Examines the motion of a particle in a noncentral potential using the action-angle formalism. (SL)

Describes a method for demonstrating harmonic motion which utilizes a low frequency oscillator and three oscilloscopes. (SL)

Four-year-olds were reliably accurate about movement potentials for the categories of mammals, nonmammalian animals, statues of animals, wheeled vehicles, and multipart, rigid objects. The three-year-olds' scores were significantly above chance in all categories but animals. Analyses showed that children were concerned about the cause of movement…

Investigates whether elementary school children can successfully execute a mental rotation on Marmor's state-comparison task without knowledge of logical sequence relations, whereas such knowledge is required to construct or evaluate external representations of the successive states in a rotation movement. (HOD)

Describes an apparatus for an experiment on winding motion in three dimensions. Discusses theory and provides a calculation example. (JM)

Investigates the perceptual basis of metaphor by asking 5-, 7-, and 10-year-old children and adults to pair and discuss films of natural objects, both stationary and moving. Concludes that motion information makes metaphoric similarity relatively easy to perceive and influences the form of descriptive metaphors. (Author/CB)

Examines, in two experiments, 5-month-old infants' sensitivity to auditory-visual specification of distance and direction of movement. One experiment presented two films with soundtracks in either a match or mismatch condition; the second showed the two films side-by-side with a single soundtrack appropriate to one. Infants demonstrated visual…

Discusses forces that shape the behavior of water as a drop meanders down a windowpane. A homemade apparatus for studying meanders is described along with several experiments. Contact angles, molecule attraction, surface area, air tension, and gravity drag forces are some of the topics addressed. (DH)

By varying task requirements within a common procedural framework, four experiments established conditions under which children exhibit different understandings of life. Overall, results suggested that even four- and five-year-olds know that people and other animals are alive and that almost all "inanimate objects" are not. (Author/RH)

Discusses properties of epicycloids. (The easiest way to picture them is to think of a piece of radioactive bubble gum attached to a wheel which is rolling around the outside of a larger wheel.) Includes a computer program (TRS-80 color computer) that will graph any epicycloid with integer values for the radii. (JN)

Comparison of kinetic data indicated that spline functions were more effective than polynomials for modeling the data. (GW)

Young children in school go through 16 to 20 transitions every day. What can make 10 children settle down, clean up, and move from room to room without protest? Even if you are uncomfortable singing in public, the simple songs in this book will help you glide smoothly through tough transitions such as greetings and good-byes, calling attention,…

Student misconceptions of projectile motion are well documented, but their effect on the teaching and learning of the mathematics of motion under gravity has not been investigated. An experimental unit was designed that was intended to confront and eliminate misconceptions in senior secondary school students. The approach was found to be…

This issue of Exploratorium Magazine focuses on the topic of motion. Contents include: (1) "First Word" (Zach Tobias); (2) "Cosmic Collisions" (Robert Irion); (3) "The Mobile Cell" (Karen E. Kalumuck); (4) "The Paths of Paths" (Steven Vogel); (5) "Fragments" (Pearl Tesler); (6) "Moving Pictures" (Amy Snyder); (7) "Plants on the Go" (Katharine…