, then they are an action/reaction pair of forces. For Example: In the diagram, there are two […]

How Doing Work Transfers Energy

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The wagon in the photo is not moving, thus it has no kinetic energy (energy of moving things). If you pull the wagon across the room, you cause the wagon to move a certain distance. In other words, you do WORK on the wagon. Work = Force x distance When you pull (apply a force) […]

How Temperature Affects Heat Energy Transfer

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When heat energy is transferred from one substance to another, the heat energy moves from the hotter substance to the colder substance. Temperature is a measure of how hot or cold a substance is. The higher the temperature of an object, the hotter is the object. A thermometer is an instrument that measure how hot […]

How to Make Paper Bridges

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A bridge is some structure that spans a gap. For example, in the diagram, the ends of the a flat piece of paper are placed on two books. The paper spans the gap between the book. Instruction for making this Simple Paper Bridge are as follows: 1. Lay two equal size books on a table […]