Factors affecting acceleration

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Factors affecting acceleration

I intend to investigate what factors affect the acceleration of a toy car down a ramp.  I will measure how long the car takes to roll down a ramp, and my other variable will be to measure the final velocity of the car rolling down the ramp.  Using this information I will then be able to work out the acceleration as the car travels down the ramp.  I will be able to work out the velocity of the car, and therefore be able to work out the acceleration using a different formula.

I will conduct two experiments and for both there will be only one variable with everything else fixed.  In the first experiment, my variable will be the mass of the toy car which rolls down the ramp.  In the second experiment, I will keep the mass of the toy car the same but change the angle of the ramp that the ball bearing rolls down.

In this experiment the only factor I will change will be the mass of the car which travels down the ramp.

 

Apparatus

To do this experiment, I will need to use the following equipment:

  • a wooden ramp (about 1.5m in length),
  • a stand,
  • a toy car
  • a stop watch.

The ramp will be set up originally to get a 45° angle.  I have worked out using the sine function (Trigonometry) that the start of the ramp needs to be 68.83 (2 d.p.) off the ground.

The toy car will be released from the top of the ramp and will roll down.  The toy car will be rolled down once. When rolled, the final velocity of the toy car as it rolls down the ramp will be measured. This will be measured by a human stopping the stop watch when the car passed a certain point near to the end of the ramp.  I will take three readings at each weight, and in the end take the average.  I will then work out the final velocity by using the formula below.

                                                  Distance travelled in a given direction (m)

1.  Velocity =                                          Time taken (s)

On the second roll, the time it takes to roll from the top to the bottom will be measured.  I already know the initial velocity to be zero, so using the final velocity and the time it takes the ball to roll down the ramp; I can work out the acceleration of the ball.  I can work this out using the formula below.

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                                                          Change in velocity (m.s-1)

2.  Acceleration =       Time taken for the change (s)

Once I have worked out the acceleration for the car with no weights on it, the same car will be used and a 50g weight added and will then be used to repeat the procedure.  I will do this with 10 weights with different masses up until 500g, as I believe I will ...

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