Force
Forces and Motion
| Electricity and Magnetism
| Properties of Matter
How can the floor make a force?
Teaching Guidance
for 5-11
11-14
How can a floor push?
Wrong Track: How can the floor push up on Papa Tombola? It's just there for him to stand on.
Right Lines: Any body can provide a force that supports.
A floor in terms of atoms
Thinking about the learning
A floor seems to just be. How such a passive object can provide an upward force is indeed a puzzle.
A helpful way to think about this force is to imagine the atoms in the body. At a microscopic level the body is being distorted. The upward force is provided by the spring-like bonds between atoms.
Here are some children's ideas on contact forces:
