Are you feeling curious?

Show of hands.

Today on Curious Crew.

Two, three.

Woah!

How did it do that?

Then there's no time to rest.

Oh, yeah.

That's a perfect strike!

Because we're moving right along.

Oh!

To investigate Newton's first law of motion.

Isn't that amazing?

Support for Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union, offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at MSUFCU.org Also by the Consumers Energy Foundation, dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world class educational resources by investing in nonprofits committed to education and career readiness.

More information is available at ConsumersEnergy.com/foundation and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

(MUSIC) Hi, I'm Rob Stephenson and this is Curious Crew.

Welcome to the show everybody.

We always like to start every episode with a couple of discrepant events because discrepant events stimulate.

Curiousity!

that's exactly right.

And I've got some fun ones for you today.

And in fact, I would like to direct your attention to this beaker right here and Bilal, What are you noticing there?

I see a lot of blue beads and a few red ones.

Ok, a lot of blue beads.

And in fact, those blue beads are a string of beads that is 50 feet long.

That's a really long string of beads.

Now, Bilal, I want you to make a prediction.

If I were to lift this up and give a tug to the red beads, what might happen?

It will fall due to gravitational force.

Oh, I love it.

All because of gravitational force.

Let's take a look.

Isnt that cool?

Oh, okay.

So, AvaGail, I love your reaction over there.

What is an observation you just made?

It kind of looks like a fountain.

Like a fountain?

That's a great comparison.

The way it was curving out.

Excellent.

Any wonderings about this?

Well, I wonder how it came out so fast.

It's 50 feet long.

That's a that's a great wondering kind of thinking about that myself.

We might have to figure that out.

Now, let's direct our attention over here.

And the first thing I want you to notice, I have a cluster of pretty massive washers that have been tucked together, and I've got a little S-hook on the top and on the bottom.

And it's suspended with a string here and another string on the bottom.

Demetrius, I'd like you to make a prediction for me what might happen if I put this dowel through here and slowly start pushing down?

I think it's going to fall off.

Okay.

You think this is going to fall?

Yeah.

Okay.

Oh, look at that.

So the upper string broke.

Let's try this one more time.

And I was pushing it rather slowly that time, wasn't I?

Yeah.

I wonder what would happen if I did it quickly.

Oh, isn't that perplexing?

The first time the top went broke, the second time the bottom one broke.

So we've got some bewildering beads and some super string.

I'm going to ask three of you to do a little scientific modeling to see if you can explain these phenomena by the end of the show.

You can use your background, knowledge, any evidence you learn to revise your thinking.

So who would like to do a modeling moment today?

Show of hands.

Any taker's here?

Okay.

Varsha, Will, Julia.

You three.

Now does anyone have a guess what we're going to be investigating today.

What do you think, Demetrius?

Something to do with gravity?

Something to do with gravity.

That's great thinking.

That is definitely going to be a factor today.

We are going to be investigating Newton's first law of motion there.

There's no time to rest.

We got to get moving.

Lets see if we can figure this out.

I can't believe the beads came out of the cup so fast.

I mean, it was 50 feet long.

I know.

Did you notice how they seemed to arc right over the rim of the beaker?

Yeah, that was cool.

I was thinking about the super string.

Why does it matter how fast Dr.

Rob pulled on the bottom string?

Yeah.

I thought the top string would break the second time too.

Sir Isaac Newton was a brilliant English mathematician and scientist who presented his three laws of motion in 1687.

The first law states that the object at rest remains at rest, and an object in motion remains in motion at constant speed and in a straight line unless acted on by an unbalanced force.

A rollercoaster is a fun way to explore this.

Each time you ride on a roller coaster, your body moves back during quick accelerations forward with a sudden stop or sideways during a sharp turn.

Newton's first law of Motion.

What a ride.

So let's see if we can make some sense about Newton's first law of motion.

There's a great activity we're going to try.

You can try this at home with a stack of quarters and an empty glass bottle, but we're going to use some washers and this flask.

I got a question for you, Nicholas.

How much mass does one of these washers have?

It's 40 grams.

And we're using two.

So that would be how much?

80 gram.

