Fifth Grade, Physics Science Experiments (Page 16)

Come One, Come All! Explore the Effect of Light on the Speed of the Amazing Rotating Radiometer!

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Radiometers are fun-to-watch novelty items, but they also have a distinguished scientific history, having been studied by James Clerk Maxwell and Albert Einstein. A radiometer has a set of four vanes (like small sails) connected to a spindle that is free to rotate. When the radiometer is placed in bright light, the vanes and spindle start to spin. It looks like a magic trick, but there is a scientific explanation for this weird behavior. In this science fair project, you will experiment with… Read more

Conserving Angular Momentum, Without the Ice Skates

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You might have heard about “conservation of angular momentum” and that it has something to do with ice skating. But how can you demonstrate it if you don’t have any ice skates around? Find out in this simple activity that only requires common household supplies! Read more

Curl Metals With Heat!

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Do you like gift wrapping? If you do, you have probably curled a ribbon with scissors before. Have you ever wondered why the ribbon curls when you run a scissor blade down one side of it? The answer is that when you apply pressure on the ribbon with the blade, the outer layer of the ribbon stretches and expands. This makes the outside layer of the ribbon longer than the inside layer that is pressed against the blade. As a result, the ribbon starts to curl to make up for the different lengths of… Read more

Dancing Water Droplets

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Do you like watching raindrops on your window as they move and run down the glass? It is fascinating to observe how some of them just sit there by themselves, whereas others combine to build a larger drop. Have you ever wondered what makes them move and behave in different ways? Controlling and influencing wetting, the spreading of liquids on surfaces, is actually important for many industries. For some purposes, you want a surface to repel a liquid; just think of your water-repellent jacket as… Read more

Designing a Speaker for Bass or Treble

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Whether you have already tried the Science Buddies Build a Paper Speaker activity or the Measure the Frequency Response of a Paper Speaker project, or you just like music and are interested in exploring more about the science of sound, then this project is for you. You probably know that sound waves can have different frequencies. If not, you can read more about that in the background section of the Measure the Frequency Response of a Paper Speaker project. The range of human hearing is… Read more

Distance and Speed of Rolling Objects Measured from Video Recordings

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

This project is an experiment in classical physics. You'll be following in Galileo's footsteps, and investigating Newton's laws of motion, but you'll be taking advantage of modern video recording technology to make your measurements. Sure, it's been done before, but if you do it yourself, you can get a firm understanding of these important concepts. Read more

Energetic Two-Ball Bounces

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How many ball sports can you name? How many of those have several balls at once in the game? Almost none, right? Games that do use several balls at a time most likely use balls of the same mass, volume, and material. Would having two balls of a different mass make a game very difficult? In this activity, you will explore what might happen if you were to add a tennis ball to a basketball game, or a tiny ping pong ball to a tennis game, or any other combination. Ready to be surprised? Try it out! Read more

Evaporative Cooling with Liquids

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Have you ever wondered why we sweat when our environment is getting hot or when we exercise? Sweating is a life-saving strategy that cools our body down and maintains our body temperature. Without sweating, our body cannot regulate our temperature, which can lead to overheating or even heatstroke. But why does sweating have a cooling effect? The answer is evaporative cooling. Turning a liquid such as sweat from its liquid state into a gas requires energy. This energy is taken from our body, or… Read more

Explore Interplanetary Spacecraft Maneuvers with FreeFlyer®

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

If you are interested in space travel and willing to do some coding, this project is for you! It uses FreeFlyer®—powerful software that allows you to simulate space travel—to explore essential mission questions. Space travel is complex. Many factors influence the trajectory of a spacecraft. Simulations like the ones generated by FreeFlyer are powerful, as they allow you to analyze each factor in isolation, and then visualize the effects in various ways. Once you familiarize… Read more

Explore the Wet Sand Effect

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Summer is the perfect time to take a stroll at the beach and walk barefoot along the shoreline. While doing that, have you ever looked at your footprints in the wet sand? If so, you might have noticed that with every step it looks like the sand around your feet dries out. Why is that? These dry footprints are caused by the pressure of your feet. You will find out exactly how this happens by doing this beachy activity! Read more

Fifth Grade, Physics Science Experiments (223 results)

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