Materials

• Paint sticks or thin flat boards
• A large sheet of butcher paper or newspaper

Procedure

1. Place a stick on a table so a little less than half of the stick is sticking out over the edge of the table so that it looks like a diving board
2. Ask the students to predict what will happen if you strike the end of the stick
3. Make sure none of the students are in the line of fire, then hit the end and the stick will fly off the table
4. Tell the students that you want to break the stick in two and ask them what you would need to do
5. Wait until the students tell you that you would need to hold the other end of the stick or have something heavy on the other end of the stick
6. Ask them if they think a piece of news paper would do it
7. Fold the newspaper up into a very small piece and place it on the end of the stick over the table
8. Hit the stick again, making sure none of the students are in the line of fire, this time the stick and the paper will fly
9. Ask them if you can try it one more time, because you’re sure you can make it work this time
10. Either unfold your sheet, or better yet, get a clean sheet of newspaper and spread it over the end of the stick up and along the table
11. Strike the end of the stick again, this time the stick should break or at least rip the newspaper, if it doesn’t break, rotate the paper and try again

Explanation
Air pressure is pushing in on us and everything on Earth at an incredible amount. In order to move the newspaper out of the way, the stick has to move the mass of all of the air on top of the paper that is pushing down on the paper with 14.7 lbs per square inch. The more mass something has the more inertia it has. The paper can’t move quickly with all the air on top of it in the way, so the stick breaks instead.

Reinforcement Activities
There are many great and impressive inertia demonstrations. You can buy a pre-made kit that will increase your accuracy, or practice lots and get proficient at doing some of these easy demonstrations like the one listed above or rescue the dollar bill (one of the other activities listed on this web sight)

The inertia ball shows students what an object at rest, stays at rest really means. Introduce inertia by showing two discrepant events and have students discuss possible explanations.

Have students experience a world without friction by riding on a hovercraft. They will soon learn through experience that it requires a force to start and stop an object. Help students understand Newton’s first law and distinguish between acceleration and velocity.

Related Products

• Inertia Ball
• Hovercraft 
• Kick Dis Power Puck
• Inertia Demonstrator
• Breaking Board Paradox

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