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they stump most of my kids, even my "honors" ones.
MOTION:
[1] Throw a ball straight upward. What is its acceleration at the peak?
[2] The ball and three hill problem (constant angle, concave, and convex) -
which hits the bottom first?
FORCES:
[3] Helium balloon in car. When the car accelerates, which way does
the balloon move?
[4] Two equal masses attached to the ends of a string which passes over a
pulley. What is the string tension?
[5a] Tug-of-war -- which team pulls with more force?
[5b] What determines the winner?
GRAVITATION:
[6] Orbiting astronauts in the ISS. They float, but is gravity
acting on them?
SPRINGS:
]7] Cut a spring in half, what happens to its stiffness?
MOMENTUM:
[8] To best knock something over, would you throw a ball that sticks
or one that rebounds?
FLUIDS:
[9] When an ice cube melts in a glass of water, what happens to the
water level?
[10] Stick your finger in a beaker of water on the scale (but don't touch the
bottom). What happens to the scale reading?
HEAT:
[11] Why do some pots have copper bases and steel sides?
[12] Ball and ring demo. Heat it -- what happens to the hole?
ELECTRICITY:
[13] Three bulbs connected in series to a battery. Which bulb
receives current first?
SOUND:
[14] What wave property is primarily responsibility for your voice
sounding louder through a (non-electric) cheerleader horn?
OPTICS:
[15] To see more of yourself in a plane mirror, should you hold the
mirror closer, farther, or do you need a larger mirror?
[16] If you cover the top half of a lens, what happens to the real images
formed?
These are some of the many peer instruction questions I ask my (high
school) students for the topics I teach. Very practical and
counterintuitive as they stump most of my kids, even my "honors" ones.
Would your students find these counterintuitive? These questions are
intended to make students think in ways they never have before. And
thinking (and, thus, physics) is difficult.