I remember how much I struggled in physics. It never really made sense to me. I didn’t want my kids to have this same experience so I thought I’d expose them earlier so that they would have a more intuitive feel for Newton’s Laws of Motion, the foundation of physics.
To make physics fun and relatable, I thought I’d use soccer to illustrate Newton’s three laws of motion. My son demonstrates here and there’s another animated cartoon below on Newtonian physics in space.
How about you? Do your kids gravitate toward the sciences?
Newton’s First Law of Motion: Inertia
An object at rest tends to stay at rest, and an object in motion tends to stay in motion, with the same direction and speed, unless acted upon by a force.
(The reason why the soccer ball doesn’t roll forever is because of an unseen force on the ball: friction! Friction is a force that holds back the movement of a sliding object.)
Newton’s Second Law of Motion: Force
F = ma
Force on an object is equal to the mass of that object multiplied by the acceleration of the object:
F= force
m= mass
a= acceleration
The second law shows that if you exert the same force on two objects of different mass, you will get different changes in motion (acceleration).
Acceleration is a change in velocity. Acceleration can mean a change in speed or direction. Think of acceleration as an object’s change of velocity over time.
Newton’s Third Law of Motion: Action and Reaction
For every action (force) there is an equal and opposite reaction (force).
Newton’s Three Laws of Motion in Space
Here’s an animated cartoon demonstrating Newton’s 3 laws of physics in space.
I hope these videos made Newton’s 3 Laws of Physics easy to understand, and even fun!!
p.s. My son’s last soccer game here … can you spot all three of Newton’s laws of motion in here?
For more easy science experiments for kids, please check out my collaborative Pinterest board: Science Fun:
My books:
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Food for the Future: Sustainable Farms Around the World
- Junior Library Guild Gold selection
- Massachusetts Book Award Long List
- Selected as one of 100 Outstanding Picture Books of 2023 by dPICTUS and featured at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair
- Starred review from School Library Journal
- Chicago Library’s Best of the Best
- 2023 INDIES Book of the Year Awards Finalist
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- Imagination Soup’s 35 Best Nonfiction Books of 2023 for Kids
Amazon / Barefoot Books / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Amazon / Scholastic / Signed or Inscribed by Me
Great way to teach kids science using sports as a backdoor.
Hi Barbara Ann,
I hope it worked with my son!
I’ll be coming back to this post when my kids are slightly older. Very fun videos!
Thanks MaryAnne! My son and I had fun making the videos!
Great stuff! I wish teachers had done stuff like this more thought when I was at school. We were taught the sciences and math in such a dry way that it just sucked all the inquisitiveness straight out of you.
Hi Ian,
It’s hard to make it fun. I’m glad you liked it!!!