Energy, Work & Power lab Title An investigation into how the height of a ramp affects the speed

of the toy car down the ramp Aim This investigation aims to identify how the height of a ramp affects the speed of the toy car down the ramp. This will be achieved by using a pulley system as shown in fig 1.a. The height of the ramp will be altered and the energy required to pull the car up the ramp will be calculated by applying just enough masses in order to get the toy car to move. Variables Independent Height of the ramp; heights of 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm, and 50 cm will be used. Dependent The speed of the toy car down the ramp Control Length of the ramp (1m); Mass of the car (10g).

Background Information The law of conservation of energy states that energy can't be created or destroyed. Energy can, however, change forms Potential energy is energy objects have stored either by virtue of gravity or of their elasticity. Kinetic energy is energy objects have by being in motion. Speed is how fast an objects moves between a certain period of time. Hypothesis- The speed of the toy car will increase as the ramp is height is increased each trial Null Hypothesis- The height of the ramp will have no effect upon the speed of the car as it goes down the ramp.

Prediction- As the height of the ramp increases the energy the speed of the toy car with increase. This is because the car is gaining more GPE as it gets higher and higher up the ramp causing it to go down faster each time.

Equipment List Cm ruler x 1 Toy car x1 1m ramp Stop watch

Method 1. The equipment should be set up where the ramp is first placed at 10cm up the pole. 2. Set the toy car at the top of ramp and start the stopwatch the minute you let go and stop it when it reaches the end of the ramp. (Repeat this step 3 times) 3. Record Results for the 10cm height 4. Set up ramp to 20cm up the pole 5. Repeat step 2 6. Record Results for 20cm height 7. Set up ramp to 30cm up the pole 8. Repeat step 2 9. Record results for 30cm height. 8. Set up ramp to 40cm height 10. Repeat step 2 11. Record results for 40cm height

12. Set up ramp to 50cm up the pole 13. Repeat step 2. 14. Record results for 50cm height

Results Speed of toy car affected by the height of ramp Height of ramp (cm) 10 20 30 40 50 Formulas: Speed=distance/time Average- The sum of all of the numbers in a list divided by the number of items in that list. Conclusion Chart 1 supports the hypothesis; this is because as the ramp height increases so does the toy cars speeds down the ramp. Speed of the toy car (s) Trial 1 2.2 0.5 0.6 0.6 0.5 Trial 2 1.6 0.8 0.5 0.7 0.4 Trial 3 1.8 0.9 0.8 0.6 0.5 Total Speed (cm/s)

Mean/Average 1.87 5.3 cm/s 0.73 27.4 cm/s 0.63 47.6 cm/s 0.63 63.5cm/s 0.46 108 cm/s

Evaluation There was a lot of variation between the different trials for the same heights as can be seen in table 1. This could be due to the way the stopwatch was handled at the time and the placing of the car at the top of the ramp. This could be improved by having more accurate timing when using the stopwatch to record the time. Works Cited Schulz, Chris. "How Newton's Cradles Work." HowStuffWorks. A Discovery Company, 22 Jan. 2012. Web. 10 Sept. 2013