Marble Ramps With Rulers

Conserving energy have students explore potential and kinetic energy by releasing a marble on a simulated roller coaster.

Marble ramps with rulers.

Put a marble at one point along the ruler but don t tell the students the cm position of the marble. An example of potential energy is a stretched out rubber band the farther you stretch it the more potential energy it has. Now take the biggest triangle and draw the marble ramps using a pen and ruler make the ramps 1 5cm or a bit bigger depending on the size of your marbles. The ramp should be positioned so that the marble rolled down the ramp will roll across the floor and collide with the wall.

I implement their suggestion and the marble misses the sail completely and bounces off of the table. You ll be amazed at the lego marble runs they can create. Place a half cup at the base of the ramp so that a marble rolling down the ramp will enter the cup and push it. If you want a shallow marble ramp you might need to make some more ramps.

If i start. Release the marble and let students observe that the marble moves the cup along the tabletop. Once you ve finished drawing the ramps take some scissors and cut them out. Fix the ruler in place with tape so it will not move from one experiment to the next 2.

Suzanne if i could launch my marble off a ramp that started as high as a desk i could really get it to roll far. Students suggest i roll the marble and try to hit the sail. In this post i m going to show you how to build a really awesome lego marble run. The marble went 25 then 34 then 47 cubes.

Lean a grooved ruler or paper towel tube against the textbooks or other props so that the top end is at the 5 cm height while the other end is touching the floor. I built this track myself my kids didn t help but it was based off inspiration from kids at a recent lego event we attended. The ruler should be placed so that the lower numbers are at the base of the ramp. Potential energy is the energy that is stored in an object.

Some students will likely say that the higher the marble is on the ramp the farther the cup will move. Gavin it s kind of like when i ride a bike. Position one marble at the top of the ruler 30 cm and. Ramp set up higher and higher.

It s fun to build ramps jumps and all kinds of creative projects. Popular marble experiments help students discover basic principles of energy mass velocity and momentum using ramps rulers and cardboard tubes. One weekend we pooled our talents and materials and set up an enormous marble ramp alongside two walls of the classroom using piles of books rulers and. A truly admirable marble ramp was distinguished by the length of time taken by the marble to emerge the longer the better and by the variety of interesting noises it made on the way.

You should have at least seven ramps. In this experiment the inclined plane makes work easier by allowing gravity without any help from you to move the marble down the ramp.