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The Experimental Zone ~ Watch Out For Flying Golf Tees!
1:49 AM, Sep. 20, 2006
This semester we are using "The Art of the Catapult" by William Gurstelle as a physics curriculum for eighth grade. If you have a hands-on middle or high schooler, who loves to build gadgets and/or figure out how things work, this is an engaging book. And, a fun supplement to any physics textbook you may be using.
The book goes more into the history of catapults than the physics behind how they work. But, there are plenty of opportunities for your child to test their own hypotheses and understand the forces at work.
(The book has been especially beneificial for us because we are covering history from the resurrection to the reformation. We also are using the book "Bible Wars and Weapons" by Osborne, Wooding & Strauss as a resource alongside the catapult book - although it is a slightly younger reading audience.)
This is the first catapult project in the book.
 Golf tees are placed in holes, and using the eye-hook, the "arm" is pulled back. Once it is released, it hits the pointed end of th tees and "catapults" them into the distance.
 After reading the first introductory chapters, I asked my eighth grader to prepare a presentation outlining a brief history of catapults and explaining Newton's Laws of Motion.
Once the catapult was built and tested, there were so many different questions to be explored, and it was easy to understand how Newton's laws applied!
 In this photo, you can see where golf tees of different sizes and lengths were tested (some were even modified by having the heavy top section cut off). Here are a few questions we tested:
- Which travels farther, the shorter golf tees or the longer
golf tees?
- Does cutting off the "flat" end of the tee cause it to travel
farther?
- Does the tee in the top hole travel farther when it is
launched by itself or as a group of 4 tees?
- How does the mass of the tee affect the distance traveled.
- When the tees hit the grass, they immediately stopped
traveling. What would happen if we launched the tees on
a wooden floor. How much farther will they travel on
average?
- We wanted to test the affect of wind on distance traveled,
but we have to wait for the weather to co-operate.
Some things to remember when testing some of your catapult hypotheses:
- Record the mass of each golf tee before starting and mark
the tees to distinguish one from the other.
- It's best to have the same person pulling back the "lever" to
maintain as much procedural consistency as possible.
- Place a sturdy tape measure on the ground. If the tee goes
beyond it, have a second tape measure on hand to measure
from the end of the first tape measure to the golf tee's
location.
- Pay special attention to how far the golf tees are placed into
the holes. Try to keep it consistent. Perhaps have one
person responsible for loading the tees each time.
Here are some online physics lessons to complement this phsyics-related study:
You may also want to check out William Burstelle's catapult website.
Until next week....watch out for flying golf tees!
Michelle Michelle and her husband have been homeschooling their children for 8 years. She was one of the founders of Treasure Box Press, but has since "retired" from the company. She currently serves as the Judge Advisor for the North Carolina FIRST Lego League state tournament. She is the author of
Related Tags: flying, golf tees, catapult, science, experiment, physics, high school, build, gadgets, history, Newton's Laws of Motion Comments 
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