Investigating The Stopping Distance Of A Toy Car

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        Investigating The Stopping Distance Of A Toy Car

PLANNING:

During the course of this investigation i will aim to find how one specific factor effects the stopping distance of a toy car down a ramp.

The factors which effect stopping distance are; Tyres, Brakes, Road surface, Speed of car, the Aerodynamics etc.

The toy car will model a real car with frictional forces between the bench top and the wheels acting as brakes.

I will choose to investigate the effect of speed because it is the most easily varied.

To change the speed of the car i can alter the height at which the car falls from.

This is done by adding or subtracting blocks which make up the height of the ramp.

Speed will be measured by using a light gate, and the stopping distance of the car will be measured using a ruler. The formula which will be used to measure the speed will be speed = Distance travelled

                        Time taken

With the distance of the card on top of the car being 10cm and the time taken being the time taken through which the car goes through the light gate

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Equipment:

Toy car with 10cm card attached to top of car.

Wooden blocks(each 1cm in height)

Wooden plank

1metre ruler

Blue-tac to attach card to car.

Light gate

Bench top

 

        SPACE FOR DIAGRAM OFF SET UP

To ensure the results of the experiment will be accurate we  will drop the car from the same height  3 times and then make an average.

If results were also clearly wrong they would be repeated. The same part of the bench will be used every time and will ensure that the card on top of the car goes ...

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