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[click here for printable version]
Tips for Hot Wheels Write-up
1) When writing out a velocity or acceleration, remember to note
the direction. If your car rolled toward the back of the school (the
cafeteria), that is south. If your car rolled toward the front of the
school (main entrance), that is north.
2) Here is a sample data table, yours should be similar.
This is all false data, so don't expect to have the same numbers. For 3
trials:
Elapsed time
(seconds)
|
Distance traveled
(centimeters)
|
Average distance
(centimeters)
|
Velocity
(cm/sec, N or S)
|
|
0
|
|
|
|
|
1
|
50, 51, 51
|
51
|
51
|
|
2
|
104, 105,106
|
105
|
54
|
|
3
|
127, 128, 129
|
128
|
23
|
|
4
|
143, 144, 145
|
144
|
16
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Remember to calculate velocity for each second.
3) For average velocity, look at your graph and find the data
point that represents the maximum time and maximum distance, then calculate.
4) For acceleration calculations, here are 2 examples based on
the data listed above.
For 0 - 2 seconds 53 cm/sec - 0 cm/sec = 27
cm/sec2 North or 27 cm/sec/sec
2 seconds - 0 seconds North
For 2 - 4 seconds 32 cm/sec - 53 cm/sec = -11
cm/sec2 North or
4 seconds - 2 seconds
-11 cm/sec/sec North
Notice that 2-4 seconds comes out as a negative number. If this
car was rolled to the north, then my acceleration for 2-4 seconds could
be written
as: -11 cm/sec/sec North OR 11 cm/sec/sec South
Also, cm/sec/sec can be written as cm/sec2
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