'Do the birds have a constant vertical acceleration? Do they have constant horizontal velocity? Let’s find out, shall we.'
September 21, 2011 11:21 AM   Subscribe

My five year old son is obsessed with Angry Birds. Suggest some ways that I can use the obsession to teach him a little tiny bit about physics.

Caveat: I know nothing about physics at all. Never took a physics class in HS or College. Plus, he's five, so think short attention span.

Still, it seems like an opportunity for him to think more about how the world around him works. Short of actually putting birds into slingshots and firing them at pigs, how can we use this as an (ugh) 'teachable moment'?

(I have seen this Wired article but it seems a little ... advanced ... for both is level of knowledge and mine. But maybe it's really not???)
posted by anastasiav to Education (15 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
I think 5 would be a bit young, to be honest. There are a number of sources that use the game as a teaching tool.

Preschool Physics.

posted by Ideefixe at 11:25 AM on September 21, 2011


I'm a trained engineer. Engineering/math/science professors are often not the best teachers.

To me Statics or Dynamics might be a better analogy. Though physics might be better for the lay person. Find the topics you're wanting on wikipedia and teach yourself. It's how I passed several of my tests in undergrad, just because the profs were A) awful, B) unconcerned or C) didn't speak English at a decent enough level.

Most of the concepts you're looking for are simple formulas that wiki will provide you PLENTY of information on.

An easy place to start might be momentum and kinetic energy. Like,

M1 * V1 = M2 * V2

where M is mass and V is velocity. Wiki it for more info. Google will be your friend here, but mostly wiki.

Talking/Search Terms:

Coefficient of Restitution
Newton's Laws
Collision (inelastic and elastic)
Hardness
...the list goes on and on....

You can do this, assuming basic arithmetic skills and search prowess.
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:37 AM on September 21, 2011


Best answer: On second thought: Legos, a slingshot, various projectiles (paper wad, rock, fishing weight, ping pong ball, etc) might be alot more fun for a five year old.
posted by RolandOfEld at 11:39 AM on September 21, 2011 [4 favorites]


Best answer: Came here to second RolandOfEld's last comment: bring it into the real world. Work together to make a slingshot, build structures (with little stuffed piggies!) out of wooden longblocks, and sling stuffed birds at them.

and now I know what I'm doing with my kids one night this week
posted by davejay at 11:42 AM on September 21, 2011


Buy him a pool table or just give some money and let him roam shady poolhalls. That's where I learned everything I know about geometry, physics and 2nd/3rd stage problem solving. That and chess.
posted by jsavimbi at 11:42 AM on September 21, 2011


Oh yeah, thirding a "live version" with slingshots/rubber bands and whatnot. If you want fuzzy projectiles that look like the animals in the same, here's a guide on how to make some!
posted by Knicke at 11:52 AM on September 21, 2011


Best answer: There's this playable Angry Birds birthday cake. Real physics.
posted by cjorgensen at 12:29 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Maybe start with explaining the concepts of gravity and inertia and doing some of galileo's experiments?

I doubt they're really going to be up for a detailed explanation, but they might be interested in playing with balls and ramps, etc..

At least would give them some intuition that they can draw on later when they start learning the stuff in school...

The problem with learning the physics of angry birds is that it's calculus. So they're not going to be able to do anything with it until high school.
posted by empath at 1:04 PM on September 21, 2011 [1 favorite]


Cut the Rope is even better for physics I think.
posted by sweetkid at 1:32 PM on September 21, 2011


The Cartoon Guide to Physics would be a great way to continue his education, not to mention a halfway decent way to brush up as an adult. My father gave it to me as a child, and it was instrumental in my development of an intuitive grasp of classical mechanics. Don't let the style deceive you; it goes into considerable depth.
posted by pmugowsky at 2:56 PM on September 21, 2011


Best answer: At five your goal is more to get him thinking about scientific inquiry and experimentation through doing.

Part of why angry birds is so fun is that he gets to make a guess about how the bird will fly, and then test that hypothesis with a experiment, then compare what happened with what he hoped would happen. He then plans to launch another bird based on his previous findings.

He's doing science and your goal is less to teach about vectors or acceleration or gravity and more to teach that you can learn through guessing and trying.

My suggestion:

Build a catapult! and then try to hit something by calibrating it, you can use words like gravity, Mass, accuracy, precision, in your discussions, but the goal is to get him thinking about how awesome the world is and how much you can learn just by asking the right questions.
posted by JimmyJames at 3:45 PM on September 21, 2011


You could calculate trajectories of a slingshot fired at some cans. He might be young for it but I enjoyed a lot of cool stuff I was too young to grasp entirely.
posted by Foam Pants at 5:24 PM on September 21, 2011


Seconding a catapult - a statistical catapult, in particular. Give him shots with different weights, let him fire the different weights while changing the catapult settings (you can help him to construct look-up tables), then set up random targets and see how quickly he can adjust the shot weight / catapult settings to hit them.
posted by obiwanwasabi at 12:52 AM on September 22, 2011


Best answer: Using any the real life suggestions above, you might want to figure out a way to document the various trials in a way that a 5-year-old can relate to.

For an adult, you would make a chart with columns for the conditions (say, 45 degree angle, 20 lbs of pressure) and then the result (bird flew in an arc 100 feet long, with apex 50 feet high at point X). You would chart each trial, then organize them in a way that would help you predict - what if we got a lower angle but a higher force?

For a child - could you draw each one? If you use graph paper to draw the fixed slingshot, you could plot where the bird was when you shot it, then another picture to show the arc and the landing site.

Once you draw a few of these trials, you should be able to predict what might happen if you move the starting bird a little left or a little down. Then try it and see if you were right.

I think the ideas of predictability and cause/effect would be good ones for a kid to get out of physical demonstrations, without needing any math formulas or greek letters.
posted by CathyG at 2:10 PM on September 23, 2011


Response by poster: Thanks to everyone for their help. It just so happens we're active in the SCA, so we have more access to large scale catapults (and ballistas) than your average suburban family.

Some live experiments, possibly involving small pumpkins, are definitely in our future.
posted by anastasiav at 7:23 PM on October 13, 2011


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