Day 8

Context

After looking at some physical phenomena and emphasizing that we need to focus on questions that we have generated, we now look at some new situations that will hopefully help us understand more scientific principles.

Explanation

Today we will look at what seems to be a counter-intuitive situation and focus on some theories that try to explain it.

After this class you should be able to:

• See how to develop a theory.
• Evaluate a theory by comparing it with observations.

Model

Floating and Sinking Balls Setup

Two clear containers, A and B, have clear liquids in them. A has twice as much liquid as B. There are some small colored spheres in A. Some of the spheres are floating and some are not floating.

Initial Experiment

I take one of the floating balls from A and forcefully throw it into B. The ball sinks. I then take another floating baLL from A and gently place it into B. It also sinks.

What is your initial theory? What questions do you have? What experiment would you like to do next to test your theory? What do you identify as the variables in this situation?

Homework

The homework for this class is on Canvas.