Parth Mahajan

Acceleration Cart

The Aim of this practical report is to roll a car on a slope of 15°, 30°, 45°. The Results then used to make a Ticker-tape graph, Displacement-time graphs, and Velocity-Time graphs with the results that have been obtained. This will show the effects on the cart and how the different aspects of the cart can be effected, (such as the Velocity of the cart, Displacement of the cart and the acceleration of the cart.)

Ticker-timers will help analyze the cart’s motion as the dots on the ticker tape can tell various things which include: The displacement of the cart, the time taken for its total journey, the acceleration of the cart and the velocity of the cart.

The Incline plane is a tilted surface which an object (in this case a cart) will slide down. The angle of the incline plane is measured from the horizontal surface to the plank used for the cart to roll down. The Greater the incline of the plank results to a greater acceleration while the smaller the incline of the plank will lead to a smaller acceleration. If friction is deduced then at least 2 forces are acted upon an object to move the object, the force of gravity and the normal force.
The force of gravity– The force of gravity is also known as the weight acts in a downward direction.
The normal force– The normal force acts in a direction perpendicular to the surface.

Galileo had put this to the test and conducted appointment with the inclined planes. After he had completed the prac several times he had observed that ‘the amount of time it took for the ball to roll down the entire length of the ramp equal to double the amount of time it took for the same ball to only roll a quarter of the distance.’ He had concluded with: ‘If an object is released from rest and gains speed at a steady rate, then the total distance travelled by the object is proportional to the time squared needed for that travel.

• Ticker Timer, Power Pack, Wires (2), G clamp.
• Paper Tape, Sticky Tape
• Wooden Ramp
• Trolley

1. Find a place to put the wooden ramp.
2. Secure the Ticker timer with a G-clamp to the wooden ramp.
3. Connect the ticker timer to the power pack. (Make sure you connect to the AC ports and have your volts set to 12V)
4. Get some ticker tape, 60 cm should be enough, and attach it to your cart with some tape.
5. Thread the tape through the ticker timer, making sure the tape goes under the carbon paper and not over.
6. Turn the power bank on, which should turn the ticker timer on and let go of the cart.
   Make sure someone is there to catch the cart or it could damage the cart.
7. Remove the tape from the cart and you should have a ticker tape with multiple blue dots.
8. Do this for each group member

Repeat the process for different angles
You should do for angles 15°, 30° and 45°.

15° Incline

The ticker tape for the cart going down a 15° incline has the least space between the dots out of the 3 inclines tested. This is because the acceleration on the 15° incline is the least. As the acceleration is the least this means that the velocity would be the smallest at a given time out of the 3 inclines.

The shape of the displacement-time graph shows that the cart is accelerating, this can be seen as the graph’s gradient is increasing. For the Ticker-Tape Graph, there is a constant increase in the gradient showing that the cart is accelerating at a constant acceleration. Lastly the Velocity-Time Graph the line is mostly the same gradient showing that there is a constant acceleration.

30° Incline

The ticker tape for the cart going down 30° incline has averagely sized spaces between the dot out of the 3 different inclines tested.

The shape of the displacement-time graph is like the 15° incline graph but this graph picks has a greater gradient in the end and reaches a higher velocity, this is because since the incline is greater than it means there will be more acceleration. For the Ticker-timer graph the spaces between the different parts of the tapes are similar meaning that the gradient is constant. This is the same for Velocity-Time graph, as the gradient varies a little bit but is mainly constant.

45° Incline

The ticker tape for the cart going down a 45° has the most space meaning that this cart was travelling the fastest out of all the three carts.

The shape of the Displacement-Time Graph for the 45° incline has the biggest gradient out of the three meaning that it had reached the highest velocity out of the three. The shape of the Ticker-Timer is having a steady increase in the velocity meaning it had constant acceleration. This can be seen in the Velocity-Time Graph.

The Gradient of the Displacement-time graph shown the velocity of the cart, since the line is a curved line to find the gradient ‘tangent’ would need to be calculated to find the instantaneous velocity.

The gradient of a Velocity-Time graph shows the acceleration of the cart.    

When all 9 graphs are compared, it can be seen that the greater the incline means the create the velocity reached and the greater the acceleration of the cart.

The results for this prac can vary within the classroom as of human error, the angles measured weren’t 100% accurate meaning that there could be variations for the angles which leads to variations of the speed reached by the carts.

This Prac had been completed successfully and without any major errors. It was learnt that in an Incline is plane is a tilted surface which an object will slide down, it was also learnt that the angle of the incline is measured from the horizontal surface to the planked used.  Galileo had put this to the test and conducted various experiments using the incline plane. Improvements that could be made are that the measuring of the angle could greatly be more accurate as the protractors used for the prac were just rough estimates for the angle.