Sinking, Floating and Suspending Investigation
Grade Level: Grades 10 - 12
Discipline: Physics
Standards: AP Physics 2 College Board Course and Exam Description & Science Practices:
1.1 The student can create representations and models of natural or man-made phenomena and systems in the domain.
1.4 The student can use representations and models to analyze situations or solve problems qualitatively and quantitatively.*
6.1 The student can justify claims with evidence.*
6.2 The student can construct explanations of phenomena based on evidence produced through scientific practices.
Essential Knowledge:
3.B.2 Free-body diagrams are useful tools for visualizing forces being exerted on a single object and writing the equations that represent a physical situation. a. An object can be drawn as if it were extracted from its environment and the interactions with the environment identified. b. A force exerted on an object can be represented as an arrow whose length represents the magnitude of the force and whose direction shows the direction of the force. c. A coordinate system with one axis parallel to the direction of the acceleration simplifies the translation from the free-body diagram to the algebraic representation.
3.C.4 Contact forces result from the interaction of one object touching another object, and they arise from interatomic electric forces. These forces include tension, friction, normal, spring (Physics 1), and buoyant (Physics 2). Relevant Equations: F = ρVg; P = F/A
Student's will make predictions and test their hypothesis on what types of material will sink, float or suspend in the water. Predictions will be made based on mass, length, volume and density.
Learn more by downloading the activity above.
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