Physics classes use knowledge on kinematics for balloon drop
Physics classes attempt to drop water balloons on teachers by calculating the time it takes for the water balloon to drop and the time it takes for the teacher to walk at a constant velocity.
September 28, 2021
Figuring out the correct calculations and hitting their teacher on the head with a water balloon was the goal for physics students in a unit on 1D Kinematics.
“In order to do that, they had to figure out the math of the time it takes for the water balloon to drop and the time it takes for the teacher to walk at a constant velocity,” science teacher Jill Bradshaw said. “If they did their math correctly then hopefully.”
Seems easy, but the calculation is where it gets a bit more complicated and where the students really use their 1D Kinematics knowledge.
“When my teacher told us the assignment I thought it would be easy,” junior Jessica Laighton said. “It was really hard to know what formula to use without direction from the teacher. But in the end, we got it and did alright.”
Adding to the challenge, students couldn’t look where they were dropping and had to rely on the help of their group members.
“Often kids forget to think about reaction time if your friend is saying ‘Go!’, you just have to process that and then drop it,” science teacher Mattison Cantrell said. “But we give them the distance the teacher is walking, our height, velocity, and it’s their job to do the math to figure out when they should drop the balloon. There are multiple points to take into consideration, they have to figure out the time that it takes for the teacher to actually get to the dropping point. They also have to figure out what time it takes for that balloon to actually drop to the teacher’s head, and kind of, figure out where those two points intersect.”
Being able to hit their teacher with a water balloon was a goal students such as junior Nathan Chen could get behind.
“It was very fun and exciting,” Chen said. “I think the best part was having the water balloon hit the teacher’s head.”
With approximately 22 balloons being dropped, only a couple were able to hit the target.
“Some kids got pretty close,” Bradshaw said. “I got hit on my legs, shoulder and hand while walking twice on the head on free drops to the closest teams.”
