The Quarter Sandwich 

Materials: 

Two quarters

One penny, or one dine, or one nickel

  

 

Future Quicktime Movie and photos of the demo to go here!

Procedure: 

Place the dine between the two quarters and hold the assembly horizonally between your thumb and first finger. 

 

Explain to the observers that you are going to release the bottom quarter and allow both it and the smaller sandwiched dine to fall into your empty hand. 

 

Ask the observers to predict what order the fallen coins will have as they rest in your bottom hand. (You may want to refresh their memory concerning Galileo's early work.)

 

Now carefully release only the bottom quarter and allow it and the dine to fall into your other hand. (The hand catching the quarter and dine should be at least six inches away from the point of release.)

 

Note that everytime the dime is covered by the quarter, yet the quarter should have hit first??

Rationale:

Try as you might, you can not release both sides of the quarter at the same time. Therefore, the side first released allows the dine to spill out and fall before the quarter, thus allowing the dine to hit your hand first.

 

Concepts:

Check for understanding for laws of Gravity

 

Sample activity from our new book, "101 Silly Science Bar Tricks for the Disignated Driver", coming soon to a bookstore near you.

 

 

Physical Menu

æ