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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What happens when you exert your strength across a longer distance?

2. What does the picture of a mammoth pulling a merry-go-round illustrate?

3. What happens when an object is placed in water?

4. How does a ship vary in density?

5. What controls direction on a ship?

Short Essay Questions

1. How does a ship use plimsoll lines?

2. Discuss why the density of water varies.

3. What is a vacuum? What is one invention that uses this principle?

4. Discuss the relation of effort to distance.

5. What rays does the sun emit? How do those rays react to an object?

6. How does a zipper work?

7. What is the main focus of the first section of Part 2, Harnessing the Elements?

8. Discuss how sails are used on a boat.

9. Define combustion. How is combustion used?

10. How does the inclined plane require less strength for a task?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss the following:

1) Which is easier: To pull something down or to pull it up? Why? What is the relevance of this question to the concept of pulleys?

2) Discuss the various types of pulleys, giving examples of each type.

3) Research the history of pulleys and write an informative essay on what you find. Consider the following questions: When were they invented? By whom? Where? How were the first pulleys made? How are they made today? What materials have they used to make pulleys in the past? In the present? Are pulleys still an important tool today?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the following:

1) Define elements, atoms, and molecules.

2) What are the properties of molecules that are important in the way many tools and machines work? Explain the properties and give an example of each property at work in a tool or machine.

3) How is floating related to the physical properties of molecules? What does density have to do with whether something will float? Does one have to take into account more than one density when calculating if something will float? Why or why not?

4) Why do you think a ball of steel that is three inches in diameter sinks, but a steel ship will float? Explain your answer.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss the following:

1) How does Macaulay use the term wheel and axle?

2) How is the wheel and axle related to a screwdriver? To the Hand Drill? A wrench?

3) Do you think the wheel and axle discussed in The New Way Things Work is an important invention? Why or why not.

4) Research the history of the screwdriver. When was it invented? By whom? Where? How were the first screwdrivers made? How are they made today?

(see the answer keys)

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