Ball Bearing Lab Report

651 Words2 Pages

Aim: How does the circumference of 5 different sized ball bearings affect the time it takes to reach the end of the V-ramp? Justify: The reasoning for looking at this experiment was when I was in the car going down a steep hill, and was wondering if the bigger the wheel of the car with the same mass if I would reach the bottom faster than if I had smaller wheels on the axel. Hypothesis: The larger the circumference of the bearings, the faster it would roll down the v-ramp as the force is pushing behind the larger amount of surface as well as completing one full turn rather than smaller turns to make a whole. Independent variable Dependent variable The circumference (cm) of the ball bearings. Measured time to calculate speed. Distance/Time …show more content…

Keep the ball bearings inside of the plastic container and not pour them out all over the work bench. Method: Place all of the following onto your work bench: 5 different sized circumference ball bearings inside 1 plastic container (so they do not roll all over the bench, onto the floor or down the sink), a stopwatch, 15cm string, a black texta and an electronic balance. Lean the 2.17 m v-ramp on the side of the bench on a diagonal so the other end is being blocked by something sturdy such as a wall or side of another bench. Place the container onto the scales and take out all five of the bearings and hold them in your hand whilst pressing the tare button on the electronic balance to take it to zero. Place one of your bearings to see the mass, record it and take it out. Repeat this for each individual bearing making sure to press tare every time to receive an accurate …show more content…

Let go of the ball and start the timer, when it hits the bottom stop the timer. Repeat this 3 times for each of your other ball bearings to minimize any measurement errors. After this you need to measure the circumference of each ball bearing. To do this hold one end of the 15cm string and wrap it around the ball once till the end meets with the string again. Take your black marker and draw a dot or a line so that it is visible when you measure. For accurate measuring do this one more time. Take the piece of string and measure it against the 1 meter ruler (a 30cm ruler will do just fine) and repeat for the other 4 ball bearings. Qualitative Results: When releasing the ball bearing it was really hard to tell the difference in time between all 5 ball bearings. Table 1- Measurement of time and speed Time (s) Time (s) Time(s) Time(s) Bearing Circumference(cm) 1 2 3 Average Time 8.5 1.12 1.06 0.94 1.04 6.5 1.19 1.12 1.19 1.17 5.1 1.25 1.19 1.12 1.19 4.4 1.25 1.31 1.37 1.31 2.2 1.25 1.37 1.19 1.27 Table 2 - Average speed

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