Projectile Motion

Have you ever seen a puppy's tail go wiggle, wiggle, wiggle? Or heard a toy car go vroom, vroom, zoom across the floor? All of that wiggling and zooming is a wonderful thing called Motion. When you swing up high at the park, so high you can almost touch the sky, that is motion too. It is the roll of a big, red ball down a green, grassy hill. It is the flutter of a butterfly's bright wings. It is all the moving and grooving in the world.

For a long, long time, people watched things go. They saw leaves dance in the wind and clouds float across the big, blue sky. They wondered, what makes things move? A very smart person named Isaac Newton watched and wondered too. He watched an apple fall from a tree and thought very hard. He realized that for something to start moving, it needs a little push or a little pull. Just like when you want to make a swing go higher. You give it a push with your legs. Push, and away you go. Or when you want to make a ball roll, you give it a little kick. That kick is a push that tells the ball, 'It's time for motion.'.

Motion is your friend when it's time to play. It is the running in a game of tag and the jumping on a bouncy bed. When you dance to a happy song, your body is full of motion, wiggling and jiggling all around. When you ride your bike, your feet make the pedals go round and round. That's a push that makes the wheels spin and helps you zoom down the sidewalk. Motion is all around you, helping you play, explore, and have fun in our big, wonderful world.