Speed and Acceleration

P: how does the ramp height affect the speed and acceleration of the car.

H: I think that the car will gain more speed the higher the ramp.

Materials

Car

Ramp

Dominos

Timer

ruler

Variables

IV: Ramp height

DV: Acceleration

CV: car ramp, dominos, timer, person, place,

E: gather all materials

Make ramp with 2 Dominos

Put car on track

Use timer to find the time to get were it stops

Use ruler to find distance

Repeat steps two through four 3 more times

Make ramp with 3 Dominos

Put car on track

Use timer to find the time to get were it stops

Use ruler to find distance

Repeat steps two through four 3 more times

Make ramp with 4 Dominos

Put car on track

Use timer to find the time to get were it stops

Use ruler to find distance

Repeat steps two through four 3 more times

O: in Excel

C: My H was Supported by my Observation. The car gains speed as it goes down the ramp and it accelerates more. The ramp height has a big affect on the car and it's speed.

      The ramp has an affect on the rate the car travels at when going down the ramp. When the toy car goes down the ramp with 2 Dominos it takes a longer time to move to the end and then off the ramp. The car would maybe get 1/4 of an in. off the end of the ramp then stop. The time was 3.1 seconds for it to get off the ramp the first time, then 2.8,3.3,2.6. The ramp that was 3 dominos high was easier to test because it let the car gain speed faster. The first test of the car was a failure because the ramp fell over and would not stay still while the car went down it. Then I fixed it so the dominos could not move and it worked. The next test was better and I got a distance of around 1/4 again. The time was 2.6,2.9,3.2,3.5 so the better than before but had some times that were worst. The third test was the hardest because the car went far enough that it would hit a slope in the table, I didn't find out un till I went over the distance and found the table was not completely level. So I traded to another table to do my test and it worked out fine. The distance was 3/4-1 in. and the time was 2.5,2.7,3.5,2.1 s this was the fastest of them all.

        In the end I got the rate of the car in the first test as being about 0.1 in/s. The second test was also about 0.1 in/s and the last test was about 0.36 in/s. I took the fastest speed from all of the test. The ramp had a different affect on all the tests depending on it's height.