Effects of the angle of elevation on the speed of a Toy Car

Introduction

Generally, speed is defined as the distance covered in a given time. It is always a scalar quantity since it has only a magnitude but no direction. It shows how fast an object is changing from one point to another. It is therefore an important parameter in the design industries and road construction sites since majority of the users want to move faster.

In these experiment, the effect of angle of slope was evaluated for various altitudes or heights of several ramps of different heights though a common base of same thickness. Angle of slopes basically tells how inclined an object is with reference with the horizontal line.  

ObjectivesTo investigate how increasing the height of the ram affects the speed of a toy carTo analyze what we already know about the unbalance forces on the objectHypothesisif the ramp height is increased, the speed of the toy car will slow downif the ramp height is reduced, the speed will stay the samematerials used3 identical ramps of different heightsA 270 cm long rectangular rodA toy car (hot wheel sized)Masking tapesCalculatorMotion sensor and motion detectorMethodThe ramp was set with initial height of 11.62 cmThe motion detector was put in front of the ramp and motion sensor tied on the toy car using masking tape The motion was started and record time taken for three trials recordedThe trials were repeated using other three different heights of 15.5cm, 17.5 cm and 20cm and each time taken recorded for three trials.

The set up was as shown below

The following data was obtained from the above experiment

Ramp heightTrial 1 timeTrial 2 timeTrial 3 timeAverage time11.62 cm3.57 s4.43 s5.34 s4.45 s15.5 cm3.34 s3.78 s3.13 s3.42 s17.5 cm2.87 s2.75 s2.64 s2.75 s20 cm2.58 s2.44 s2.51 s2.51 s

Distance travelled = 280 cm

Results and data analysis

Speed =  , hence by using the average values, speed of the toy will be;

Speed on first ramp =  = 62.92 cm/s

Speed on second ramp =  = 81.87 cm/s

Speed on third ramp =  = 101.82 cm/s

Speed on the fourth ramp =  = 111.55 cm/s

From the above speed, it was observed that the steeper ramp produced a higher speed than the fairly inclined one. This typically shows that the smaller angles of inclination produce the larger speeds. The displayed graph of speed against distance of travelled was as shown below.

The above bar graphs show how speed was increasing as the angle of inclination gets reduced and height increases.

From the above data, the initial hypotheses were not correct as per the displayed graphs. The correct alternative of if the ramp is inclined in height then the speed of the toy car will be a little bit faster was therefore correct. The angle of elevation therefore is a factor that affects the speed of the toy car in that as the height of inclination increases, the speed of the toy car will be faster.

J.K. Smith, Dynamics of motion (Longhorn publishers)