What affects the acceleration of a trolley?
Hannah Greenslade Y11 Science Coursework What affects the acceleration of a trolley? Plan An unbalanced force causes an object to accelerate. The acceleration happens in the same direction as the resultant (or unbalanced) force. The size of this depends on the mass of the object and the size of the force. The force on a small object is bigger than the same force acting on a bigger object. If the mass stays the same but the force gets bigger, the acceleration also increases. The equation to find acceleration is: when = acceleration, = velocity at the end, = velocity at the start, and = time The variables which could affect the acceleration of a trolley down a ramp are: The mass of the trolley, - (the size of the trolley), if the same force acts on a bigger object it will accelerate less than that force on a smaller object. The continuous force, - (how much the object is pushed), the bigger the push or force, the bigger the acceleration. The gradient of the slope, - (the height of the slope that the object moves down), the bigger the gradient, the bigger the acceleration will be as the object travels down it, because less friction acts against an object which travels down a steeper slope and friction reduces the acceleration of an object. The variable which I have chosen to
What factors affect the bounce of a squash ball?
What factors affect the bounce Of a squash ball? Observations: The modifications that were made during the practical portion of the investigation to improve the plan included the following: * The ball was put back into the water each time it needed to be dropped again for each given temperature between 0?C and 80?C Table of Results: Temperature of the ball (?C) The rebound height of the ball (Cm) Average rebound height (Cm) Reading 1 Reading 2 Reading 3 2.5 7.0 9.0 6.5 7.5 1.0 4.0 4.5 5.0 4.5 20.5 8.0 7.5 7.5 7.7 31.0 21.0 22.0 20.5 22.7 40.0 26.0 28.0 27.0 27.0 51.5 33.0 34.0 32.5 33.2 60.0 42.0 43.0 44.0 43.0 70.5 47.0 47.5 50.0 48.2 82.0 54.5 54.0 56.0 54.8 90.0 56.0 55.5 56.5 56.0 Other observations: * When the temperature reached 70?C the ball started to become incompressible and when the temperature of the water reached near the 80?C mark, the ball started to melt. * When the ball was dropped it was quite difficult to read the observations due to a couple of reasons. One reason was that at the start of the experiment the rebound height of the ball was quite small hence it was difficult to read while most the time when the ball was dropped it happened so fast that it seemed strenuous to read the rebound height. * When the water temperature became higher condensation formed on the thermometer due to
Bouncing Ball Experiment
Aim: To find out what affects the height to which a ball bounces. Variables: Height from which the ball is dropped Mass of the ball Material ball is made from External factors, i.e. changing air density, temperature The surface onto which the ball falls Prediction - reasons for variable control: Variables that will be altered: The height the ball is dropped from will affect the height the ball bounces to due to the energy chain the ball goes through as it is dropped and bounces up again. The energy chain is as follows: Therefore as energy cannot be created or destroyed the energy the ball starts with must be directly proportional to the energy the ball finishes with, at the top of its bounce, and so if the ball starts with more energy it must therefore finish with more. As in both cases the main form of energy is GPE it follows that the higher the ball is dropped from, the higher the ball will bounce. * The ball starts with more GPE * As there is more GPE more energy is converted into KE (The ball is going faster, KE=1/2mv2, v is greater therefore KE is greater by a larger amount). More thermal energy is also produced. * As there is more KE, more energy is converted into elastic potential energy * As there is more elastic potential energy, more energy is converted back into KE energy * As there is more KE energy, more work would need to act upon the ball in
