Investigating Acceleration practical

Question 1

Describe how to conduct a practical to investigate the affect of force on the acceleration of an object

Answer 1

1. Attatch a toy car to a string and loop the string aaround a pulley (to reduce the force of friction)
2. Attatch a 100g mass to the other end of the string. This mass will provide a force of weight acting on the car
3. On the desk. draw chalk lines at equal intervals every 10cm
4. Hold the toy car at the start line, when you’re ready let go of the toy car, start a stopwatch
5. The force of the 100g weight will cause the car to accelerate
6. Record the time on the stopwatch each time the toy car passes a chalk line
7. Repeat the experiment 5 times, making sure to decrease the mass attached to the string each time.
8. As they are all attatched, the toy car, string and mass are one object. This means that when the mass of the weight in decreased, the weight should be transferred to the toy car, this means that the overall weight of the object stays the same so that the mass does not affect the results

Question 2

Describe how you would conduct a practical to investigate the effect of an object’s mass on its acceleration

Answer 2

1. Attach a toy car with a mass of 200g on it to a string and loop the string around a pulley (this reduces the force of friction)
2. Attatch a 100g mass to the other end of the string, this provides a force of weight which will act on the toy car
3. On the desk, draw chalk lines at equal intervals, every 10cm
4. Hold the car at the startig line and when you’re ready, let go of the car, start a stopwatch
5. The force of weight from the 100g mass will cause the toy car to accelerate
6. Record the time on the stopwatch every time the car passes a chalk line
7. Repeat the experimnet 5 times, making sure to decrease the mass on the toy car by 10g each time to see the effect that the mass of the car has on it’s acceleration