In this experiment students measure the acceleration of a trolley rolling down a ramp. Set up a trolley on a ramp with one end attached to a ticker tape passed through a ticker tape timer, then release the trolley and let it roll down the ramp. To create a graph of the trolley's acceleration, cut the ticker tape into strips at every tenth dot and glue the strips side by side on a graph. They should form an upward curve indicating the trolley's rate of acceleration.
This experiment helps students visualize how elastic and inelastic collisions differ. Drop a bouncy ball into an empty, flat-bottomed bucket and measure how far it bounces back out. Add ten bouncy balls to the bucket and drop the original ball in from the same height and measure how high it bounces. Keep adding ten bouncy balls at a time and measuring the bounce until the original ball's bounce height is negligible. Chart the differences in bounce heights and help students understand that the additional balls absorb some of the original ball's kinetic energy.
Set up a spring balance with its tray upside down to keep it from collecting objects and place it in the middle of a deep tray or other barrier. Pour a steady stream of ball bearings or other small, relatively dense balls over the balance. The balance should register a fairly steady weight as the balls keep bouncing off of it and falling into the deep tray. This helps students visualize the nature of the pressure exerted by gas or liquid molecules continually bouncing off a surface.
Stretch a cloth handkerchief in a cross stitch frame, tightening the frame as much as possible, and use a clamp or two to suspend it over a working surface. Set up a vertical yardstick behind the cross stitch frame. Mark a circle on the cloth where it meets the edge of the cross stitch frame. Drop a ball or marble onto the cloth and measure how high it bounces and how far the cloth pulled out of the frame. Reset the experiment and repeat, loosening the frame a little bit more each time. Find the correlation between the bounce height and how far the cloth pulled out of the frame.