ATAR Notes: Forum
VCE Stuff => VCE Science => VCE Mathematics/Science/Technology => VCE Subjects + Help => VCE Physics => Topic started by: VCEMan94 on March 28, 2011, 05:50:03 pm
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Hey guys
I recently performed an experiment where we attempted to investigate the effect of the:
1) Mass of the object moving down the incline and
2) Vertical height of the incline
on the velocity of the object at the bottom of the incline (using conservation of energy laws)
I'm having a bit of problems with the discussion so far
So far i've talked about how the results show that the mass of the object doesnt affect the velocity and how only the height will have an effect. I used my graphs to show this as well as showing that height is proportional to v^2
but i've only got about 150words from that... :(
so if anyone had any ideas on other things i could talk about, that would be really good :)
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The mass does effect the acceleration. Since N = m*g*cos(theta), and F(friction) = FrictionalCoeffecient*N, you can see that the frictional force is proportional to m. Though frictional coefficients aren't on the 3/4 course, it's still important.
Vertical height of the incline... what exactly were you investigating?
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We were looking at the velocity at the bottom of the incline, how it changes with height and remains the same with mass
are you sure?
at the top GPE = mgh
at the bottom KE = 1/2 mv^2
so it cancels out?
my results somewhat showed that as well.. :/
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Is it okay to say this?
On table 1, it can also be seen that as the height increases, the energy efficiency of the system does as well. This is because, as also shown on the table, as the angle increases so too does the G.P.E increases which means that the friction force acting on the ball decreases since the gravity force strengthens.
Is that right?