This experiment seems rather silly but in fact is reasonably serious. Each group of students gets a number of nominally identical wooden blocks measuring 3.5" x 3.5 " 1.75 " . ( these can be The number should be greater than 12. The object of the game is to stack the blocks into a tower where the tower with the greatest over-hang s the winner. As students progress through this activity, they will find it to be a high frustration event.. A forty minute class should be sufficient for this activity. Measurements should be done by placing a measuring stick on the table with the zero-end touching the tower, Students should place another ruler vertically on the first stick to measure the over-hang. A rather clever on-line version of this activity can be seen at http://www.cs.utah.edu/~zachary/isp/applets/BlockStacker/BlockStacker.html

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http://www.lon-capa.org/~mmp/kap8/statics/cd213a.htm