Chapter 19 Newton’s Slingshot
Tinker Newton’s laws with rubber-band power.
Kids in Timor love to make and shoot slingshots. As I watch them pull the rubber bands back and set the stone to sailing, I always think of Uncle Isaac Newton’s laws of motion. Here’s a fun little set of experiments we developed for teachers to demonstrate those laws in the context of slingshots.
Gather stuff
- Forked branch
- Rubber bands, maybe 20
- Piece of sturdy cloth
- Loop of yarn or a stick to scratch a circle on the ground
- Rocks: two the same, one big and one small
Gather tools
- Saw
- Scissors
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