Push & Pull Force: Exploring Everyday Scenarios

Push and pull force are the very basic principles of science and with some real-life examples, students get a good understanding of how it works.

#1 Opening & Closing a Door

Without even realizing we exercise push and pull force while entering a room through the door. When you exert force to pull the door towards you, the force applied is pull force. When you push the door away from you, the force pushes the door away from you and is thus termed as push force. Next time you open & close doors, recollect Newton’s third law of motion! For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.

#2 Moving your drawer shelf

To move the drawer shelf from its current position of rest to another, we need to push it in the correct direction. Pushing the shelf may seem like an ordinary thing, but imagine without push force, you would have to lift the entire unit and walk across the room where it needs to be placed. This sounds like a tedious exercise, and therefore, let us be grateful for the power of push force.

#4 Drawing the Curtains

Drawing curtains is a mechanical job that we do without much thought. However, if it weren’t for force, how would you draw apart the curtains every morning or pull them back together at night? Therefore, force is an integral part of our everyday lives.

#5 Walking

Walking is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. But did you know, even walking makes use of Newton’s law of force? The third law states that every action has an equal and opposite reaction, so, when you walk the foot is exerting force onto the ground and the ground is applying an equal & opposite force onto your foot (called friction), thereby giving you momentum to move forward.

The 21st-century STEAM curriculum which is taught in schools across Dubai and other Middle East regions requires students to be well-versed in Physics. Studying out of a textbook is necessary, but when the same concepts are reiterated via hands-on experiments it is retained for longer. So, here is an activity that might be of help and can be presented to your class.

Putting together a Gymnast using LEGO® Education BricQ Motion Prime Set

Here students will assemble a gymnast on a horizontal bar who is also driving a car, by using interesting LEGO® elements and Minifigures.

Build Time (30 minutes):

Let students work in pairs to design the gymnast model. This will take about 15-20 minutes.
Refer to the student material resource available with the kit and ask them to conduct any 3 experiments.

Experiment 1:

Ask students to indicate a marking using masking tape and then swing the gymnast from the folded ratchet levers to observe what happens.

Experiment 2:

Ask students to try and make the pendulum car move forward using ratchet levers.
See what happens when the front ratchet lever of the car is flipped down.
Place the car on a starting line, then pull the pendulum back 90 degrees and let it go. Observe the swing.
How far does the car go? Mark the distance the car traveled and note it down.
Now if the pendulum were to be pulled 160 degrees, then how far would the car go? Ask students to calculate the distance and place a brick at the spot they think the car will stop.
Put the prediction to test and see how far the car & gymnast actually travel.

Experiment 3:

Fold the ratchet levels and observe what happens when the gymnast is released with the car.

The LEGO® Education BricQ Motion Prime Set is a must-have in every household and classroom, so, get your hands on this useful kit today, delivered to you in any UAE Emirates.

The above experiment will make the following concepts clear: