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High School Physical ScienceUnit 9SPS8.a–c

Forces & Motion

How do we describe motion with math — and what does it take to change it?

The hammer and the feather.

Apollo 15, 1971. Standing on the Moon, astronaut David Scott held out a heavy geology hammer and a falcon feather — then let go of both at the same moment. The hammer is about 30 times heavier. They hit the ground together, and NASA filmed the whole thing. Why didn't the hammer win? And why would the feather lose badly if you tried it in your classroom?

Start: What Do You Already Know? → Explore on your own ↓
9activities
14new words
5parts
∞replays — new every time
Open world

Explore

Jump in anywhere, in any order. Every activity reshuffles each time you play, so there's always something new. You earn newtons for every right answer.

Think about it

Big questions to wonder about

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to answer every one of these.

Why did the hammer and the feather land together on the Moon?

A race car goes around a track at a steady 50 m/s. Is it accelerating?

When a bus stops suddenly, why do you lurch forward — what pushed you?

A swimmer pushes water backward. So why does the swimmer go forward?

Vocabulary

Word Wall

The 14 words you'll own by the end of this unit. Tap any card to flip it. Words you collect in the activities get a ✓.

The road ahead

Unit Roadmap

Five parts, in the order we'll learn them.

1

Part 1: Describing Motion

  • What counts as motion
  • Scalars & vectors
  • Speed & velocity
SPS8.a
2

Part 2: Motion Graphs

  • Distance-time graphs
  • Velocity-time graphs
  • Matching a graph to its story
SPS8.a
3

Part 3: Acceleration & Free Fall

  • Acceleration
  • Free fall at 9.8 m/s²
  • Mass vs. weight (W = mg)
SPS8.aSPS8.c
4

Part 4: Newton's 1st & 2nd Laws

  • Force & net force
  • Inertia
  • F = ma
SPS8.b
5

Part 5: Newton's 3rd Law & Free Body Diagrams

  • Action-reaction pairs
  • Free body diagrams
  • Net force from an FBD
SPS8.b
Where we're headed

Learning Targets & Success Criteria

Learning Targets

I am learning to…

  • Distinguish between Newton's 3 Laws of Motion
  • Use Newton's 3 Laws to describe the motion of an object
  • Identify balanced and unbalanced forces on an object
  • Calculate force, mass or acceleration given initial conditions
  • Identify the action-reaction pairs in a given scenario
Success Criteria

I will be successful when I can…

  • Identify which of Newton's 3 Laws is present in a real-world scenario
  • Explain that an object at rest will stay at rest, and an object in motion will remain in motion until an unbalanced force acts on that object
  • Determine when an object is in equilibrium using free body diagrams
  • Recognize that objects in equilibrium can be at rest or have constant velocity
  • Calculate the net force on object
  • Determine movement of an object based on net force and direction of forces
Georgia Standards of Excellence

Standards

SPS8

Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information to explain the relationships among force, mass, and motion.

SPS8.a

Plan and carry out an investigation to analyze the motion of an object using mathematical and graphical models.

SPS8.b

Construct an explanation based on experimental evidence to support the claims presented in Newton's three laws of motion.

SPS8.c

Analyze and interpret data to identify the relationship between mass and gravitational force for falling objects.

Watch

One-minute videos

Quick previews from Simple Science Videos.

Motion Graphs

SPS8.a

Newton's Laws of Motion

SPS8.b

Fields (gravity)

SPS8.c