80 grams.

Excellent.

And what's the last item we have here, Julia?

A two inch strip of paper.

Okay, so here's what we're going to do.

We're going to grab the end of a strip of paper.

And Julia, I want you to predict for me if we drag this off slowly what might happen.

I think the washer will stay in place.

Just fall in the beaker.

Great.

Let's give it a whirl.

Drag.

Oh, boy.

Yep.

Mine all fell off.

Okay, let's set this up again and let's see if we get a different result.

Now, interestingly, we did it nice and slow that time, so we want to change the test.

This time when we do it, we're going to pull it really fast and see what kind of a result we get.

Looks like you guys are all set up.

Ready?

One, two, three.

Woah!

How did it do that?

Now you might be thinking, why do we have different results?

The only change was how fast we pulled it out.

The first thing that we have to understand about Newton's first law of motion, an object at rest like these washers will stay at rest unless another force acts on it.

Now, our first force was pulling it off nice and slowly, but if we have a force that's really fast, we're more likely to have resistance in movement.

Let's take those down on.

I show you one other thing here.

I've got another little contraption and you'll notice there's a little marble sitting on a little shelf over a peg.

Now I'm going to pull back on this metal arm and we're going to knock this shelf out of the way.

Watch what happens.

Watch what happens.

Wow!

And so the marble just sort of dropped right down.

It resisted the change in motion.

We can even look at this one more way.

I've got three bottles here.

Will, you're noticing this one's really full.

This one's about half full.

This one's empty.

If I was to flick each one of these with my finger, what might we expect to see which is going to move the most?

Which is going to move the least?

What you think?

I think this one's going to move the least because it's heavier.

Okay.

And this one is lighter.

So I think it's going to move farther.

Okay.

And we can even be relating this to mass.

Right?

There's a lot there.

So let's give this one a little flick.

Oh, yeah, That one moved a lot.

This one moved a little.

That one didn't move very much at all.

I can demonstrate this another way.

You'll notice I have it on a piece of fabric.

If we have a quick force change, we should see a lot of resistance to movement here and less resistance to movement here.

Let's see.

Yup.

That's what we saw.

Isn't that amazing?

So remember, with Newton's first laws of motion, an object at rest will stay at rest until it's acted on by an unbalanced force.

Imagine there was a tall box in the back of a pickup truck and the box was not tied down.

Now, if the driver accelerates too quickly, the box will tip over backwards.

That's because the box was trying to stay where it was and the friction force underneath pulled its base, knocking it over.

Now imagine the truck starts slowly and is moving down the road.

If the truck suddenly stops, the box will try to keep going and will fall forward.

Objects will either stay at rest or continue to move straight until another force acts on it.

Looks like it's time to tie down that box.

Well, we've investigated when an object is at rest, but what about when an object is in motion?

That's what we're going to explore.

First of all, you're going to notice here on the surface, I've taken a wooden embroidery hoop and I've cut part of it out.

What we'd like to do is roll this golf ball inside the hoop and predict, Which clip might it hit, A, B or C?

What do you think?

I think I'll hit b, b, ok. B, b.

C, Goin for C. Okay.

Let's see what happens here.

Oh, we went to B.

So Bilal, what did you notice?

I noticed that it went in a straight line.

Very good.

Which is really interesting because according to Newton's first law of motion and object is going to continue in motion in a straight line until it is acted upon by another force.

So what other forces are at play on this golf ball, AvaGail?

Friction from the surface and colliding with the pin.

Okay, So we got friction on the table.

We also have collision over here with the pin.

And in fact, we even have some air resistance affecting this as well.

Okay.

Pretty interesting.

Let's look at this another way.

I've got two five inch woodblocks and they're pretty similar except on the back of this one.

We've got this extra little piece of wood.

And inside here I've drilled a hole and there is what's called a metal screw eye, that has been driven down inside and it's got some rubber bands.

Now what I'd like to do is I'm going to place these rubber bands around this long block and Demetrius, you'll notice when I pull this back, I can snap it.

Now, what might happen?

Demetrius If I put this other block, pull it back and release it.

Think the block will hit these conveniently placed pins.

