Our First "Science Friday"

Today we used the book, Rocket Science, and started with experiment #1, Levers. It was a basic introduction to the lever, fulcrum and force. We used a ruler and marker to lift a book, we changed the position of the fulcrum to see how that changed how the force was exerted. We did another experiment using spoons--it didn't go exactly how it was supposed to, but we successfully identified the lever, fulcrum and force--after checking the book that is! We discovered that the force was placed on the round part of the spoon, the fulcrum was the point of the spoon right below the round part that touches the table and the handle was the lever. Once we had that down, we began to have a bit of fun. We set up various levers (the best one being the ruler as the lever and a small can of tomato paste for the fulcrum) and we practiced launching various objects through the house. It was fun!! We lengthened the lever, we shortened the lever and we ended up with quite the mess to clean up (thankfully the tin full of Altoids stayed closed on impact!!). I'm not sure how much information stuck, but the basic principles were introduced...and I'm sure next time Savannah is trying to move a heavy object, she'll consider using a lever!