Problem: Does the mass of a toy car effect the distance it pushes a block of wood?
Hypothesis: I think the greater the mass of the toy car, the greater impact (distance) it will push the block of wood. I think this, because the toy car will gain more momentum with more mass while going down the ramp so it will move the wood farther than the toy car with a lesser mass.
Variables:
CV-block of wood, starting point, ramp, position of block of wood, ruler, person measuring, person dropping the car, and the location of the ramp.
IV-Mass of car.
DV-Distance traveled by the block of wood.
Materials:
-Ruler
-Ramp
-Larger toy car
-Smaller toy car
-Block of wood
-Ramp
Procedure:
1. Gather all materials
2. Set the ramp up.
3. Put the block of wood at the end of the ramp.
4. Drop the toy car with less weight down the ramp.
5. Measure how far it moves the block of wood.
6. Put the block of wood in the same spot and repeat steps 3-5 3 more times.
7. Record results.
8. Now repeat steps 3-7 with the toy car with the greater mass.
9. Compare data.
10. Clean up!
Observation Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Average
Greater mass 8 7.5 7.875 6.75 7.53
Smaller mass 2.125 2.875 2.75 2.25 2.5
Conclusion: My hypothesis was right. As you can see from the graph above the mass of the toy car had a dramatic impact on the distance the block of wood was able to travel. This was because the toy car with the greater mass was able to use the momentum from the ramp and its force to push the block of wood much farther than the toy car with less mass. On average the toy car with more mass pushed the block of wood about 5.03 inches farther than the toy car with less mass.
Gravity Comparing with Mass
Problem: What impact does the mass of a ball have on speed it drops?
Hypothesis: It won't make a difference if the mass of the ball is bigger or smaller, because everything falls at the same rate, and that is a rule of gravity.
Variables:
CV- Distance traveled to the ground, landing surface, dropping point, and the landing point.
IV- Mass of ball.
DV- speed at which the ball drops.
Control-Standing position
Materials:
-Ping pong ball
-Baseball
-Stopwatch
-Ping pong table (something to drop the ball off of)
Procedure:
1. Gather all materials
2. Set ping pong ball on the ping pong table.
3. Time it from the time it takes the ball to leave the table and get to the ground.
4. Repeat 3 times.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 with a baseball.
6. Record and compare results.
7. Clean up!
Observation:
Impact Mass Has On Speed a Ball Drops
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average
Ping Pong Ball 0.34 0.35 0.36 0.35
Conclusion: My hypothesis was wrong, and the ping pong ball dropped to the ground faster than the baseball by about .1 seconds every time. I know that everything drops at the same rate so this doesn't make very much sense, but it could've been things that I changed it by like dropping the ping pong ball a little after the stopwatch started or starting it sooner, I'm not sure. I don't think that this was the most accurate test to see if things would fall faster, because we maybe could've compared the balls side by side when we dropped them to see if that made a difference. This showed us a law of gravity, by seeing how fast the balls could drop.
Surface Impact on Toy Car
Problem: What impact does the surface of the ground have on the distance a toy car is able to roll across?
Hypothesis: I think the toy car will go farther on the concrete than it will on the carpet, because it creates less friction on concrete so it can go farther, and there is less stopping it on concrete.
Variables:
CV-toy car, angle of the ground, force applied, same person controlling the car, and size of car.
DV-Distance the toy car is able to travel on different surfaces.
IV-surface
Control-Plastic tracks
Materials:
-Toy car
-Carpet
-Concrete
-Ruler
Procedure:
1. Gather all materials.
2. Place toy car at the starting point on the cement.
3. Push toy car.
4. Record how far it goes.
5. Repeat steps 2-4 5 times.
6. Now repeat steps 2-5 on carpet.
7. Clean up.
Observation:
Impact of ground surface
Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5 Average
Carpet 23.5 21.5 26.5 16.0 19.5 21.3
Concrete 40.3 43.2 40.0 42.4 39.8 41.1
Conclusion:
My hypothesis was right, that the toy car went faster on concrete than it did on carpet. This was because the wheels on the toy car created less friction on the concrete than they did on the carpet, so they could go farther.On the carpet there's more force to slow the car down and make it stop faster. This experiment showed how friction works through using the carpet as an example.
Alternative Energies
You squint through the black fogged air that makes it difficult to breathe, and wonder if the planet could ever be healed from pollution. Looking even harder through the thick air you finally see something. A factory, shooting smoke stacks out one after another over and over again like it could never end. Is this how you want the world to end up? Alternate forms of energy are available and unless that's how you want our world to end up, using them is a good idea.
Everyday most people get up and drive to work. They drive to go eat, they drive to go shop, people drive everywhere. When you think about all of the driving that's going on, that's a lot of fuel being burned. If People could switch from using gasoline and use an alternative energy option that would save you money, and save our planet from turning into a very polluted place.
There's many ways using alternative energy can benefit you and the earth in your everyday life. One form of alternative energy that is becoming pretty popular is the electric car. Electric cars can reduce the carbon dioxide emissions by 30% in the world, and that's a huge difference, so they will significantly reduce city pollution. They are working on electric cars more and more so they can be inexpensive and more practical, because at the moment they don't make them very big.
On top of lessening pollution, we are also doing something people like to refer to as "funding both sides of the war."America is currently in a war with Iraq, which is also the place where we get most of our oil supply from. This is where Iraq gets most of their money from and we are giving them money to help their side of the war! This doesn't make any sense at all. America is being facetious. If we could use alternate forms of energy they would loose a lot of money and that would make it even easier for us to win the war.
There are many reasons for all of us to use alternative forms of energy, and many different ways we can do that. A couple other examples that are popular besides electric cars are wind power and solar power. They are making these alternate energies easier and easier to use and hopefully soon we will be using all of these to eliminate pollution and end the war in Iraq. Now that you've been informed on ways you can help take the information and start to make a difference!
Rube Goldberg Description
We built a Rube Goldberg machine designed to deliver M&M's to a customer. The series of simple machines was: a screw; an inclined plane; the lever; a series of pulleys; a wedge; and a wheel and axle. I found that the energy relating to each of the six simple machines was the same. It all started as potential energy and was changed to kinetic energy. The Rube Goldberg started with a screw. Once you threaded a screw it sent a golf ball down an inclined plane, dropping off of a ping pong table and releasing a mouse trap. The mouse trap released a pulley going up to the ceiling and releasing a wooden wedge that came down and knocked over VCR tapes like a domino effect. Once the last VCR tape was tipped over it hit a car filled with m&m's, sending it to the end of a table where a person/customer would be sitting.
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