I love that.

I like to call this inertial bowling.

Okay, now before we try it, what might happen?

Demetrius, if there was no back on this bottom block and I pulled it back and release it, I think the top black would slide off the back very good thinking, because of course, this has mass.

It's going to resist the change in motion.

So I really need that backstop.

Do you guys think I'm going to go to strike here?

What do you think AvaGail.

Yes.

Okay.

Here we go.

Oh, yeah, that's a perfect strike.

And this is a great example of objects in motion continuing in motion until they are stopped by another unbalanced force.

Have you ever tried to get stuck ketchup out of a bottle?

You can use Newton's first law of motion to dislodge it.

First, make sure the cap is open, then turn the bottle over.

Next, move the bottle really fast in a downward motion and then suddenly stop.

The catch up will come out of the bottle.

Why?

remember, once you move the bottle downward, the ketchup is moving too, and it keeps moving.

Even when the bottle has stopped.

Great!

Time to eat.

STEM Challenge.

So have you been having fun investigating Newton's first law of Motion today?

Yeah!

I'm so glad.

I have a really fun STEM challenge for you today as well.

You're going to be making something that I like to call a wacky stack toy.

And after you make this, I'd like you to experiment with it for a little bit to see if you can find some connections to Newton's first law.

Are you ready to get started?

Yeah!

Oh, go for it.

Have some fun.

Lets get started.

Okay.

Let's just color it first, right?

Yeah.

Dr.

Rob has us making a wacky stack toy.

(Laughs) Draw another one.

He looks adorable.

So our plan is to use the square head because it's more stable, right?

Yeah.

We used wood cylinder blocks, and then we use, like, a stick to make sure the wooden cylinder blocks, we're, straight up and down.

And then we used a couple markers to decorate them with.

Do you think their going to work because our shape is super big, right?

Yeah, I think, I think it's working pretty well.

You stack the rings up and then you try and use the slide to knock as many of the little flat disks off without toppling the tower.

Oh, that's goin nice.

Oh It got stuck.

We used the paint paddles because we thought it would be easier to knock it down.

Three, two, one.

Three, two, one.

Oooh!

Three, two, one.

Aw.

We chose to use a big stick that was flat and thin when we hit it softly, it just topples over.

That was the best on yet.

Oh!

But if you hit it super fast and it just shortens the stack.

Oh yeah.

Good Job.

So these are looking pretty great our wacky stack toys.

And speaking of that, you can stack them up.

I was noticing the disks are really different that each group used.

Yours were really skinny.

Really skinny.

Yours were kind of small diameter, which was really interesting.

And theirs is both wide and a thick diameter.

Now I'm noticing as I was watching you experiment, a lot of you ended up switching the block head rather than using the round one, which seemed to roll off a lot.

Now let's demonstrate each one of these, and then I want to see if you can share a connection you made to Newton's first law of Motion.

Okay, let's start with your table.

Nicholas, can you demonstrate it first?

Okay, I'm going to try.

We was using a round one.

Oh, wow.

That works really well.

Okay, Nicholas, what is the connection that you can make to Newton's first law?

It went straight, not diagonal or anywhere else.

Okay, So we know that an object in motion is going to stay in motion until it's affected by another force.

And in this case, we got friction from the table, gravity falling off the table, some air resistance going on there.

Okay.

So let's go to table two.

Varsha, I think you're demonstrating here.

Okay, let's go for it.

Oh, boy.

Oh, wow.

Nice.

Oh, my gosh.

Okay, great.

So what is a noticing or a connection that your team made AvaGail?

I noticed that once the first one went it just dropped down.

Excellent.

Of course, that mass, it's resisting that change in motion.

Good connection.

So let's go to the last table here.

And I think Will you're demonstrating this one.

All right, go for it.

Oh, wow.

Nice.

Oh, I love how you're using the markers to catch those disks too.

That was clever.

What was the connection that your team made, Julia?

A connection our team made was once the stack got shorter and shorter, the whole face and the top started to get more unstable.

Oh, that's a great connection.

You probably all notice as it gets shorter, it's more likely to topple over.

Did a great job crew.

