Students learn about video motion capture technology, becoming familiar with concepts such as vector components, magnitudes and directions, position, velocity, and acceleration. They use a (free) classroom data collection and processing tool—the ARK Mirror—to visualize and record 3-D motion. The Augmented Reality Kinematics (ARK) Mirror software collects data via a motion detector. Using an Orbbec Astra Pro 3D camera or Microsoft Kinect (see note below), students can visualize and record a robust set of data and interpret them using statistical and graphical methods. This lesson introduces students to just one possible application of the ARK Mirror software—in the context of a high school physics class. Note: The ARK Mirror is ported to operate on an Orbbec platform. It may also be used with a Microsoft Kinect, although that Microsoft hardware has been discontinued. Refer to the Using ARK Mirror and Microsoft Kinect attachment for how to use the ARK MIrror software with Microsoft Kinect.

The difference between vectors and scalars. ​Introduction to distance, displacement, speed, and velocity. Created by Sal Khan.

This activity is a field investigation where students gather data on their motion and how it compares to another person.

This introduction to motion activity has students exploring speed and acceleration using a wheeled office chair and rope to pull a student a given distance and record the time. The results are graphed and different outcomes are predicted when variables are changed.

This inquiry based activity will help students discover that marbles move in a variety of ways and the path in which it starts to move can be changed.

In this lab activity, students observe and describe motion from different frames of reference and measure the time for the motion. They analyze their findings and develop a working definition of "frame of reference".

This activity is a structured inquiry into why objects move and why some objects move farther than others. Students will make predictions on how far an object will move when blown on, blow on the objects, measure the distances they moved and record their findings.

This activity is a structured inquiry for students to observe how Newton's 3rd law of motion which states that to every action there must be an equal reaction. By flicking a set # of coin into a row of coins they will observe the force of the impact being passed along until the last coin flies off when no other coin prevents it from moving.

Students will understand that projectile motion is a result of two independent motions, horizontal and vertical by reading, problem-solving, and experimentation.

How do we communicate with each other? How do we communicate with people who are close by? How do we communicate with people who are far away? In this lesson, students will explore the role of communications and how satellites help people communicate with others far away and in remote areas with nothing around (i.e., no obvious telecommunications equipment). Students will learn about how engineers design satellites to benefit life on Earth. This lesson also introduces the theme of the rockets curricular unit.

Kepler's laws show the effects of gravity on orbits. They apply to any object that orbits another: planets orbiting the Sun, moons orbiting a planet, spacecraft orbiting Earth.

Learn about position, velocity and acceleration vectors. Move the ladybug by setting the position, velocity or acceleration, and see how the vectors change. Choose linear, circular or elliptical motion, and record and playback the motion to analyze the behavior.

Join the ladybug in an exploration of rotational motion. Rotate the merry-go-round to change its angle, or choose a constant angular velocity or angular acceleration. Explore how circular motion relates to the bug's x,y position, velocity, and acceleration using vectors or graphs.

Join the ladybug in an exploration of rotational motion. Rotate the merry-go-round to change its angle, or choose a constant angular velocity or angular acceleration. Explore how circular motion relates to the bug's x,y position, velocity, and acceleration using vectors or graphs.

In this activity, learners use a laser pointer and two small rotating mirrors to create a variety of fascinating patterns, which can be easily and dramatically projected on a wall or screen. In this version of the activity, learners use binder clips to build the base of the device. Educators can use a pre-assembled device for demonstration purposes or engage learners in the building process.

This activity is a guided inquiry or demonstration where students investigate elastic potential energy and gravitational potential energy and interpret their findings as related to Newton's Laws of motion.

In this lesson, students discover the entire process that goes into designing a rocket for any customer. In prior lessons, students learned how rockets work, but now they learn what real-world decisions engineers have to make when designing and building a rocket. They learn about important factors such as supplies, ethics, deadlines and budgets. Also, students learn about the Engineering process, and recognize that the first design is almost never the final design. Re-Engineering is a critical step in creating a rocket.

Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.

Can you avoid the boulder field and land safely, just before your fuel runs out, as Neil Armstrong did in 1969? Our version of this classic video game accurately simulates the real motion of the lunar lander with the correct mass, thrust, fuel consumption rate, and lunar gravity. The real lunar lander is very hard to control.

Machine Vision provides an intensive introduction to the process of generating a symbolic description of an environment from an image. Lectures describe the physics of image formation, motion vision, and recovering shapes from shading. Binary image processing and filtering are presented as preprocessing steps. Further topics include photogrammetry, object representation alignment, analog VLSI and computational vision. Applications to robotics and intelligent machine interaction are discussed.