Physics "Ph"un With Catapults

Students in Mr. Dan Dreyfuss' physics classes were given materials and built a catapult at home that they would then be required to bring in and use to throw "fireballs" at a "wall of cups" and knock down as many as they could. They then made whiteboard force diagrams of the ball at various points in its trajectory and, the following day, used them in a discussion on projectile motion, orbiting space stations, and apparent weightlessness. Through this project, the students come to understand that the apple falling on Newton's head is important not because it caused him to think of gravity, but because he realized that the moon is falling to the Earth just like the apple.  

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