Part of The Student Room Group

  • Join over 1.2 million students every month
  • Accelerate your learning by 29%
  • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month
Page
  1. 1
    1
  2. 2
    2
  3. 3
    3
  4. 4
    4
  5. 5
    5
  6. 6
    6
  7. 7
    7
  8. 8
    8
  9. 9
    9
  10. 10
    10
  11. 11
    11
  12. 12
    12
  13. 13
    13
  14. 14
    14
    • View my saved documents

    Investigation is to see how changing the height of a ramp affects the stopping distance of a toy car.

    Extracts from this document...

    Introduction

    GCSE PHYSICS COURSEWORK:

    INVESTIGATING STOPPING DISTANCE

    BY FAHIM TALUKDER 11TS

    PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION

    AIM

    The aim of this investigation is to see how changing the height of a ramp affects the stopping distance of a toy car.

    APPARATUS

    • Metre Ruler
    • Toy Car
    • Boss and Clamp
    • Stand
    • Ruler to measure height of ramp where toy car will be released
    • Ramp

    DIAGRAM

    PREDICTION

    I predict that if I increase the height of the ramp, the further the stopping distance would be. I feel that this is because the higher the ramp, the more G.P.E (gravitational potential energy) it will have. Therefore the more energy it will have, thus increasing the stopping distance of the car as it will take longer for the forces working against the car (i.e. friction etc) to stop it. In our investigation we will not be changing the mass of the car or the gravity as I have mentioned in the fair test, as these two will always be constant in this investigation, therefore here the G.P.E is dependent on the height of the ramp.

    METHOD

    • Collect al the apparatus needed for the investigation
    • Attach a boss to the stand
    • Connect ramp to the boss
    • Lay out a metre ruler starting from the end of the ramp on the desk so that I can measure how far the toy car has travelled, i.e. its stopping distance
    • Place toy car on the ramp and let the car roll down the ramp
    • Take the measurement
    • Take two readings for each height to obtain an average
    • Record results in a table and plot a graph

    WHY A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION WAS DONE

    A carried out this preliminary investigation before I did the real one to get a rough idea of how height does affect the stopping distance of a toy car.

    ...read more.

    Middle

    2 is because the formula ½MV2 = FxD, uses v2. This means that v2 is directly proportional to the distance, which is more useful than just the speed.

    OBTAINING EVIDENCE

    SAFETY

    Safety is an important aspect in every investigation, even if the investigation seems to be very harmless. This is why I'll be taking this into consideration.

    • I will be working with very heavy apparatus such as the stand and clamp and if I don’t use them appropriately I could seriously hurt someone if it falls on someone or if it hits them.
    • The psion and the light are very valuable and thus I should use them to good effect and only for work purpose.
    • I will make sure that the boss and clamp are tightened to the stand so that the apparatus doesn’t fall off and hurt somebody.
    • I will work in a corner around large space in the middle of a desktop so that the apparatus doesn’t fall over, i.e. make sure that there could be little chance of someone knocking it over.

    TIME LIMIT, RANGES, AND AMONUT OF READINGS

    There is no set time limit for this investigation however we were advised by the teacher to get it complete preferably within 1 hour as this investigation doesn’t take that long. After I had completed my preliminary results we only gained 2 results to come to gain an average we believed this was insufficient therefore for this final investigation we shall take three readings for each height that we cover so that I can work out the average and therefore iron out any anomalies. The range that we are going to use in this final investigation is 3cm to 10cm.

    ...read more.

    Conclusion

    I will use the same toy car, this is because if I used a different car for each height the mass of the toy cars will be different and may affect the stopping distance. Also if the toy car was changed for each height the frictional forces acting upon the car will be different and thus it may affect the stopping distance of the toy car.I will use the same ramp, because if the ramp were different it could affect the speed of the car at which it is travelling at. The toy car won’t be pushed it will just be released, if I  do push the car it will gain more kinetic energy and thus the stopping distance will increase and the test won’t be fair.For each weight put on the toy car it would be repeated six times to gain an average stopping distance and so the results are much more reliable.This investigation involves gravitational potential energy therefore to maintain the outcome of the result that gravity must be the same and therefore to maintain this we have to stay on the same planet as gravity on Earth is 10 m/s squaredThe gradient of the ramp should be kept the same so that the trolley should go at about the same speed each time.

    RESULTS TABLE

    This is a model results table of how the results will be stored.

    weiht put on trolley

    (g)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    1

    (cm)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    2

    (cm)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    3

    (cm)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    4

    (cm)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    5

    (cm)

    Stopping distance of toy car

    6

    (cm)

    Average Stopping Distance

    (cm)

    25g

    50g

    75g

    100g

    125g

    150g

    175g

    200g

    225g

    250g

    ...read more.

    This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Forces and Motion section.

    Found what you're looking for?

    • Start learning 29% faster today
    • 150,000+ documents available
    • Just £6.99 a month

    or


    Not the one? Search for your essay title...
    • Join over 1.2 million students every month
    • Accelerate your learning by 29%
    • Unlimited access from just £6.99 per month

    See related essaysSee related essays

    Related GCSE Forces and Motion essays

    1. Marked by a teacher

      Stopping distances of toy cars travelling down a ramp

      3 star(s)

      The height that the car is released from will increase from 0cm to 25cm in 2.5cm intervals. Consequently, 10 results will be obtained and once more 3 results will be taken from each height to get more accurate results and I will measure from the end of the ramp to the middle of the car.

    2. To investigate into how the height of a ramp affects the speed of a ...

      Method Apparatus: A ramp A 1m ruler A toy car A stopwatch First I need to measure the distance from the top of the ramp to the bottom to the ramp.

    1. Rolling a Car down a ramp.

      - Mass of trolley - mass is also included in the formula for potential energy and so could affect the speed of the trolley one-way or the other. As with height, this will be varied but only in the second experiment.

    2. What affects the acceleration of a trolley down a ramp?

      I will use the same ramp each time because each ramp will have a different surface smoothness. This will make a difference to the amount of friction and it is important I don't vary this even though it would only make a minuscule difference.

    1. Trolley Speed

      Therefore I predict there to be a strong negative correlation as shown in the graph. I will also be calculating the average speed of the trolley. I predict that with a greater height, there will be a higher average speed.

    2. Helicopter Investigation.

      * Try to make sure that the paperclips are about the same size and that they are roughly the same weight. To make it a safe experiment I will take the following precautions: * I will look before I drop the helicopter, so that it doesn't hit anybody.

    1. Investigation of the speed of a trolley down a ramp and its gradient

      The averages of the 5 readings for each height have been calculated to find one value for each height so that they can be plotted on a graph. My results are reliable because I ensured a fair test by rolling the trolley down the ramp from the same point and

    2. Investigating the speed of a toy car travelling down a ramp

      This would affect the speed of the car. Use the same car throughout the experiment. SURFACE OF RAMP If we changed the surface of the ramp, we would be varying the amount of friction acting against the car. This would make the investigation unreliable.

    • Over 160,000 pieces
      of student written work
    • Annotated by
      experienced teachers
    • Ideas and feedback to
      improve your own work