Name: Date:
Student Exploration: Torque and Moment of Inertia
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: angular accelerati
...
Name: Date:
Student Exploration: Torque and Moment of Inertia
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: angular acceleration, fulcrum, lever, moment of inertia, Newton’s second law, torque, weight
Prior Knowledge Question (Do this BEFORE using the Gizmo.)
During recess, Tom and his little sister Marcie want to play on the see-saw. Tom is quite a bit heavier than
Marcie. Where should they sit so the see-saw is balanced? Sketch their positions on the image below.
Explain your reasoning:
Tom should sit closer to the fulcrum and
Marcie should sit farther from the
fulcrum. This way they are balanced on
the seesaw
Gizmo Warm-up
The Torque and Moment of Inertia Gizmo shows a see-saw,
which is a type of lever. The see-saw can hold up to eight
objects. To begin, check that the Number of objects is 2. Check
that the mass of object A is 1.0 kg and the mass of object B is
2.0 kg. The two objects are equidistant from the triangular
fulcrum that supports the lever.
1. Click Release. What happens?
There is rotation in the clockwise direction where object B is. Since object B has more mass
there is more force and torque in this direction.
2. Click Reset. Without changing the masses, experiment with different positions of objects A and B by
dragging them around.
Can you create a scenario in which object A goes down and object B goes up? Yes
Explain: If you increase the radius of object A to -2.0m and keep the radius of object 2 at
0.5m, then the torque on object A will be larger and it will go down.
3. Can you create a scenario in which object A perfectly balances object B? Yes
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