The force was with Sandy Creek High physics students as they got creative with the concept thanks to a hands-on lesson.

Earlier this year, students in the general physics and AP Physics 1 classes of Julie Blankenship were learning about force, the interaction between objects that causes a change in velocity. To better understand and apply Newton’s third law of motion, they used a broom to push a bowling ball in various configurations, including speeding up, slowing down, and abrupt changes in direction.

The last instruction was to figure out how to apply a force so that the bowling ball would follow a circular path that was laid out in painter’s tape on the floor. Students were asked to sketch, label, and explain how they made the bowling ball complete the motions using physics vocabulary.