Friction InvestigationSo today year 3, I would like you to do little investigation to

explore how friction works.

To do this investigation you will need one of the following:

A toy car or toy train, or any kind of toy vehicle that has wheels -

playmobil or lego for example?

Or if you don't have one of those in your house,maybe you have a bike or a scooter or

skateboard/rollerskates

Finally you will also need 4 different types of surface. For example:

Grass

Carpet or a rug

Concrete/a path/a patio/the pavement.

Laminate/wood

flooring or lino style

flooring

If you are using a bike/scooter you might have to think about other outsidesurfaces you could use instead or these indoor ones. Mud or gravel/stones could be

good.

So what you are going to do is:

1) if you are using a small toy vehicle you are going to push the vehicle along eachsurface. Each time trying to push it at using about the same force with your hand. If

you have a ruler or a tape measure, use these to measure how far the vehicletravelled. If you dont have one of these use a different measure instead - a sheet of

A4 paper or a piece of string for example. Record your findings below.

2) If you are using a bike/scooter/skateboard/roller skates.

Try riding over each surface. Think about how fast you are travelling, how mucheffort you are having to put in to make yourself move. Record your findings below.

BEFORE YOU START!

Before you start lets try and make a PREDICTION. A prediction is when we guessusing information we already know what is going to happen. Which surface do youthink is going to be easiest to travel on?(have least friction) or allow the vehicle to

travel the furthest on? Which will be the hardest? (Have most friction) I predict

Great, now you've predicted what you think will happen let's

get investigating! Record your findings in the table below.

To complete this investigation I used:

Record wether you used a toy vehicle or a bike etc.

Record your observations of what happened on Surface 1:

Record your observations of what happened on Surface 2:

Record your observations of what happened on Surface 2:

Record your observations of what happened on Surface 2:

Conclusion ( the part where you record what you found out.) A good thing would be to tell us which surface you now know has the leastfriction.

I found out that