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Playing with Slinkies to Learn About Waves

This week, the physics classes got to explore with slinkies as an introduction to their unit about waves.


In groups, the students were instructed to move the slinky up and down and side to side and draw sketches based on their observations of the motion. They also changed the speed and power variables of the slinky by creating faster/slower vibrations and strong/weak waves.



To add a challenge, the students tried to watch one ring of the slinky and analyze its motion as the wave traveled down the slinky. Then, they used arrows to draw the motion of the ring relative to the motion of the wave itself.


After observing and sketching the different reactions of the slinky in different waves, the students created two venn diagrams. The first diagram compared vibrations and waves and what makes them different. The second diagram compared the two different types of waves, and they logged their common traits.


Here are links to videos of the slinky activity:



This slinky activity was a fun way to introduce the physics classes into a unit on waves and the complexities of their different variables.

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