Data Analysis

Data Analysis

Explanation

[IMAGE]The experiment consisted of recording the results of a small

toy car being allowed to roll down a ramp and then leave the end of

the ramp by continuing straight off the drop from the end of the desk.

I measured the ramp's length, the height of the ramp, and the distance

it covered horizontally. I also measured the mass of the car. It was

necessary to measure these things so that I can perform calculations

later. All of the information I gathered can be seen in the diagram

below.

To get the results, I will attach ticker tape to the back of the car,

so the car will pull the ticker tape through the machine as it moves,

and therefore create a dot on the piece of ticker tape every 0.2

seconds. When I come to analyse this, I will obviously not use every

point, I will use probably every one point in five

Predictions

I think that the car is going to gradually accelerate as it goes down

the ramp, therefore gradually gaining speed as it goes down. Then the

car will accelerate even more as it drops off the end of the ramp and

the friction from the ramp will no longer be present. Although there

will still be air resistance, the friction from the ramp will be gone,

and only friction from the air and from the ticker tape will be

present. If we were to assume no resistance, the car's acceleration

would go up to about 9.8ms-2 (although this value for gravity is not

exact, gravity varies so much in different areas of the Earth that it

is hard to get an exact value, 9.8 is judged to be close enough). So

the acceleration time graph will probably look like the one below:

[IMAGE]You may wonder why the acceleration will only go up to 9.8, or

close to, when the car goes off the end of the ramp, after all,

gravity was acting upon the car before this time wasn't it?