Factors affecting the speed of a trolley Travelling down a ramp.

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Factors affecting the speed of a trolley

Travelling down a ramp

Factors such as; type of surface of ramp, height of ramp, weight/mass of trolley and the gradient or angle of a ramp all affect the speed of a trolley as it travels down a ramp. For instance a trolley may accelerate faster down a ramp on smooth wood rather than on carpet because carpet might provide greater friction for the tyres rather than the smooth wood. Out of all these factors, I am going to pick just 1 factor and alter it 5 different times, doing 3 trials for each time. We have also done some preliminary work on ticker - timers, so in my investigation I am going to expand on the notion of ticker - timers and incorporate my knowledge of ticker - timers in to this investigation.

Aim: To investigate the relationship between the speed of the trolley as it travels down the ramp and the gradient of the ramp.

Hypothesis: I believe that the speed of the trolley travelling down the ramp will increase as the gradient of the ramp is increased. This is because of several different factors.

One of these factors is Potential energy. Potential energy is stored energy possessed by a system as a result of the relative positions of the components of that particular system. In this case, it is a trolley that is held at the top of the ramp, which is above the ground; the trolley and the earth possess a certain amount of potential energy. In this experiment we are focusing on a particular type of potential energy, gravitational energy. (From here on, the phase potential energy will be referred to as gravitational potential energy.) Potential energy is the energy stored in an object as a result of its vertical position (i.e., height.) The energy is stored as the result of the gravitational attraction of the earth for the object. There is a direct relationship between the potential energy, the mass of the object and also the height of the object. In this case we are using the same trolley so therefore the mass is the same, but we are changing the gradient of the ramp and by changing the gradient we are also changing the height. The higher the trolley is elevated the greater the potential energy is.

Formula for Potential Energy

EP = m* g *h (mass x gravitational field x height) Note: * stands for multiplication

Potential Energy

By using this formula we can see that as the height of the ramp increases so does the potential energy. This is because the mass, gravitational field and the height are all related and their combined product is the potential energy. So if the height is a smaller number than the potential energy will decrease and if the height was a bigger number the potential energy will increase. Since the potential energy of an object is directly proportional to its height above the zero position, a doubling of the height will result in a doubling of potential energy. A tripling of the height will lead to a tripling of potential energy.

Potential energy is energy which is stored in the system, and this energy is only thought of when the system is stationery but when the system is in motion, kinetic energy comes into play. Kinetic energy is the energy of motion. An object, which has motion - whether it be vertical or horizontal motion - has kinetic energy. There are many forms of kinetic energy - vibrational (the energy due to vibrational motion), rotational (the energy due to rotational motion), and translational kinetic energy (the energy due to motion from one location to another). In this experiment I am going to focus on translational kinetic energy (from here on, the phase kinetic energy will be referred to as translational kinetic energy.) The kinetic energy of an object depends upon two variables: the mass (m) of the object and the speed (v) of the object. As the gradient of the ramp is increased so is the kinetic energy.
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Formula for Kinetic energy

2

KE = 1 * m * v (Note: * stands for multiplying)

2

Kinetic Energy

This equation reveals that the kinetic energy of an object is directly proportional to the square of its speed. That means for a twofold increase in speed, the kinetic energy will increase by a factor of 4; for a threefold increase in speed, the kinetic energy will increase by a factor of 9. The kinetic energy is dependent upon the square of the speed. Kinetic energy is a scalar ...

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