First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2022 to all of you! We will talk about an extraordinary person who was born on Christmas Day.
Our lesson #3 will focus on simple machines, forces and motions. We will start this session with a story of a boy who was not considered strong in his school days. The outbreak of the bubonic plague in England closed opportunities for him, but he made history soon after that. Who was that amazing boy? Can our young talent pool bring innovations during COVID-19?
Let's discuss this incredible boy from the 16th century. His name was Newton, and he was born prematurely on Christmas Day, 1642. At age 12, Newton was enrolled in a school in Grantham, where he boarded at the home of the local apothecary because the daily walk from Woolsthorpe Manor was too long. Initially, he wasn’t a strong student; however, as the story goes, following a confrontation with a school bully, Newton started applying himself to best the other boy and transformed into a top student. However, at age 15 or 16, he was ordered to quit school by his mother and return to Woolsthorpe Manor to become a farmer. The teen was uninterested in the job and fared poorly at it. Eventually, her son’s former headmaster in Grantham persuaded Newton's mother to allow him to return to school. After finishing his coursework there, Newton left for Trinity College, the University of Cambridge, in 1661, putting farming behind him for good.
In 1665, following an outbreak of the bubonic plague in England, Cambridge University closed its doors, forcing Newton to return home to Woolsthorpe Manor. While sitting in the garden there one day, he saw an apple fall from a tree, providing him with the inspiration to formulate his law of universal gravitation eventually. He ultimately developed three laws of motion. Even after three centuries, these laws are the fundamental building block of physics.
Let's start this session by reviewing these three laws of motion. Please click on the following image to initiate the session. If you join the VANDA Science contest, you will have access to ~20 in-depth sessions to learn all simple machines, forces, and motion
We hope these laws have put your brain in motion. Talking about motion, we all use many complex machines, such as bicycles. These complex machines are made of six amazing simple machines. The primary purpose of most simple machines is to reduce the effort (force) required to perform a simple task. To achieve this, the force applied must act over a longer distance or period of time, resulting in the same amount of work being performed by a smaller force. Screws, levers and inclined planes are designed to increase the distance over which the reduced force acts so that we can push or pull with less effort. The effect of this design is often referred to as providing a ‘mechanical advantage’.
The term ‘simple machine’ is commonly used by scientists to refer to six different types of devices that are often combined to form more complex machines. A simple machine is a mechanical device that changes the direction or magnitude of a force. How can simple machines solve a problem? Let's start by understanding "work" and the impact of simple machines on reducing "work." Click on the following image to get started.
Understanding theory is nice. However, it is more fun to learn the application of science in real life. It is fascinating to watch people do skateboarding. Have you ever wondered physics behind these skateboards? Click on the picture below to understand it. We hope you will like it.
We have a lot to cover, but we need to keep the blog short. We encourage you to enroll in the Vanda contest to access all 20+ sessions for week #3.
The Competitive Kids STEM (CKSTEM) is proud to put together a comprehensive plan for preparing students for the science contests. This training is free for every student participating in the global science contest - VANDA. We will share 10-12 sessions covering in the next four months for grade 3-11 students. This training will cover all major topics in science required for elementary, middle, and high school.
This training is designed to help students solidify science fundamentals in a fun way. Most contests generally expect students to have a good understanding of topics beyond their school grades. You will undoubtedly find this training very helpful to prepare; however, we encourage you to review sample tests from the contests to learn yourself applying concepts to solve problems. This training is CKSTEM's initiative. It can not guarantee your success in the competitions. However, it will help you learn and understand science better. We hope you will find it helpful.
We will focus on plants and animals next week.