General Directions for Preparing the Narrative Portion for the QuickTime Presentation

Recording:

1. Answer each of the key concepts for the “The Human Vacuum” challenge, by putting the question
and response to the question in the speaker’s notes in the group’s Google slides where they fit best.
2. Incorporate the key terms into your group’s responses where they apply and put the terms in
bold.

Key Concepts
1. How is each type of speed displayed?
Instantaneous Constant Average
2. What are 3 examples of acceleration? as in speed up, slow down, and change direction?
3. How do friction and gravity affect motion?
4. How do Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion apply?

Key Terms
motion
vacuum
matter
energy
force
reference point
inertia
mass
resistance
net force or unbalanced force
equal force
speed
velocity
acceleration
momentum
exert or apply
friction
gravity
opposite
direction

Slide 1 (Cassie): (Title)

Slide 2 (Shashank):
Our objective is to use human lung power and our knowledge of Newton’s 3 laws of motion to
create a vacuum that efficiently moves paper from a given reference point to another in less than
sixty seconds. We have to cut paper and possibly fold paper a certain way so that we are able to use
suction and straws to create a vacuum and pick them up. The paper has to fit into a plastic cup with
no extra parts sticking out. However, there is a time restraint of 60 seconds, so we have to complete
the task with enough speed.

Slide 3 (Ethan): Our materials included 8 bendable straws, one modifiable 8” x 11” sheet of paper, a
disposable drinking cup, whiteboard, it’s marker and eraser, a pair of scissors, one sharpie and one
ruler. The disposable drinking cup is the reference point because it is at the other end of the table
compared to where the pieces of paper are. We were each given 2 straws so that we are able to
choose which one works better. In the end, we all chose the thicker straw. We chose the thicker
straw because if you apply equal force to the thick and thin straw, the thicker straw creates better
suction.

Slide 4 (Jessica): We planned to cut the paper in half, then cut the halves into 5 strips, in total we
have 10 strips of paper, and after that we folded the strips into squares. We folded the 10 strips into
squares to make it easier for us to pick up the folded paper by drawing in air through the straw. We
also folded the strips into squares to also fit into the cup easily. Everyone in the group decided to
use the bigger straw after testing out both straws. While making our plan, we had think about the
friction the paper has as it drops into the cup and also the gravity that would make it more difficult
for the paper to stay suctioned to the straw. We couldn’t leave the paper in big pieces because then
it would have a greater mass and greater inertia, making it harder to pick up with straws. Inertia is
the tendency of a still/moving object to resist changes in its’ motion. Anything that has mass and
volume has matter, so no matter how big or small the paper is, it still has matter. However, the mass
is what’s important during this lab.

Slide 5 (Cassie): We had to test out our plan to see if it would work at all. The first gif is in slow
motion and shows Jessica lifting a piece of paper with a straw into the cup. The second gif is testing
to see if the paper can still be lifted with a straw even when the person is in motion. After our tests,
we only had two minor modifications. Jessica and Shashank decided to change their thin straws to
thick straws because they felt it made it easier to lift the paper.

Slide 6 (Ethan):This video shows us carrying out our objective in under 60 seconds, displaying
instantaneous speed by us having a given speed at a given point in time, and average speed by our
speed throughout the video. We displayed constant speed at no point in time throughout the task,
thus we did not have the same velocity throughout either, we did not have the same speed, nor did
we have the same direction throughout, we constantly changed direction as we turned back and
forth from the cup and slowed down as we reached the cup and speeding up as we turned around to
go back. Because we had four people, 2 people stood on opposite sides of the table so that there
wouldn’t be conflict as everyone walked to and from the cup. As we walked, we had momentum
because momentum is the mass of an object multiplied by the velocity. The paper had potential
energy before we dropped it into the cup.

Slide 7 (Jessica): The gif to the left shows how we applied law 1 to the paper at rest. The paper
stayed at rest until a net force was applied to the paper by drawing air in from the other end of the
straw which then lifted the paper. This follows the part of Newton’s first law which states that an
object at rest will remain at rest unless a net force acts on it. The net force exerted onto the paper is
what makes the paper go from staying at rest to being in motion. The gif in the middle shows law 2
which applied by lifting the paper from the table and then applying more force onto the paper
which increased its acceleration to go into the cup. The last gif on the right shows how we applied
law 3 in our experiment. We exerted force to drop the straw on the edge of the cup. By bouncing
the straw on the cup, it exerted an equal and opposite force on the straw, causing it to bounce off.