Y10 Science: The Physics of Everyday Life

This semester, Year 10 students have been learning about the physics of their daily lives. There have been many practicals, most of which have featured eggs, in the hopes that the egg passengers were kept safe! Egg drivers have raced down ramps only to crash into walls and have mistakenly driven off cliffs (the balcony) falling 4m to their demise. Amazingly, some eggs did survive the fall - such was the quality of the safety features that included bumpers, crumple zones, roll bars and airbags.

In the last couple of weeks students have been experimenting with air resistance (drag).

In the first challenge they were trying to increase air resistance, hoping their egg parachutist would float gently to the ground.

The second challenge involved trying to decrease air resistance using streamlining.

The students had to design a rocket which when launched, would travel the furthest because of its streamlining. The rockets were launched with countdowns and much glee on the top turf. Their rockets shot 15 - 20m into the air – so were very well streamlined and of course lots of fun.