Try making your own wacky stack toy.

Isaac Newton would be so proud.

Moving objects on earth like the segments in our wacky stack toys will eventually slow down and stop due to gravity and resistance and friction.

But what about objects in space?

Imagine you're flying a spacecraft in outer space.

Well, you won't need to keep the engines running to move.

According to Newton's first law of Motion, the craft will keep traveling at the same speed and in the same direction with its momentum propelling it forward.

That is, until a new unbalanced force acts on it.

Welcome home.

So I've got a problem crew.

I've got this 5/8 inch dowel stuck in this woodblock, but I really want to move the block to the other end of stick.

What do you think I should try, Stella?

I don't know.

Push on it.

You want me to push on it.

Okay.

Okay.

That's not going to work.

Just like, really stuck.

What else could I try here?

Kian what can I try?

Use a hammer.

Use a hammer.

This is going to take a long time.

Yeah, okay.

That might not work very well either.

What else can I try, Varsha?

Maybe you can, like, tap the stick on the ground.

Oh.

Oh, that's interesting.

You know, this reminds me of another method.

I don't know if you've ever seen this before.

Watch the block closely.

Cool.

What?

Its like as you're pushing the hammer down, the block comes up.

So it's like it's climbing up the stick.

Now, you might be thinking, okay, Dr.

Rob, why does that happen?

So we know the block has a lot of mass, right?

And according to Newton's first law, it wants to resist a change in motion.

Right?

We've already got a lot of friction with the stick.

And if I'm trying to do a quick change in motion by striking the stick, the block is going to stay in the same space and the stick moves through it.

Isn't that interesting?

Similarly, when we had the block moving with the stick, it wants to keep moving so it will drive towards the floor.

Isn't that unusual?

I've got another example I want to show you over here.

I've got some paper cups on the floor.

We're going to do something a little silly.

I'm going to put a little block on top of those paper cups.

Then I'm going to put a log on top of the block and then I'm going to hit the hammer on top of the log.

First of what might happen.

I think is going to get smushed up.

Smushed cups.

Okay, I love this.

Let's try this out.

I'm going to put this on here.

Let's put the log on top and I'm on strike it with the hammer.

Watch the cups.

Whoa.

That's surprising.

Now we have to think about that.

Okay.

We know the log has a lot of mass.

It's at rest.

Does it want to move?

No.

And so it's actually going to take that impact so much it has no effect on the cups.

Well, what we want to have an effect on the cups.

Let's try something else.

What would happen, Kian, if I drop the log on to the block?

I think the amount of kinetic energy would transfer with enough force to smush the cups.

Should we try it?

Yeah.

Okay.

I think we should try it.

Oh, you can see we've got some crush happening there.

Absolutely right.

Which makes sense, because it was in motion.

Therefore, it's going to try to keep going in motion and squish the cups.

Now, I have one more example that we're going to look at where we can see how this mass is really going to cause a resistance and change in motion.

We've got a newspaper here.

Underneath the newspaper.

I've got a yardstick, and seven inches of that yardstick is sticking out.

Okay.

You'll notice the newspaper is really flat.

I actually ironed the newspaper.

I wanted all the wrinkles out of it, and I didn't want much air underneath.

Because here's the thing.

There is actually some additional mass that's affecting this paper and it has to be air pressure.

Do you know how much force Stella, a single square inch experiences of air pressure force.

About 14.7 pounds.

You're exactly right.

Almost 15 pounds.

Now, let's think about this.

An ordinary newspaper is about 20 inches by 30 inches.

If you multiply that, that's 600 inches multiplied by almost 15 pounds.

And we're looking at 9,000 pounds of air pressure force added on top of this.

Now, if I wanted to quickly move 9,000 pounds, do you think that 9,000 pounds wants to quickly move?

No.

Now watch closely.

I'm going to strike the end of the stick.

Isn't that amazing?

Now, all of that mass was resisting change, and that's what we have to remember about Newton's first law.

When there's a still object that has a lot of mass, it's going to try to stay still.

If there's a moving object with a lot of mass that's going to try to keep moving.

We saw how we could get the massive block to move by striking the end of the dowel on the floor.

