Motion Commotion

One day Frog, Pig, and Cheetah decided they would go to the beach and get ice cream as it was a warm summer day. To get to the beach the group of friends would have to go up and down the muddy hills and trek through the mountains. When the group got to the hills the Cheetah suggested, “let’s all roll down and see who gets to the bottom first!” His friends agreed and they all counted “three, two, one, go!” At the start Frog and Cheetah were in the lead while Pig was having a slow start but then suddenly pig rolled right by Frog and Cheetah. Pig won the race!

Cheetah grumbled, “how could Pig win? I’m the fastest creature there is!” Frog replied, “he won because of Newton’s first law of motion and because he has greater inertia.” “What are you talking about?” Asked both Cheetah and Pig. So Frog decided he would teach them Newton’s three laws of motion: “Newton’s first law states that a moving object will continue to move at the same speed unless there is a another force acting on it. Pig started to slow down when he rolled out of the mud and onto the grass as the grass creates friction. This force acts against him so he started to slow down, if he had stayed in the mud he would have kept going. This is due to ideal conditions or in other words no friction; the mud causes no friction so Pig would continue at the same speed down the hill.” “But we all went into the grass so why did he continue moving past us?” Asked Cheetah. “Pig has greater inertia because he is bigger and this means it’s harder for him to stop once he starts moving.” Replied Frog. “That’s really cool! Will you teach us the other laws?” Said Pig. “I will as we continue our journey.” Said Frog.

The three friends eventually made it to the path that would take them through the mountains. The path wasn’t very well kept so it had many cracks and holes in the ground. As the friends walked they found a turtle; his car’s wheel seemed to be stuck in one of the cracks so it had stopped. The three of them wanting to help worked together to push the car out of the crack. The car then began to speed up and after the turtle said thank you he drove off. “That was an example of Newton’s second law.” Said Frog. “What do you mean?” Said Pig. “Earlier when Pig was rolling down the hill he continued at a constant speed because there was no applied force such as a push; but when we pushed the car it began to accelerate. This is because when we pushed the car the force from the push was greater than the force from the rocks. So the law states when one force is greater than the other the object will accelerate.” “So it’s a good thing we helped!” Said Cheetah.

The group finally made it to the beach and before grabbing ice cream Frog suggested they go for a swim and that he would teach them the final law. “So the third and final law is for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. When I swim and kick back I’m pushing against the water. The water then pushes me forward while also keeping me afloat. The harder I kick back the further I will go forward as the force of the reaction is equal to the force of the action. So those are the three laws of motion.” “Well thanks for teaching us Frog!” Said Pig. “Now let’s go get some ice cream!” Said Cheetah. So they all got ice cream and spread kindness where they went for an act of kindness can continue from person to person and all it takes is one act to make it accelerate.

The End