Collisions of coins

Rovšek, Barbara (author), Žigon, Sašo (author)

This paper addresses a popular topic in science teaching and competitions for primary and secondary school students. Experiments with colliding coins are relatively easy to perform and therefore popular in science lessons. We used the idea in the science competition we organized for pupils aged 6 to 13 years. The science competition is based on a few experiments that the participants have to carry out before the competition. Some years ago, 10- and 11-year-old pupils had to experiment with coins. These were 1-, 10-, 20- and 50-euro cent coins (see Fig. 1), but the experiments can also be carried out with quarters and dimes. The experiments were simple elastic collisions with some obvious but also some profound outcomes, which will be described below. Even if the bodies are moving fast and the collision itself is an instantaneous event, it is possible to reconstruct the trajectories from known initial and final positions of the coins. At the end of this paper, we will present the set of problems that were given in the competition.

• Language: English
• Keywords: elastic collisions, students, lesson plans, curriculum, teaching, educator, news and events
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: PEF - Faculty of Education
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2021
• Number of pages: Str. 639-642
• Numbering: Vol. 59, iss. 8
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133657
• UDC: 373.32.016:50
• ISSN on article: 1943-4928
• DOI: 10.1119/10.0006915
• COBISS.SI-ID: 88237315

Copyright

This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and AIP Publishing. This article appeared in Barbara Rovšek, Sašo Žigon; Collisions of Coins. Phys. Teach. 1 November 2021; 59 (8): 639–642. https://doi.org/10.1119/10.0006915 and may be found at https://pubs.aip.org/aapt/pte/article/59/8/639/278847/Collisions-of-Coins.

• Publication date in RUL: 13.12.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: The physics teacher
• Shortened title: Phys. teach.
• Publisher: American Association of Physics Teachers
• ISSN: 1943-4928
• COBISS.SI-ID: 62990849

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: trkajoči kovanci