Free body diagram

Hey kiddo! Have you ever seen a drawing or picture of a person where they show all the parts of their body and how they are connected? That's kind of like a free body diagram!

A free body diagram is a picture that shows all the different forces acting on an object. These forces might be pushing or pulling in different directions, and they can affect how the object moves or stays still.

For example, let's say you have a ball sitting on a table. There are a few different forces acting on the ball - gravity is pulling it down toward the ground, and the table is pushing back up on it to keep it from falling through. If you were to draw a free body diagram of the ball, you would draw an outline of the ball and then put arrows on it to show these different forces.

Why would we make a diagram like this? It can help us figure out how an object will behave in different situations. For example, if we wanted to know how hard we would need to throw the ball to make it land in a certain spot, we could use the free body diagram to help us calculate the right amount of force to apply.

So next time you're trying to figure out how something works or moves, think about making a free body diagram to help you out!