Lesson 68 of 84 · Simple Machines

Experiment⭐ 30 XP🛠️ Engineer Shop

How Fast Can It Go? (Part 3)

🧪Lab Brief #68

Simple Machines.

🎯 Your mission

Set it up. Test it. Be amazed.

⚡ The twist

Constraints make you more creative, not less.

🤯

Mind = Blown

🛠️ The first computer bug was a literal moth stuck inside a machine in 1947.

🔮

Make a hypothesis first

Before you test: how many tries until it works?

What You'll Learn

When you roll a ball on carpet, it stops faster than on a smooth floor. That is friction!

Key Words

roll
slide
stop

Materials Needed

rubber bands
blocks
spring scale
stopwatch

Safety First

Handle glass items carefully to avoid breakage.
Do not mix unknown chemicals together.

Steps

Step 1 — Read

Say the vocabulary words out loud. Can you repeat them?

Step 2 — Do

Roll a ball down a ramp. Try making the ramp steeper. What happens?

Step 3 — Observe

Use your eyes, ears, and hands to explore. What do you notice?

Step 4 — Record

Color a picture to show what happened.

Check Your Understanding

Question 1

1 of 3

Do heavy things or light things fall faster?

How sure are you going to be?😐 maybe

🌍

Where you see this in real life

Every bridge, building, and gadget you've ever used started with this.

🏆

Stretch Challenge

Try this in real life this week.

Find something that's broken at home and try to figure out *why* it broke.

👨‍👩‍👧

For the dinner table

“What's something around the house you'd redesign — and how?”

🎯

Next Smart Experiment

We'll pick an experiment that matches exactly how you're thinking right now.

🪨Share card

Share this experiment

Send it to a parent who's looking for a 10-minute kitchen science win.

🖨️

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