Force
Forces and Motion | Electricity and Magnetism

Explore pupils' reasoning

Teaching Guidance for 11-14 Supporting Physics Teaching

Making predictions

Before setting pupils up to drop objects, invite them to articulate their predictions and their reasons. Return to these predictions and reasons after the dropping activity.

The lighter object ought not to be so light as to be influenced significantly by air resistance. Two blocks of softwood, about 200 gram and 800 gram, will do the trick. If you can find two objects with the same volume but different masses then this will be even more convincing. A cricket ball and a tennis ball, perhaps.

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