This week Eagles are deeply involved in hands-on experiments involving projectile travel.  After all, if you want to win a Rocket Olympics, you need to know how to aim.

Understanding projectile travel is no easy task.  It means measuring the velocity of a projectile leaving your catapult, and using an equation to predict how far the projectile will travel. It requires a working knowledge of algebra and struggling with high school level Khan videos.

Once our Eagles have built and tested their catapults and digested the theory and mathematics, it will be time to experiment with the art of simulation.  Do the experimental results confirm or call into question the equations?  Do the equations confirm the simulation?

Finally, given a new set of targets and the simulation, can you find the right settings to hit a real world target with your catapult, in only one try?  That’s putting science to work.

If you want to try the simulation, go here:  http://phet.colorado.edu/en/simulation/projectile-motion

If you want to have some real fun, check out the 100 or so other simulations.  And then imagine how much fun you could have designing hands-on science projects that use these.