Why does a football thrown with a spin keep its axis pointing along its trajectory? (It's most obvious in a long, soft pass. Even with a wobbly pass the ball's axis wobbles around the line of its trajectory). The answer to this question is provided. (JN)

Materials from a student-made kit are used to investigate physics phenomena while riding on various amusement park rides. A list of materials contained in the kit and procedures for their use are included. (JN)

Discusses motions of the sun and earth in relation to the accuracy of clocks. Effect of eccentricity of the earth's orbit, efect of inclination of the earth's axis, and combination of these two effects are considered. The accuracy of sundials is also discussed. (DH)

If a ball were given an initial velocity in excess of its terminal velocity, would the upward force of air resistance (a function of velocity) be greater than the downward force of gravity and thus push the ball back upwards? An answer to this question is provided. (JN)

Techniques are presented to get children thinking about their body motions, thereby increasing the expressiveness of their drawings. (RM)

Describes a student project in which paper planes were designed and flown to investigate the effect of the wing area to mass ratio on aircraft performance. (GS)

The Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE) is a multiple-choice test that has been used to evaluate physics instruction. However, the validity and reliability estimates have not been determined in a way a social scientist would expect. Few psychometric data were used to estimate the validity and reliability of the FMCE instrument. This…

This paper describes how 8th grade students are using CBR, a motion detector linked to a graphing calculator, as a way of generating mathematical ideas regarding the motions concepts that surround their action. Students were previously introduced to the calculators in the classroom and teaching experiments were then carried out afterwards with a…

This study investigated the academic achievement of students at the end of the school year in knowledge of gravity, acceleration, and the relationship between distance, time, and speed. The students' teachers were in the Cheche Konnen professional development seminar for three years. Participating grade levels included a heterogeneous, combined…

This paper intends to bring out the experience of introducing a discipline of History of Science and Technology in an Undergraduate Course of Engineering and a proposal of transforming it so as to help future engineers deal with the challenges posed by the present moment of capitalism, usually called globalization. The discipline was lectured at…

This textbook is a course in natural science and astronomy. The contents include mechanical properties of bodies; mechanics of solids; mechanics of fluids; nature and production of sound; nature and transmission of light; excitation and characteristic effects of electricity; properties and magnets; theoretical astronomy; and descriptive astronomy.

Suggests an instructional presentation designed to give students an intuitive understanding of the uniform acceleration of a body falling toward the earth. (JR)