That’s a quote from a Tom Cruise movie. Of course rubbing can cause friction and that’s what our class was all about. “Friction is a force that opposes the relative motion of two surfaces in contact.”

During the rest of this week you’ll be working on a lab to test various factors that might affect the force of friction. A lot of work goes into controlling friction. In some situations we want to increase friction and in others we want to reduce it and sometimes we even want to do both.

Tire manufacturers want to increase friction to provide better control for cars on wet or snow covered pavement. But at the same time this increased friction (in some cases its more adhesion which is a little different) can cause lower gas mileage, because the force of friction, remember, is going to be opposite to the direction the car is traveling.

Want to have some fun? Ok, let’s see how good you are with friction and stopping before you crash into the vehicle in front of you. Follow this link, read the introduction, then click at the bottom to do the experiment.

Let me know how you do.

I’ve got 3 boxes of Fig Newtons ready for Friday, are you ready?

I hope you are having some fun creating your interview with Sir Isaac Newton. Remember it needs to be 5 minutes in length, include one of his 3 laws and from there it’s pretty wide open. Talk about his childhood, schooling, career, other scientists, politics, even religion. You can also interview other people from his time; perhaps a teacher, a friend or relative.

Whatever you do it needs to be fact-based. That means you need to do your research, and know the facts, but you can embellish the truth to fill in some of the blanks.

Have you decided how old he is when you are doing your interview? You are going back in time, so what year is it? What is he doing at this point in his life? What is going on in England or the world?

Who are the other scientist of this time and what are they working on? What else is Newton working on besides his 3 laws?

Try to get Newton and anyone else you are interviewing to open up and maybe tell more of a story. Use open ended question (ones that get more than a yes or no answer) like: Tell me more about… or Why do you think…How did you come up with….

Remember each table needs to turn in one copy of your interview script, with all your questions and answer. Plus a list of all the resources you used.

If you’d like more than one Fig Newton to eat on Friday please bring in some more or if you’d like bring in some apples as they go with Newton as well.

See you in class,