We are trying a fun way to find the center of the mass of a ruler. If you hold your index fingers in front of you, put a ruler on top of them and start moving your hands towards each other, your fingers end up right at the unique point where the ruler's mass is centered. We added weight on one side to make it more challenging, and then we tried moving fingers at different speeds and placing fingers at the asymmetrical position. But every time we fingers meet right under the center of the mass of the ruler. How does it work? The finger that is closer to the center of the mass carries more weight and friction increases letting the other finger come closer. Then the same thing is happening with the second finger, which allows the first finger to slide.
Up Next in TheDadLab
-
Floating Dry Ice Experiment
What happens when dry ice is added to a shallow amount of water? In this experiment, you can test this out for yourself. Using water and dry ice, watch the reactions of the different elements. Does the ice move? What does the water look like? Is it foggy or smoky? To further extend this experimen...
-
Friction Experiment with Rice in A Bo...
We are exploring friction with this simple science experiment. Max put raw rice inside a bottle and taped it against the table, the rice settled, reducing air pockets between each grain. So much so that when Max pushed a wooden spoon into the bottle and slowly pulled it out, he picked up the bott...
-
Exploring Density with Lemon: Sink or...
Exploring Density with Lemon: Sink or Float
