P4 Explaining motion
For students and teachers
Rockets
- http://www.yesmag.bc.ca/projects/balloon_rockets.html
This balloon rocket project page from YES mag, a Canadian Science magazine, has instructions and suggestions for building and investigating balloon rockets: - http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/pagrosse/h2oRocketIndex.htm
If you are planning to make or launch a water rocket, this site has a lot of practical information that will be useful. - http://materials.npl.co.uk/waterrockets/otherlinks.php
The NPL (National Physical Laboratory) holds a water rocket challenge each year.
Animal movement
- http://www.cim.mcgill.ca/~poulakas/legged_locomotion/animals.html
This site has explanations of how a many different animals move - http://www.colszoo.org/animalareas/reptiles/snakfact.html
Here you can find out about how snakes move about. - http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Bottlenose/whatisadolphin.html
Dolphins use their tails to swim: find out more about dolphins on this site. - http://www.seaworld.org/infobooks/Bottlenose/phychardol.html
This site tells you more about how the dolphin uses its tail and flippers to swim. - http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Canopy/7897/penguin.html
Penguins are more suited to swimming than walking. They sometimes get about by tobogganing. Find out what that means on this site.
Crash tests and car safety
- http://www.euroncap.com/index.php
his is the official site of the European New Car Assessment Program (EuroNCAP) It includes images of crash tests. Take a look at the section ‘Test procedures explained.’ - http://www.iihs.org/siteindex.html
This similar site from the USA is the site of the Insurance Institute for highway safety. It site has some crash test videos - http://www.science.org.au/nova/057/057key.htm
Read this article about the effect of car crumple zones and air bags from the Australian academy of science - http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk/campaigns/seatbelts/seatbelts.htm
This page is about the advantages of wearing a seatbelt, and includes a link to a short simulation, in which you can choose whether the driver and passengers wear seatbelts and see the effect at different speeds.
Safety helmets
- http://www.whycycle.co.uk
For information about the benefits of cycle helmets, click the link on ‘Safety and security’ on this site for cyclists - http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/moto/helmets/what-to-know.html
This site gives information about the benefits and the construction of motorcyclists’ helmets - http://www.equestrian.org/safety/helmetrule.asp
http://www.beta-uk.org/Safety/hatGuide.asp
These two sites are about helmets to wear for horse-riding - http://www.skihelmets.com/index.asp
This site is about helmets for skiing and snowboarding. It is subtitled ‘No more excuses’. You can vote on whether you think wearing a ski helmet should be the law.