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Hot Wheel Acceleration Laboratory

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12 views

Hot Wheel Acceleration Laboratory

Uploaded by

coolstarry1028
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Name: ____________________________________________ Date: ______________________ Period: _______

Hot Wheels Acceleration Laboratory


Purpose
In this lab, you will be studying acceleration due to gravity by observing Hot Wheels cars on inclined planes. Your goal
will be to determine the acceleration of the car with the inclined plane at different angles. The lab will show how graphs
of displacement versus time and velocity versus time can be used to find acceleration.

 Hypothesis (If…then…because…)

Materials
• Hot Wheel Car
• Flat table top (inclined plane)
• 4 books
• Meter stick
• Stopwatch

Procedure
Part A
1. Begin by designating one person to be the car holder, 2 people as distance markers, one person as a recorder, and
one as a timer. Write each person and job in the space below.

2. Raise one end of the inclined plane (table) by placing 1 textbook under each leg on one end so table is at an angle.

3. Trial run: Have the car holder hold the car at the top of the ramp. When the car holder releases the car, have the
timer begin timing. The timer should call out one second intervals. Have the distance markers mark the position of the
car with a finger for each interval. HINT: Each distance marker has two hands, so if they used a finger on the left hand to
mark interval 1 and a finger on the right hand to mark off interval 2, the next distance marker person can use their two
hands to mark off intervals 3 and 4. Record the data below:

Table 1 Time (s) Position (cm)


1
2
3
4

4. If you were not able to obtain the position for each time interval, try until you have a system that enables you to get
all four positions.

 5. Calculate the average speed for your trial. What formula must you use?
Part B

6. You will now repeat this procedure for two different heights of the desk. For each height, you will be doing three trials
and averaging your data.

7. Raise one end of the inclined plane (table) by placing 1 textbook under each leg on one end so table is at an angle.

8. Let the car run down the ramp 3 times. Record your data in table 2. Take the average position for each time and enter
it into the table. Then for each time interval, calculate the distance traveled in 1 second. To calculate this, it will be the
average position minus the previous average position. For the first time it is the average position minus zero. Be sure to
measure the distance in centimeters.

9. Then calculate the velocity for each time interval by taking the displacement divided by the time interval (the
interval is 1 second each time).

Table 2. Using one book.


Time (s) Run 1 Position (cm) Run 2 Position (cm) Run 3 Position (cm) Average Position (cm) Distance Velocity (cm/s)
traveled in 1 s
1
2
3
4

10. Repeat this exact procedure, except this time raise the table up by using two books on the two legs.

Table 3. Using two books


Time (s) Run 1 Position (cm) Run 2 Position (cm) Run 3 Position (cm) Average Position (cm) Distance Velocity (cm/s)
traveled in 1 s
1
2
3
4

Data Analysis and Conclusions

 Create a velocity versus time graph for your two heights using the average positions you calculated and attach the
graph to your report.

2. Calculate the acceleration of the car for each height. You can calculate acceleration two ways. One way is to find the
slope of the graph. Show your work both ways. The second way is to use the formula:

vf −vi
a= vf =velocity final vi = velocity initial t= time a= acceleration
t
3. What is the main difference between the velocity graph for table 2 and 3?

4. How does the angle of the table affect the acceleration of your hot wheel?

5. What are some sources of error in this lab?

6. Using the above formula for acceleration answer the following word problems. Be sure to show ALL work.

A. A car on a freeway ramp accelerates from 12 meters/second to 24 meters/second in 9 seconds. What was the
average acceleration of the car?

B. A car traveling 30 kilometers/hour hits a deer and stops in 3 seconds. What is the average acceleration of the
car?

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