Stopping Distances

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Stopping distances

Aim

        The aim of this experiment is to investigate the things that will affect the stopping distance of a toy car. I am investigating how the stopping distance of a car is related to the speed that it is going and how much force is used to stop a car going at a certain speed and for a certain distance.

Variables

● The landing surface (This would increase the rolling friction on the wheels of the car therefore slowing it down.

● Environment (If the air was warmer then the car would move slower because the air has more energy causing the car to slow down.)

● The gradient of the slope (changing the height of the ramp giving more energy to the car so it speeds up)

● The weight of the vehicle (The mass will be greater so the car will gain more weight as gravity will be acting upon it.)

● The size and the shape of the car (This would effect the aerodynamic. The smaller the car, the more streamlined it is and the less drag it will have and the bigger the car the more drag it will have and the slower it will go down the slope and the shorter the stopping distance is.)

● Size of wheels (A car with bigger wheels will go faster than a car with small wheels. This is due to the bigger ‘footprint’ the wheel has on the ground)

 Material of wheels (Some materials will increase the rolling friction and will slow the car down.)

 ● Material of ramp (Some surfaces may create more rolling friction on the car, therefore slowing it down)

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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 ...

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