Physics Science Projects (Page 9)

Investigate the 'Death' of an Orange: How is Rate of Heat Loss Based on the Surrounding Temperature?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Imagine that you are a detective investigating a murder. You have a body that was found in a swimming pool, and someone reported hearing an argument near the pool at 10:00 PM the night before. Your first question might be "Was this person killed around 10:00 PM last night, or at some other time?" One way to answer this question is to measure the internal temperature of the body. The longer ago the killing occurred, the colder the body. But can you assign a specific time of death to a specific… Read more

The Buoyancy of Balloons

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Balloons are a festive addition to many celebrations. You've probably noticed, though, that over a short period of time, helium-filled latex balloons start to lose their buoyancy. So when you're planning your next party, how soon can you buy the balloons in advance before they start deflating? In this science fair project, you will use a simple scale to measure the lift supplied by a set of balloons, and determine the rate of lift decay. 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

Slip Sliding Away: Experimenting with Friction

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

As you headed up the mountain to enjoy your last ski trip, you may have noticed a sign reading: Hazard! Icy Roads Ahead—Put On Your Chains. Putting chains on car tires increases the resistance between the tires and the road allowing the car to "grip" the road. This resistance to sliding is called friction. In this experiment, you will be investigating how to increase and decrease the friction between two surfaces. Read more

The Physics of Simulation vs Reality

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Science Buddies has many projects where you build something with moving parts or do an experiment with the physics of moving objects. Here are just a few examples, but this is not an exhaustive list! You can search our site to find many more. Ball launcher (Figure 1) Marble roller coaster (Figure 2) Rube Goldberg machine (Figure 3) Build A Wall Marble Run (Figure 4) Figure 1. A catapult-style ball launcher. … Read more

How Does Your Eardrum Work?

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Eardrums are membranes inside your ears that vibrate when sound waves hit them. These vibrations are converted into electrical signals and sent to your brain, which allows you to hear sound. The frequency response of your eardrum, or the range of frequencies that will cause it to vibrate, determines your hearing range. Typical human hearing ranges from about 20 Hz up to 20,000 Hz, although the ability to hear high frequencies typically degrades as you get older. Some other animals can… Read more

Water Striders & Surface Tension

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

Water striders (also called water bugs, pond skippers, etc.) are insects that can hop around on the surface of water (Figure 1). Unlike boats or other floating objects that are partially submerged and held up by the resulting buoyant force, water striders are held up by surface tension. Figure 1. Water striders (image credit Isaka Yoji). You can build your own water striders using thin wire (Figure 2 and summary video). Do some background research about… 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

Balls Bouncing Off of Surfaces

Science Fair Project Idea

Scientific Method

For example, think of hitting a baseball, heading a soccer ball into the net, or hitting a tennis ball with a racquet. Where the ball goes depends on...what? You can set up a simple model to start your investigation. You'll need a marble, a flat piece of wood, a flat piece of cardboard, a pencil, a ruler, a protractor, and a level surface. Lay down the cardboard down on a level surface and set up the flat piece of wood at one edge. The wood will act like a wall, and you're going to roll… 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

Physics Science Projects (100 results)

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