Make your own ball run
Why does an apple fall from a tree? Or a spin top spin? Or a ball roll or bounce? Explore motion with a ball run you can make at home!
Difficulty: Medium
Instructions
- Collect a small ball, some cardboard and some sticky tape. You might want your parents to help with this activity.
- Using scissors, cut some cardboard into long pieces.
- Use some masking tape to stick a long piece of cardboard onto a wall. Put it on an angle so the ball can roll down the cardboard.
- Time to test! Place your ball at the top of the piece of cardboard. Does it roll down along the cardboard?
- To make a ball run, keep adding more pieces of cardboard to your wall, so your ball slowly rolls down from one piece of cardboard to another.
Can you design a ball run that causes your ball to roll really slowly? So slowly, that the ball rolls for 10 seconds before hitting the ground? Gravity does all of the work for you with a ball run! When you place a ball on an inclined plane, or ramp, the ball will roll down the ramp due to gravity.