Acceleration on an incline:

Ramp, Car

 

You are to respond to each of the following before starting the lab procedure.  Print out your responses and give to your teacher before proceeding to collect data.

  1. Purpose of lab.
  2. Equipment that will be used.
  3. Does the speed of the car change on the ramp in relation to the angle of the ramp?
    1. What will the variables be for question C?  Which is independent, which is dependent?  How are you going to check this out?  Answer this by writing out a procedure for C. 
    2. Make a data table that includes angle of ramp, mass of car, time at photogate A, time at photogate B, time from A to B, speed of car at A, speed of car at B, acceleration of car on ramp.
  4. Does the speed of the car change on the ramp in relation to the mass of the car .
    1. What will the variables be for question D?  Which is independent, which is dependent?  How are you going to check this out?  Answer this by writing out a procedure for D.
    2. Make a data table that includes angle of ramp, mass of car, time at photogate A, time at photogate B, time from A to B, speed of car at A, speed of car at B, acceleration of car on ramp.
  5. Answer each of these questions to the best of your ability.
    1. Will the angle of the ramp effect the acceleration?
    2. Will the mass of the car effect the acceleration?

 

 

 

 

Post Lab Questions:

  1. Sue is skateboarding on her sidewalk.  Her speed as she crosses a “crack” (expansion joint) is 2.5 feet per second on the first block and 3.0 feet per second 5 blocks later.  Find the percent increase of her speed.
  2. A group of students wanted to find out if heavier students would sled faster down a hill.  Starting from the top of a hill, each student sled past a friend who had a “speed gun” to determine the speed 20 meters after they have begun to move.  Prepare a speed to weight graph of the following data:

 

Name

Speed (miles per hour)

Weight (pounds)

Seth

12

144

Leticia

16

121

Martin

18

154

Sandra

5

132

Kelly

18

112

 

Write a conclusion about weight and speed based on your graph.  Explain why you think there is a difference.

  1. When doing an experiment, how many variables should be changing?
  2. Convert 20 m/s into miles per hour.
  3. Convert 10m/s2  into miles per hour.
  4. Convert 60 miles per hour into meters per second and into  kilometers per hour.
  5. Why do you think that the acceleration due to gravity was not 9.81 m/s2 for the car on the ramp?