Science Project on “Understanding Friction”, Project Experiment Topics on Flight, Motion & Friction for Class 8, 9, 10 and 12 Students.

Understanding Friction

Materials Required:

1. Clear plastic food wrap
2. Adhesive tape
3. Water
4. Cardboard, of about.1 square foot)
5. A ruler
6. Pencil and paper
7. Soap

Friction is a process which is caused by two objects rubbing against each other and therefore it is a very convenient way to act on a moving object, to slow it down.

To practically check the effect of friction and its qualities, cover the cardboard that you have, with your plastic food wrap. Remember to use the wrap in such a manner that it remains absolutely tightly fixed to the cardboard. You can use the adhesive tape to fix it firmly on to the board. Take your apparatus outside to a flat surface like perhaps a footpath.

Put a dry bar of soap in the middle of your board and holding one end of the board, raise it, making it into a slide, so that the soap starts moving down. This happens because the force of gravity is now stronger than that of friction.

Hold the ruler against the upper end of your ramp and measure the point in inches or centimetres, where gravity works better than friction.

Then wet the entire board and also the bar of soap that you are using and repeat the experiment. Remember to place the bar in the same position as you had last time. Now once again, keep raising the board and measure the point at which the soap starts sliding again. Are both the heights at which the soap moved the same?

Inertia

Pushing a lighter object is much easier than pushing a heavier one. This is so because the heavier object has much more inertia than the lighter one. Simply put, a football player requires much less effort to kick a football much farther than a shot putter who would require much more effort to throw the shot put a short distance. This is so because the football is much lighter than a shot put.

If an object has to be kept moving at the same speed, then we must use inertia. This is evident in the turntable of a record player. The turntable must always turn at the same speed. It is not light in weight and has high inertia. Due to this, even if the speed of the motor which drives the turntable will vary slightly, the turntable will continue moving at the same speed. In car engines there is a heavy disk called a flywheel. Since the vehicle is heavy, extra force is required to get it moving.

Once the vehicle is moving it requires lesser force to keep it in motion. This is achieved by using a lower gear and higher force when we start moving and then gradually shifting to a higher gear thus using lesser force from the engine. See how the gears of a cycle work in order to understand this effect.