Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

My 6 year old would like to know what makes a skateboard stay in the air.

Hi benrane,

I am not sure what your child means skateboards stay in the air. Technically, skateboards go up when they come off of a ramp or stair and come back down very soon. Can you provide more information that will help to clarify the question?

I guess what he wants to do the project on is why it is able to stay in the air. I've done a little research today and it may have something to do with Murphy's laws of motion. It's probably not a good project, but he really wants one about skateboarding and the teacher said that was fine. How do the riders feet stay on the board maybe?

The project that your son wants to work on seems very advanced for a six year old, but there are a few resources on the web that may help him get started. I've listed a couple of them below. After reviewing the information on the physics of skateboarding on these pages, you might want to explore other project ideas with him before he gets started. You and he may find something he will enjoy as much that would be more on his level.

Skateboard Science:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/skateboarding/trick.html
The Art and Science of Skateboarding
http://www.riverdeep.net/current/2001/0 ... oard.jhtml

Good luck, and stop back if you have more questions.

benrane,

I don't think that this project is to much for a six year old. I think that the understanding and experiments that a 6 year old would do for this topic would be very different from the knowledge a high school student would have, and as judge or teacher, my expectations for a 6-year-old are very different than for a 18 year old. I think that this project can be successfully done by a 6 year old at an understanding that is appropriate for a 6 year old. If this is the project your child wants to do, let him do it. It is much more important at this stage that he do a project that he is interested in than that he try to explain all the details about why a skateboard stays in the air.

Let us know if we can help you develop your child's idea into an experiment that will allow your child to explore his passion at an age-appropriate level.

Hi benrane,

Hunting around on the web, I came across a great page for your son to explore. Its Dr. Skateboard's Action Science page at http://www.drskateboard.com/action_science.htm . It has lots of demonstration videos where Dr. Skateboard explains what is going on during the maneuvers. Especially check out the Action Science and Videos page links. The Photos page is also excellent.

Terik is right; its very cool that your son is interested in such a fascinating subject. These pages should help him get a deeper understanding of skateboarding science and the laws of motion too.