Activity Overview
In this lesson, students will use a simulation to explore elastic collisions and Newton’s second and third laws.
Objectives
- Students will explore how the mass and initial velocity of objects affect the outcome of an elastic collision.
- Students will apply Newton’s second and third laws to a collision between two cars.
Vocabulary
- speed
- velocity
- force
- acceleration
- mass
- collision
- action-reaction forces
About the Lesson
In this lesson, students will use a simulation to explore elastic collisions and Newton’s second and third laws.
As a result, students will:
- Manipulate the initial mass and velocity of objects and observe the final velocity of objects after a collision.
- Calculate the acceleration and force on objects during a collision.
- Verify Newton’s third law from data collected during the simulation.
This activity was created using Lua. Learn more about Lua in TI-Nspire here.