Newton's Laws
This term describes an object's natural resistance to any change in its motion.
What is inertia?
Stored energy due to an object's position, condition, or chemical makeup belongs to this general family.
What is Potential Energy?
These forces are unequal and cause a change in an object's speed or direction.
What are Unbalanced Forces?
In the TAILS acronym, the letter "L" stands for this required graphing feature.
What is Labels (with units)?
Scientific inquiry focuses primarily on answering questions about how this works.
What is nature (or the natural world)?
According to Newton's 2nd Law, if equal force is applied to two objects, this object will accelerate faster.
What is the object with less mass (lighter object)?
A roller coaster car paused at the top of a hill possesses this specific type of potential energy.
What is Gravitational Potential Energy?
An opposing force created when two surfaces slide or rub against each other.
What is Friction?
The variable that is measured or observed as a result of the experiment.
What is the Dependent Variable?
The Engineering Design Process aims to solve real-world problems by building one of these working models.
What is a Prototype?
When a braking car stops suddenly, your body keeps moving forward because of this first law of motion.
What is the (Newton's 1st Law) Law of Inertia?
nergy stored inside a stretched rubber band or compressed spring is called this.
What is Elastic Potential Energy?
If Student A pulls left with 150 N and the ring doesn't move (F_{net} = 0), Student B must pull right with this force.
What is 150 N?
Counting by consistent numbers like 0, 2, 4, 6... or 0, 5, 10... fulfills this letter in TAILS.
What is I (Intervals)?
Immediately after researching and picking the best design solution, an engineer performs this step.
What is Build a Prototype?
A rocket or fire extinguisher go-kart pushing gas backward to propel forward demonstrates this law.
What is Newton's Third Law (Action-Reaction)?
Heat generated by friction when tires rub against the track is released as this form of energy.
What is Thermal Energy?
A box experiences 40 N pushing right and 60 N pushing left. This is the net force magnitude and direction.
What is 20 N to the left?
Factors kept exactly the same throughout all test trials, such as track surface or vehicle size.
What are Controlled Variables (Constants)?
Testing a safety harness design, collecting crash data, and redesigning it to fix weaknesses uses this process.
What is the Engineering Design Process?
As a rocket sled burns fuel and loses mass while maintaining constant thrust, its acceleration does this.
What is increases?
This form of energy equals the total sum of an object's potential energy and kinetic energy combined.
What is Mechanical Energy?
The background or viewpoint an observer uses to decide whether an object is in motion.
What is a Frame of Reference?
In the DRY MIX rule, the variable that the scientist changes on purpose goes on this axis.
What is the X-axis?
Unlike engineering (which tests device performance under constraints), scientific experiments are designed to test these.
What are Hypotheses / Predictions?