Calculations

Velocity is the rate of covered distance in a specific direction, or how far a certain object goes in a specific direction. Since it is a vector quantity, it must be calculated in a certain direction. In order to calculate velocity, I started off by timing how long it took for the object to get from point A to point B. After that, I measured how long the distance was. After I had the measurements, I plugged them into the equation. For the first marble, the distance was 0.24 m and the time was 0.86 s. I divided 0.24 m by 0.86 s, and the dividend was 3.58 m/s. For the car, I divided 0.065 meters by 0.19 seconds and got 0.34 m/s.

Acceleration is the rate of change of velocity, or, how much something speeds up or slows down. To find the acceleration of the ball and the car, I had to divide the velocity by the amount of time. So, to find the acceleration all I had to do was plug in the velocity and time into the equation. Knowing this, to find the acceleration of the first marble, I divided the velocity, 3.58 m/s, by the time, 0.86 s, to get the acceleration of 4.16 m/s^2. To find the acceleration of the car I did the same thing. I divided 0.34 m/s by 0.19 s. The dividend was 1.79 m/s^2.

Force is the push or pull of an object. To determine the force of an object, you have to multiply the mass of the object by the acceleration at which the object was moving. I calculated how much force the ball on the wedge got from the car when the car hit it. To find the force, I multiplied the mass, 0.0165 kg, by the acceleration of the car, 0.49 m/s, and got 0.008 N.

There are two types of energy, kinetic energy, and potential energy. Ideally, change of potential energy equals change of kinetic energy. However, due to friction and other causes, sometimes not all of the potential energy is converted to kinetic energy. That's why when my group was finding how much potential energy was converted to kinetic energy we used both equations instead of just believing all the energy transferred.

Potential energy is the amount of energy an object has due to its position at a height or in a gravitational field. The formula to find potential energy is mass times acceleration due to gravity times height. In our project we found the potential energy of the marble on the wooden block steps at the bottom of the board. First we multiplied the mass of the marble, 0.016 kg, by the acceleration due to gravity, which is always 9.8 m/s^2. Then we multiplied the product of that by the height which was 0.21 m, and our final product was 0.0329 J.

Kinetic energy is energy due to motion. The equation for kinetic energy is 1/2 of the mass multiplied by velocity squared. In our project, we found kinetic energy twice. We found kinetic energy for our second lever. The first thing I did was multiply the mass, 0.0084 kg by 1/2 to get 0.0042. Then found the velocity, 0.35 m/s, and squared it to get 0.1225. Then I multiplied them together to get the kinetic energy of 0.00051 J. We also found the kinetic energy of our wooden steps to see how much potential energy was converted to kinetic energy. For kinetic energy we got 0.0036 J. That means that 0.02936 J of energy was lost as the ball went down the steps.

Work is the amount of energy put into something. To find work, you must multiply the amount of force an object pushes by the distance it traveled. If there is no distance gained, then there is no work. For example, if you were to find the amount of work in a lever, you would first need to find the force of the lever. Say the lever's force is 0.5 N. Then you would have to multiply it by how high the lever went up. If the lever's distance was 0.7 m, then the lever would have 0.35 J of work.

Acceleration due to gravity is the rate at which something changes velocity due to gravity. The value of acceleration due to gravity is always 9.8 m/s^2 because that is the acceleration of all objects in the gravitational field. In our project, any time the marble did a free fall, it accelerated at 9.8 m/s^2.