Safety
For safety precautions we all aligned our investigations and experiments in a line, this prevented people slipping on the toy cars because they weren’t moving in every direction.
Prediction
I predict that the higher up the ramp we let the car go, the longer the stopping distance will be. This is because the further the car travels down the ramp the closer to its terminal velocity it will get. The longer the car goes down the ramp then it will accelerate for a longer period of time. This gives the car more kinetic energy and will need a higher counter force to stop it, the floor will be constant therefore the toy car will travel for longer and further. So the stopping distance will be longer. The lower down the ramp you let the car go then it will accelerate for a shorter period of time and will have less kinetic energy so will need a weaker counter force to stop it. All objects have an unwillingness to change their speed, this is called Inertia. If a car is already moving then it will still have Inertia and will be unwilling to slow down. If it is going faster then it will be even more unwilling and will take a longer time to slow down, hence a longer stopping distance.
The equation for acceleration is
The equation for kinetic energy is KE = ½ mv2. This means that the car will be able to accelerate for longer, making the velocity higher and the stopping distance greater. 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 of the car. When the Toy car is raised to the top of the ramp, it gains a certain amount of potential energy - this is converted into kinetic energy as the Toy car moves down the slope. Too see what factors may affect the way the experiment turns out, it may be useful to look at the formula for potential energy. P.E mhg (where mass, height and gravity) obviously, the more potential energy the toy car has got, the faster it will move down the ramp. I could set up a simple apparatus that will be sufficient to take accurate readings from. I will drop a toy car from a ramp that is a set height, then measure the speed at the bottom and measure the distance the car travels. From this I can work out the original gravitational potential energy and the kinetic energy and therefore the energy converted to other types of energy. I predict that the gravitational energy will not equal the kinetic energy because some will be lost to sound, heat and kinetic energy in other directions from the
Apparatus
∙ 1 Toy car (steel)
∙ 1 Metre guttering pipe (half pipe)
∙ 1 Metre ruler (X3)
∙ Clamp
∙ Clamp stand
Method
- Make sure to take safety precautions at all times when carrying out any experiment making sure that you have checked through the area making sure that there is no danger.
- Set out the apparatus shown on the diagram below using correct measurements(height of the clamp from the floor is 40cm)
- Place the car at 0cm up the ramp and let the car go (align the car from the back of the car to the line on the pipe.)
- keep doing this by setting the car up the ramp every 10cm (do this and repeat it 3 times to get some accurate results)
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This experiment involves three major factors, gravitational potential energy, kinetic energy and friction.
- 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; Tires, 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.
- I will then work out the work done by using this equation - Force (n) x distance (m) work done (mhg) I predict that the greater the slope of the ramp the longer the model will take to stop. This will happen because the higher up the car is, the more potential energy it has, when it is released the potential energy is turned into kinetic energy, the more potential energy the car has the more kinetic energy it gets, the more kinetic energy the car had the further it will travel. The car will slow down eventually as the friction will get too great for the kinetic energy
Results
Diagram
Conclusion
My graph tells me that the further the car up the ramp the longer the stopping distance and the shorter the car up the ramp the shorter the stopping distance.
I can also see the graph has a positive correlation which is very strong as most of the points fit to the line of best fit.
The equation for kinetic energy is KE = ½ mv2. This means that the car will be able to accelerate for longer, making the velocity higher and the stopping distance greater. 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.