How would you explain Newton's three Laws of Motion to a 4th grader?

My assignment is to create a book to explain Newton's Laws of Motion so that a 4th grader could understand it.How would you explain Newton's three Laws of Motion to a 4th grader?1. An object in motion wants to remain in motion unless something else acts upon it. We don't see that on earth because of forces like gravity and friction, but we can see it in space. Show this by slowly rolling a ball down and inclined plane (just like Galileo did) and then use your finger to push against it and slowly stop it. Explaining that you have to provide more force to stop it.



2. The fundamental law of all physics and the single formula from which all other physical science formulas are developed is Force = mass (of the object) X acceleration (the speed by which the object's movement is changing) F=ma. Later in school you will learn that velocity, acceleration and in fact all the other formulas come from this basic formula. It is simply saying that the force on an object is the mass or weight of that object time the force acting on it to move it. If no force is acting on it to move it then the acceleration is zero and by the first law the object wants to remain on its same course.



3. For every action there is an opposite and equal reaction. Show this by pushing your hands against each other. In the world of forces this means if you push I shove. For example when you push a block along the ground the force of friction and the air is pushing back to try and stop it. Another example is what goes up must come down. Simply put what ever happens has consequences. If you have two cars drive into each other then there is crash. If you drop a hammer then it will fall because of gravity and if you throw it up into the air it will fall because of gravity, but the force you used to throw it up in the air will send it to a certain height and if done at an angle then in a certain direction. This is how the military figures out where a cannon shell will land. They know the weight of the shell, the angle of the gun, and the force of the gunpowder. Using the projectile formulas they can tell where the shell will land. The very first computer was built to do those calculations automatically (ENIAC: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNIVAC and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ENIAC).



According to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newton%27s_鈥?/a>

"Briefly stated, the three laws are:



1. An object in motion will remain in motion unless acted upon by a net force.

2. Force equals mass multiplied by acceleration.

3. To every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. "



Don鈥檛 underestimate their intelligence they have seen a ball move before and they have seen gravity in action. They understand the basics already and have for a while. The math will be more difficult but you can expose them to that slowly and one formula at a time. You can tell them that when they get into more complex math like algebra they will know how to change the formulas to get new formulas out of the original equation F=ma.How would you explain Newton's three Laws of Motion to a 4th grader?1. If it's not moving, it won't move on its own.

2. If it's moving, it'll keep moving.

3. Anything that pushes gets pushed back just as hard.How would you explain Newton's three Laws of Motion to a 4th grader?i learned about that, and im in 5th grade, though, i didnt put that much attention, and dont know that well... sorryHow would you explain Newton's three Laws of Motion to a 4th grader?
Sorry, this isn't really an answer. This is the problem with education today....the younger grades aren't focused on "the 3 R's", they're doing things like this assignment you have. Wouldn't it be nice to send the kids to 8th grade knowing their math and how to read, so they can learn the science with those tools? Remember recess where we played outside, had patches in the knees of our pants, teacher putting our gloves on the radiator? Sorry, just spoutin' off.