Teacher Demonstration
Use the live model as a shared screen demonstration before students try their own predictions and observations.
Physics / Newtonian Mechanics
Gyroscope By Wolfgang Christain
Open Gyroscope By Wolfgang Christain, an interactive HTML5 learning activity for mechanics.
1. Watch or Launch
Launch the Interactive
Open the simulation, adjust the controls, and compare what changes on screen before answering the concept-check questions.
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2. Big Ideas
Key idea In collisions, momentum of an isolated system is conserved even though kinetic energy may change depending on whether the collision is elastic or inelastic. Impulse connects force during contact to change in momentum.
What Students Can Learn
- Use total momentum before and after collision as system evidence.
- Distinguish elastic, inelastic, and sticking-together outcomes.
- Relate impulse to change in momentum during contact.
- Recognise that individual velocities can change while total momentum is conserved.
Guiding Question
What stays the same for the system during the collision, and what may change?
3. Try the Investigation
Record Before Values
Note the masses and velocities before contact.
Observe the Collision
Run the interaction and identify whether objects bounce, stop, or move together.
Compare Totals
Compare total momentum before and after, then check whether kinetic energy also stays the same.
Explain the Type
Classify the collision and support your choice with momentum and motion evidence.
4. Teacher Notes
Lesson Use
Use the model to separate conservation of momentum from conservation of kinetic energy.
Discussion Prompts
Ask: Whose momentum changed? What happened to total momentum? Was kinetic energy conserved?
Teaching Moves
Make students compare system totals before discussing individual objects.
5. Concept Check
These questions are generated from the topic and the concept illustrated by the simulation. Use them after students have explored the model.
Concept Score
Correct first attempts build a streak and unlock higher point multipliers on this device.
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Answer each question once to build your streak.
1. What quantity is conserved in an isolated collision system?
2. In a perfectly inelastic collision, what do the objects do after impact?
3. What does impulse equal?
4. Why compare before-and-after totals?
5. What may change in an inelastic collision even when momentum is conserved?
Expert Challenge
Unlocks after 3 correct concept-check answers on this page.
1. A passenger walks forward inside a bus moving forward. What must be stated before giving the passenger's velocity?
2. Rain falls vertically in the ground frame, but appears slanted to a moving runner. Why?
3. Two observers give different velocities for the same object. What is the best expert response?
4. In uniform motion, what evidence shows constant velocity rather than merely motion?
5. What common mistake occurs in airplane-release or moving-platform problems?
7. Learning Pulse
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