Ramp lab
Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to find a mathematical relationship between time and velocity.
Materials:
- For this ramp lab I was a double ramp and a car.
- 2 metal ramps (122 centimeters)
- A car
- A total of 5 books
- A computer
A motion sensor
Independent and Dependent Variables:
Independent: The independent variable for this lab is the time.
Dependent: The dependent variable for this lab is velocity, acceleration, and position
The terms we need to know:
Acceleration - Increase of an object’s velocity
Average Acceleration - Change in velocity / Time
Velocity - How fast an object is moving (change in position / time)
Average Velocity - Slope of xt graph = Change in position / Change in time
ΔX - Change in position (X final - X initial = Displacement = v-t graph).
The Steps:
The first thing you need to do is get 5 books and stack them on top of eachother and place one end of the ramp on top of the books and the other end on the floor
We set our buggy on the very edge of the ramp that was on top of the books as someone else set up logger pro’s video capture and made sure the frame included the entire ramp.
You then will wait till the count of 3 to let go the car go and let it go down the ramp. Also as soon as someone lets go of the car you press the record button on your computer
Using logger pro’s “set scale” tool, we plotted the points on the video and logger pro produced a graph for us (shown below).