Fabulous Physics

Vernon Clarke

Teacher - Physics

This term, the Year 12 Physics class travelled down to St Kilda's Luna Park for the VICPHYSICS day. 

The VICPHYSICS Teachers' Network is a committee of physics teachers, teacher educators and academics. The committee's aim is to support physics teachers and physics teaching, and seeks to encourage student participation in physics. 

Approximately 600-700 students from across Melbourne were in attendance - and this excursion to Luna Park provided a fabulous opportunity to see the laws of physics in motion! 

And it wasn't just a day in the park - students were required to complete worksheets relating to the rides and their attributes.  Using the theoretical knowledge learned in class, they completed questions and exercises related to the rides to demonstrate their learning. Once back at school,  the students then completed a SAC (School Assessment Task) to test their learning.  Seeing physics theory played out in a real-world environment enriches students' understanding of their learning, and their ability to apply the knowledge they have gained. This was proved true as the class achieved great results for the SAC! 

Students rode the Coney Drop, which demonstrated weightlessness through falling. 

Pharaohs Curse (that swings upside down) demonstrated vertical circular motion. Our students needed to be able to calculate the force required to change inertia and the various normal forces using circular motion equations and gravity. This was easier to understand on the Scenic Railway, with it’s rises and falls over a mostly vertically circular track - converting the gravitational potential energy into kinetic energy as it rolls down the track. 

Waiting in the queue for the Supernova required students to utilise standing forces and patience energy!  Parents will be pleased to know that the Supernova involves chairs on tension wires spinning - it is not actually an exploding star!  Students calculated speed (about 6 metres per second) and used the known height and projectile motion equations to calculate the distance that a dropped object would fall from the ride (about 20 metres - the attendants hide inside a cabin when the ride is in operation!) 

The day rounded out with the students investigating momentum and impulse in the bumping cars - finding the fun in Physics!

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