year 10 science – practical investigation: vehicle physics

8/11/2019 Year 10 Science Practical Investigation: Vehicle Physics

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Year 10 Science Practical Investigation: Vehicle Physics


Aim

The aim of this investigation is to investigate the relationship between the angle of incline and the

acceleration of a trolley down a ramp.


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Background

Displacement is the distance, inmetres, between the starting point and the ending point

of an object. It is a vector quantity, and is measured like: 6m .Velocity is the rate at

which the position of an object changes, inmetrespersecond. It is also a vector quantity,and is measured like 6m/s.Acceleration is the rate at which the velocity of an object

changes, and it is measured like 6m/s2. It is a vector quantity.


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Hypothesis

If the angle of incline of a ramp is changed, then the acceleration of the trolley being rolled down

it will be affected, because the angle of inclination has a direct correlation to the acceleration of

the trolley, therefore increasing the angle of elevation will increase the trolleys acceleration.


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Materials

- 180cm ramp

-

jack

-

trolley/car- ticker timer

- ticker tape

-

1m ruler

- power pack


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Procedure

1. The ramp was measured with a tape measure.

2.

The jack was placed onto a table/surface and raised to an appropriate height with the

jack.3. A ticker timer was placed on the end (the end above the jack) of the ramp, and connected

to the power pack.

4.

The equation

was used to calculate the angle of elevation of the tabletop to the top of the jack.

=

5.

The ticker tape was attached to one end of the trolley and then fed through the timer.

6. The trolley was then let down the ramp, just after turning the power pack on.

7. The power pack was turned off when the trolley hit the bottom of the ramp.

8.

The ticker tape was taken off of the timer.

9.

Steps 4 to 8 were repeated, raising the height of the ramp each time.

10.The ticker tapes were analysed and put into an Excel spreadsheet where further

information/data could be calculated.


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Year 10 Science Practical Investigation: Vehicle Physics | Results

TEST 1 - 5.42 - acceleration 0.77m/s2

0

0.1

0.20.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8

d

s

p

a

e

m

e

s

m

e

e

time t seconds)

test 1 - displacement/time - 5.42

y = 0.5904x + 0.1224

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4 1.6

v

e

o

t

y

m

/

time seconds)

test 1 - velocity/time - 5.42


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0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

d

s

p

a

e

m

e

s

m

e

e

time t seconds)


y = 1.1392x + 0.0326

0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1

1.2

1.4

1.6

1.8

2

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2 1.4

v

e

o

t

y

m

/

time seconds)



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0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

d

s

p

a

e

m

e

s

m

e

e

time t seconds)


y = 1.3621x + 0.1133

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

v

e

o

t

y

v

m

/

time t seconds)

test 3 - velocity/time - 10.11


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TEST 4 12.19 - acceleration 1.32m/s2

0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

d

s

p

a

e

m

e

s

m

e

e

time t seconds)

test 4 - displacement/time - 2 9

y = 1.5938x + 0.1131

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2

v

e

o

t

y

m

/

time seconds)

test 4 - velocity/time -

2 9


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0

0.1

0.2

0.3

0.4

0.5

0.6

0.7

0.8

0.9

1

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

d

s

p

a

e

m

e

s

m

e

e

time t seconds)

test 5 - displacement/time - 6 3

y = 2.1994x + 0.0592

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

v

e

o

t

y

v

m

/

time t seconds)

test 5 - velocity/time -

6 3


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0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

5 7 9 11 13 15 17

a

e

e

a

o

m

/

2

angle degrees)

final graph - acceleration vs angle


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Discussion

The results were as expected, confirming that the angle of incline of a ramp, has a direct

correlation to the acceleration of the trolley. The higher the ramp was raised, the larger the angle

would become, and thus the faster the trolley would accelerate. The data shows this, and confirmsthe hypothesis; the higher the angle of elevation, the higher the acceleration. These results seem

reasonable, as it is general knowledge - one would expect a trolley to move faster down a steeper

slope. The result(s) could have been more accurate in terms of accurate measurements. In order

to increase accuracy, more precise measurements could have been taken of the ramps height (in

millimetres, possibly). Another way to improve the fairness of the test would have been to do each

run three or more times; the results accuracy would improve more and more with each extra run.

This suggests possible errors/inaccuracies with the results, and also a way to improve them if a

future test were to be done.

In terms of acceleration results, there was a clear outlier in the results test 4, 12.19. It has an

acceleration much lower than test 3s 1.86m/s2, and therefore there is a mistake in the data. This

could be fixed if the test were to be done again, by recording more runs.


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Conclusion

In conclusion, changing the height of a jack which is holding up a ramp, thus increasing the angle

of elevation, has adirect

effect on the acceleration of an object travelling down it (when the angle

of elevation is increased, so is the acceleration of the object) - as shown by the accelerations ofthe trolley, and the graphs - and therefore the hypothesis was supported.

year 10 science – practical investigation: vehicle physics

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