Central Forces on an Airtable
Highlights of the activity
- This kinesthetic activity is designed to help students visualize possible graphs of the potential energy for central force motion.
- Students observe the motion of a puck tethered to the center of an air table and then generate a graph (of their choice) of the potential energy of the puck.
- The whole class wrap-up discussion addresses the different graphs students generated and the canonical graphs used by professional physicists.
Reasons to spend class time on the activity
This activity is a good way to get students started thinking about the potential energy of a system subject to central forces. In addition, this activity provides a good opportunity to review and apply what they have learned about the properties of central forces.