Train your body and your brain!
Exercising is important to keeping you happy and healthy, it even helps you think! As you exercise, your blood pumps to your brain quicker, supplying it with more oxygen. Endorphins are released that improve concentration and stimulate the growth of new brain cells.
Train like an astronaut!
In order to go to space, NASA has to make sure astronauts are very healthy and in shape to adapt to an environment in space.
Click here to learn how to train like an astronaut
Interactive activities
Fun with Friction
In this activity, you will be observing the forces of gravity and friction on different objects as they
travel down the twin slides.
1- To start, gather some materials to send down the slide. Be sure to objects of different sizes,
composition, shapes.
2-Race two of the objects at a time against each other by dropping them at the same time from
the top of the slide. Take note of which makes it to the bottom fastest. Why does this happen?
Test some more objects and see if there is a pattern with what objects travel fastest. For more
precise measurements, use a stopwatch on your phone!
What is happening?
Every object has its own gravity force, but the Earth is very massive, therefore the objects are
being pulled to it. The same principle applies with the planets, our sun is the most massive
object in our solar system and we see that with the revolution of the planets around it. But, the
other planets also have an impact on each other by their own gravitational forces, just not as
significantly.
Each of the objects you sent down the slide will travel at different rates due to the friction force
slowing them down. Friction is a force that slows you down. If you were running around your
house in socks, you would go faster in the rooms with tile or wooden floors than you would in
carpeted rooms. That’s because the carpet has more friction. The reason you go down the slide
super fast is because of how smooth it is. If the slide is smooth, then there is less friction, which
means you go fast. This principle applies to the objects themselves, if you have a smoother
object, it will go down the slide faster than one with rough sides.
This rotating piece of equipment highlights the concept of conservation of momentum. As you start spinning you can notice that as you pull your body closer to the pole, your speed will pick up. This is due to you bringing your mass closer to the center or axis of rotation. As you are pulling yourself closer to the center, you decrease your rotational inertia, or torque, causing your angular momentum to increase. Torque is a measure of the amount an object will rotate with a force applied.
Click here to learn about the science of spinning