Year 12 Mechanics Circular motion Experiment:

Purpose:

• The purpose of this experiment is for students to see that an object undergoing circular motion will fly off at a tangent if the tension force is removed

Equipment:

• Sparklers
• A drill

Method:

• Turn the lights off
• Light a sparkler, and put it in a drill (on a slow speed) or spin it slowly.
• Look at the direction the sparks fly - off at a tangent.

Pitfalls / causes of error

• Good idea not to do around flammable items.

Resources

• May look something like this:

Model data:

References / other comments:

• ......