To investigate the affect a changing slope has on the distance traveled by a toy car.

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23 November 2001                                                    CHRIS BRUNDAN

PHYSICS INVESTIGATION

AIM: To investigate the affect a changing slope has on the distance traveled by a toy car.

BACKGROUND KNOWLEDGE: This experiment involves three major factors, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and friction. Advancing Physics by Jon Ogborn and Mary Whitehouse has, I feel, the best explanation of the relationship between gravitational potential energy and potential energy. They use a tennis ball as an example:

HYPOTHESIS: The significant variables for this experiment are:

Height of car at start -         gravitational potential energy

Mass of car used -                 gravitational potential energy

Car used -                         axle friction, wheel width and diameter,

Aerodynamics etc. may differ on different

Models

Texture of ramp -                 friction

POSSIBLE INDEPENDANT OR CONTROL VARIABLES: Height of car, Mass of car, Texture of ramp (very difficult to measure).

POSSIBLE DEPENDANT VARIABLES: Distance traveled, Average speed.

As said in my background information decrease in potential energy, or the car going down the ramp, is equal to the increase in kinetic energy that is the car accelerating down the ramp. The height of the car at the start should therefore be proportional to the distance traveled, frictional forces ignored.

PREDICTION: I predict that, assuming no friction on the ramp, distance traveled is proportional to height of car at start, or amount of gravitational potential energy. That is to say when you double the height of the car, you double the distance traveled. As energy cannot be created nor destroyed we see that the friction that produces the heat comes from the kinetic energy of the car, such that The energy that has been converted to heat will reduce the energy going to kinetic energy, bringing the car to a gradual rest.

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So friction on ramp excluded:

mgh = 1/2mv2 thus 2(mgh) = mv2

PRELIMINARY WORK: For my preliminary work, I tested each of the possible independent variables, to find the one that suited the investigation best. I tested the weight, by attaching weights onto my chosen car with plasticine. The results were as follows:

Car released at height of 100mm

These results were not broad enough for a graph. This may be a good possibility for further experiments.

There were only two experiments possible for using friction as the independent variable; these were onto ramps laid out and onto ...

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