This morning, Squeaks and I had a fun adventure! Last night, it snowed a lot, and when we woke up, the ground was covered in snow. We decided to go sledding on a big hill in the park behind the Fort.
We climbed to the top of the hill, sat on our sled, and pushed off. But guess what? We barely moved before we stopped! It was kind of a silly sled ride, and a bit disappointing too. But I knew we could figure out how to have a better sled ride with a little help from science!
When sledding, we want to go as fast as possible. There are a couple of ways to do this. First, we can push off really hard at the top of the hill to get more speed. Second, having more weight on the sled can help us keep moving longer. It’s like how a heavy bowling ball is harder to stop than a lighter soccer ball.
Even though Squeaks and I did both of these things, we still didn’t go very fast. That’s because something was slowing us down. This something is called friction. Friction is a force that makes it hard for things to slide across each other. If the surfaces are rough, there’s more friction; if they’re smooth, there’s less.
Have you ever tried sliding your feet across carpet while wearing socks? It’s much harder than sliding on a smooth wood floor. That’s because carpet has more friction than wood. The same thing happened with our sled. The fresh snow was soft and powdery, creating lots of friction and slowing us down.
To go faster, we needed to reduce the friction. Squeaks suggested waiting a few days for the snow to pack down naturally, but we decided to pack it down ourselves. We went back to the hill, stomped on the snow, and smoothed it out to make a hard, packed-down track.
After our hard work, we climbed to the top of the hill again, pushed off, and zoomed all the way down! The smooth, hard snow had less friction, so we went faster and farther. It was awesome!
Squeaks and I had a great time sledding, and we learned a lot about friction. If you want to keep learning and having fun with us, hit the subscribe button, and we’ll see you next time at the Fort!
Friction Experiment: Gather different materials like a piece of carpet, a smooth tile, a wooden board, and a plastic tray. Place a small toy car or a block on each surface and gently push it to see how far it slides. Discuss which surface has the most friction and which has the least. Ask the children, “Why do you think the toy car slides farther on some surfaces than others?”
Snowy Sled Simulation: Use a small tray or a piece of cardboard as a sled. Create a mini hill using a pillow or a stack of books. Cover the hill with different materials like a towel, a plastic sheet, or a piece of paper. Slide the tray down each surface and observe how fast or slow it goes. Encourage the children to think about which surface is like the packed snow and which is like the fresh snow. Ask, “How does changing the surface affect how fast the sled goes?”
Friction in Everyday Life: Encourage the children to look for examples of friction in their daily activities. Ask them to notice when friction is helpful, like when they walk without slipping, and when it might slow things down, like when they try to slide a book across a table. Have them share their observations and discuss how friction plays a role in these situations. Ask, “Can you think of a time when you wanted more friction or less friction?”
