Motion

Introduction

In physics, any increase or decrease in velocity is referred to as acceleration or deceleration. The rate of acceleration is measured in m/s² or km/m/s respectively. The average acceleration of an object can be derived from the formula:

Materials

-ramp

-masking tape

-recording tape

-ruler

-graph paper

-loaded cart

-power supply

-ticker timer

Controlled Variable: the ramp, the timer, the cart releaser, the testing environment, length of ticker tape, the angle of the ramp

Independent: The average velocity of the cart per interval

Dependent: The total displacement of the cart

Method

1) A table was drawn to record time, displacement, and average velocity.

2) The ramp, recording timer, camera and cart were set up in the test environment.

3) A length of recording tape was attached to the cart and threaded through the ticker timer.

4) The timer and camera were started and the cart was released down the ramp so that the recording tape was pulled through the timer.

5) Steps 3 and 4 were repeated until each person in the group had a tape of the motion.

6) The marking tape was analysed by marking the starting dot t= 0 and dividing the tape into equal time intervals. Each six dot interval was .10s.

7) The displacements of each time interval were recorded in the table.

8) The average velocity was calculated and recorded for each time interval.

9) The graph of the velocity for the cart was plotted at the half-time intervals.

10) The line of best fit was drawn through the points.

11) The average acceleration of the cart was calculated by finding the slope of the velocity-time graph in m/s²

12) The experiment was repeated for up the ramp, and across a level ramp,