How does the height of a ramp affect the average speed of a toy car down the ramp?
Dennis Weinmann
Physics, 9
Miss Smith
12/05/11



Data Collection


 	3.5 cm	7.1 cm	10.5 cm	14.2 cm	17.7 cm
Attempt 1	5.69 seconds	3.59 seconds	2.91 seconds	2.50 seconds	2.16 seconds
Attempt 2	5.65 seconds	3.72 seconds	2.84 seconds	2.44 seconds	2.15 seconds
Attempt 3	5.47 seconds	3.65 seconds	2.84 seconds	2.50 seconds	2.16 seconds
Time Average	5.6033  seconds	3.6533 seconds	2.8533 seconds	2.48 seconds	2.1566 seconds
Velocity Average	0.373 m/s	0.572 m/s	0.732 m/s	0.823 m/s	0.969 m/s

To get Average time:
5.69+5.65+5.47= 16.81
16.81/ 3 = 5.6033 seconds
Do that with all 5 heights and 3 trials.
16.81 represents every number added up for every trial
3 is the number of trials.

To get Velocity Average:
2.09/ 5.6033 = 0.373 m/s
V=D/T
Do that with all 5 heights and 3 trials
2.09 represents the height of the board.
5.6033 represents the average time of each trial.



Conclusion and Evaluation:
For the project we had to take one to five books and put a ramp on the books to create five different heights. After that was done we evaluated the time of the car to get down to the bottom. This led us to the Average Velocity. We have noticed that Gravity was the main role in this experiment. Since the car is practically getting pulled down by the Gravity, which made it go faster or slower depending on the height of our ramp. We had a lot of factors where we could have worked better. Instead of using a ruler to start the car we could’ve used something like a finger to be more precise, since the ruler was never put on precise. It is nearly impossible to have it precise if you use a ruler. Those made us go wrong by 0.01 seconds or something which is not that big of a deal. But if you try to be precisely it kind of is. Also we could have done a better job in measuring the time. We had to do it with a naked eye with also made our time not really precise. We can only rely on our naked for nothing precise. Precise things have to be done by camera or something that can go slow motion and actually look at it precisely. Probably what happened as well is that we hit the wall with the car, because the car was not placed exactly in the middle. That also could have been a reason why our data kind of got manipulative by small numbers. Also what happened to us was; when we tried to time it precisely and you press the timer too quickly it mostly got stuck. So we had to do it more than three times. We first used the Metal ramp that was really narrow and did not support the car. It made it slow down so it did not reach the end of the ramp. We had to change the ramp with a wood ramp. All these things were factors that could have made our experiment more precise and exact. Overall we did pretty well, had good ideas. We wasted a little bit of time when we had to exchange the ramp but we made it just in time. Since we had to hurry with everything we rushed and that could also be a reason why our project did not get too accurate. Hence all of those mistakes we should have had more time and a better ramp to start off with.