10/21/09

Today in class, we started by taking a reassessment, which tested changing a velocity vs. time graph into a position vs time graph. Afterwards, we picked new groups and did the Tug Of War lab. During this lab we discovered that stronger isn't really relative to the game of tug of war. It doesn't matter if you are a baby or the world strongest person, the force both people exert on the rope will be equal. This is true because of Newton's 1st law which says that when you exert a force on an object, the object will exert the same force back on you. We drew free-body diagrams and found that the only forces that aren't equal are the frictional forces of the ground on the separate people. The only way you win tug of war is by exerting a great force on the ground, because then the ground will exert that same force on you. After we concluded this information, we went outside and experienced this lab by actually playing tug of war. We proved our hypotheses by testing multiple ways of tug of war, for example, boys vs girls, concrete vs grass, etc. The next blogger is Virginia Catherine.