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Grade 4 Science · World 8: Force Field · Level 51
Balanced Forces
Explain why balanced forces don't change motion (a tug-of-war tie, a book on a table).
Warm-up, learn, try it together, practice, then a quick check. About 15 minutes.
What children learn in Level 51
- Two teams pull a rope, equally hard, in opposite directions. The rope doesn't budge. These forces are balanced.
- Balanced forces are equal in strength and opposite in direction. They cancel out.
- A book on a table has forces on it too! Gravity pulls it down, and the table pushes it up just as hard.
- Balanced forces don't change motion. Something still stays still, and something moving steadily keeps moving the same way.
Georgia Standards of Excellence in Science:
- S4P3.a — Plan and carry out an investigation on the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces on an object and communicate the results.