This strategy is a good one for tightening the head of an old hammer on its wooden handle.

If you discover the hammer head is loose, try striking the base of the handle on a hard surface.

The head of the hammer will shift downward because of its mass and high inertia and will wedge the handle more tightly.

Great job.

Are you curious about careers in science?

Hi, I'm Genesis.

Hi I'm Genesis and I've been a host on curious about careers for six years, getting to see how STEM is incorporated in so many different careers and getting to interview so many different women and seeing them do what they love every single day has been inspirational to me.

Yay.

Some of the careers I have explored I would have never thought that STEM was incorporated into.

I've interviewed a yoga instructor and a baker and a soap maker and a Tang Soo Do instructor.

Jen Sygit taught me how instrumental STEM is in music.

Explore your possibilities.

I think that Curious about Careers is a really important segment for kids, especially girls, because it shows them that they can do whatever they want.

I love getting the opportunity to shine a light on so many different careers and I hope that the show inspires others the same way it does me.

I had a wild time, I got the VIP treatment today, that's a wrap.

Explore your possibilities.

So we know that an object in motion will stay in motion unless another force acts on it.

That's why the beads just kept flying out of the cup.

Yeah, like the golf ball in locomotion.

Or the block with the bowling pins.

Yeah.

Those are affected by gravity and friction to change their motion.

Exactly.

I was thinking about the stubborn bottles, the one that had the most mass resisted movement the most.

Yeah, and those washers had a lot of mass in the super string.

That's why they would resist a sudden change in motion too.

So if you had fun investigating Newton's first law of Motion.

Yeah.

I'm so glad.

It's now time to return to our discrepant events to see what you've figured out.

And that'll put my mind at rest for sure.

Okay, so how about these bewildering beads, Julia?

What have we figured out here?

Well, once the beads are in motion, they will continue to move at the same speed and direction until another force acts on them.

Well, well, well.

And what is that other force, Varsha?

What is that other force?

Gravity.

The beads are arcing out of the cup and the gravity is pulling them down.

Excellent job.

Okay?

And I'm imagining you probably want to see this one more time.

But before I do it, we have to think about this.

We know the beads are going straight up, right, and traveling in a similar direction and the speed, just as you described.

And then gravity arcs them right over the side.

But what's interesting is when I lift it up, we're adding potential energy right to the system.

And all I need to do is one quick tug and we get this thing in motion and we start transferring it into it.

Kinetic energy.

And of course, that means we can have a really interesting result.

Isn't that so much fun?

That's 50 feet of beads in motion.

What about the superstring, Will?

When you slowly pull on the bottom string that added extra force to the top string, which is already under a pound of tension from the washers, that extra force was too much for the string to handle and the upper strings snapped.

Exactly right.

So why did the bottom string break when I did it quickly?

The acceleration was too much and the washers resisted the change.

That's exactly right.

We have a lot of mass here.

And remember, according to Newton's first law of motion, an object at rest is going to stay at rest.

And if there's a lot of mass, it's really going to resist that.

Now, when we did it slowly, just as Will described, I'm adding tension slowly and the topline is going to break.

But if we do it really quickly, that force the acceleration change is too much and in fact, the upper string, nothing happens.

The result, the bottom string breaks.

So these are a couple of great examples of Newton's first law of motion.

So remember, my friends, stay curious and keep experimenting.

Get your curiosity guide and see more programs at wkar.org.

Support for Curious Crew is provided by MSU Federal Credit Union, offering a variety of accounts for children and teens of all ages while teaching lifelong saving habits.

More information is available at MSUFCU.org also by the Consumers Energy Foundation, dedicated to ensuring Michigan residents have access to world class educational resources by investing in nonprofits committed to education and career readiness.

More information is available at ConsumersEnergy.com/foundation and by viewers like you.

Thank you.

They should actually do bloopers for this show.

We do actually and I never know what theyre gonna put in.

I'm a cheesy guy.

Im cheesy.

We want some energy.

Yeah yeah let's take a look.

Oh, too much energy.

We broke a yardstick with a newspaper.

Who knew?

That was the one.

You knew it as soon as you said it.