Clever Dumbbell [Virtual Demonstration]

This is a classic physics classroom demonstration as modified for use in remote teaching/distance learning (RT;DL).

A dumbbell is suspended from a sturdy horizontal support. Another string is attached to the bottom of the dumbbell. The bottom string is then pulled downward until one of the strings breaks. Which string breaks and why?

The way I wrote this allows students to contemplate the possibilities of what could happen. But rather than make a prediction, they are allowed to request an outcome. This is somewhat jarring since they are usually tasked with predicting. It take a few moments for the "Total Request Live" aspect to sink in. Once it does, they usually vote for the outcome they don't think should happen. For this TpT remastering, I encourage that explicitly in the presentation.

Clever Dumbbell [Virtual Demonstration] at Teachers Pay Teachers

Includes

Student document (print-friendly Google Docs file on Google Drive)

Observation presentation (link embedded in the student document

Answer Key

I wrote a post to my Blog of Phyz when I initially reworked this demo for RT;DL.