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A Feather and a Hammer Fall Together on the Moon

6th grade nonfiction passage about air resistance and gravity: 226 words, six questions, an answer key and vocabulary.

6th grade nonfiction air resistance and gravity 226 words

A Feather and a Hammer Fall Together on the Moon

Drop a hammer and a feather from the same height, and the hammer hits the ground first. For a long time people took that to mean heavier things fall faster. The truth is more interesting. The difference comes from air.

As an object falls, it has to push air out of its way, and the air pushes back. This push is called air resistance. A hammer is compact and heavy, so the push is small compared with the pull of gravity on it. A feather is wide and very light, so the same push is a big deal. The feather floats down slowly, tossed around by moving air.

If you remove the air, the story changes. Scientists have pumped the air out of tall chambers and dropped a feather and a heavy ball at the same moment. They land together. Gravity makes every falling object speed up at the same rate, no matter how much it weighs, as long as nothing else is pushing on it.

Astronauts on the Moon showed this on a much bigger stage. The Moon has no air to speak of, so when an astronaut let go of a hammer and a feather at the same time, both fell in the same way and touched the dust together. It was a clear sign that gravity treats a feather and a hammer alike.

Questions

  1. What is air resistance? in the text

  2. Why does a feather fall slowly on Earth? in the text

  3. What did scientists do in the tall chambers? in the text

  4. Why was the Moon a good place to test this? in the text

  5. A flat sheet of paper falls more slowly than the same sheet crumpled into a ball. Why? think about it

  6. How does gravity treat falling objects when nothing else pushes on them? think about it

Words to know

resistance
a push that works against movement
gravity
the pull that draws objects toward a planet or moon
chamber
a closed room or space built for a purpose
astronaut
a person who travels in space
compact
packed closely into a small shape
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One passage, three levels

The same topic and facts written three ways, so a mixed class can read and talk about one text. Each group’s sheet shows only a shape; the key says which is which.

● Easier · 200 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 2.7

Drop a hammer and a feather from the same height. The hammer hits the ground first. For a long time, people thought heavy things fall faster. The truth is more interesting. The difference comes from air.

A falling object has to push air out of its way. The air pushes back. This push is called air resistance. A hammer is small and heavy. The push is tiny next to the pull of gravity. A feather is wide and very light. The same push is a big deal. The feather floats down slowly.

Take away the air, and the story changes. Scientists have pumped the air out of tall chambers. They dropped a feather and a heavy ball at the same moment. They land together. Gravity makes all falling objects speed up at the same rate. It does not matter how much they weigh, if nothing else pushes on them.

Astronauts on the Moon showed this too. The Moon has almost no air. An astronaut let go of a hammer and a feather at the same time. Both fell the same way. They touched the dust together. It was a clear sign that gravity treats a feather and a hammer alike.

▲ This passage · 226 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 4.9

Drop a hammer and a feather from the same height, and the hammer hits the ground first. For a long time people took that to mean heavier things fall faster. The truth is more interesting. The difference comes from air.

As an object falls, it has to push air out of its way, and the air pushes back. This push is called air resistance. A hammer is compact and heavy, so the push is small compared with the pull of gravity on it. A feather is wide and very light, so the same push is a big deal. The feather floats down slowly, tossed around by moving air.

If you remove the air, the story changes. Scientists have pumped the air out of tall chambers and dropped a feather and a heavy ball at the same moment. They land together. Gravity makes every falling object speed up at the same rate, no matter how much it weighs, as long as nothing else is pushing on it.

Astronauts on the Moon showed this on a much bigger stage. The Moon has no air to speak of, so when an astronaut let go of a hammer and a feather at the same time, both fell in the same way and touched the dust together. It was a clear sign that gravity treats a feather and a hammer alike.

■ Harder · 251 words · Flesch-Kincaid grade 8.1

Drop a hammer and a feather from the same height, and the hammer will strike the ground well before the feather does. For many centuries people took that observation to mean that heavier objects naturally fall faster. The truth turns out to be far more interesting, because the difference comes entirely from the air.

As an object falls, it has to push the air out of its way, and the air pushes back against it. This push is called air resistance. A hammer is compact and heavy, so the push is small compared with the pull of gravity acting on it. A feather, however, is wide and extremely light, so the very same push becomes a major factor. The feather drifts down slowly, tossed about by the moving air.

If the air is removed, the story changes completely. Scientists have pumped the air out of tall chambers and then released a feather and a heavy ball at the same moment, and the two objects land together. Gravity makes every falling object speed up at the same rate, no matter how much it weighs, provided that nothing else is pushing against it.

Astronauts on the Moon demonstrated this principle on a much grander stage. The Moon has no air to speak of, so when an astronaut released a hammer and a feather at the same instant, both fell in exactly the same way and touched the dust together. It was a clear sign that gravity treats a feather and a hammer alike.

Download as one PDF

How to use it

  1. Press Read it big (or B) to put the text on the projector, or Full screen (F) to fill the whole screen.
  2. Ask the questions one at a time and use Show answer when the class has decided. A shows or hides every answer.
  3. Print student copy for the class, or Print with answers for yourself.

Ideas for class

  • Before reading, put resistance, gravity, chamber, astronaut and compact on the board with their meanings from the Words to know section and have students predict what the text will be about.
  • Read it aloud once while students follow along, then have them reread it alone or with a partner. At a calm 100 words a minute it takes about 2 minutes to read aloud.
  • Use the Read it big button (or B) to put the text on the projector, and Show answer on one question at a time so the class commits to an answer first.
  • Question 5 asks the reader to infer. Ask students to point to the words in the passage that led them to their answer.
  • Ask students to write one question the passage did not answer, then look for the answer in a book or on a classroom screen.
  • Print the student copy for independent work and keep the answer-key copy for yourself.

Related

Questions

What reading level is "A Feather and a Hammer Fall Together on the Moon"?

It was written for 6th grade. It has 226 words and works out to a Flesch-Kincaid grade level of about 4.9. That is a formula's estimate from sentence length and syllables, and it is not a Lexile or a guided reading level, so check it against your students.

What do the questions ask?

There are six. 4 ask for something the text says directly and 2 ask the reader to work something out from clues. Each has an answer in the key, and the answers are written as a teacher would accept them, not as the only possible wording.

How long does it take to read?

About 2 minutes read aloud at 100 words a minute. For a one-minute fluency check, paste it into the fluency timer and use the word count.

Can I print it?

Yes. Print student copy gives the passage, the questions with lines to write on, and the word meanings. Print with answers gives the same page with the answers filled in. Both are made in your browser.

Is this passage from a published book?

No. It was written for Peabody Teach, so there is no book to buy and no login to read it.

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