Anti-Galileo Experiment                  Name______________________

 

          Galileo performed many experiments to test the effects of gravity on a falling object, although it wasn’t known as gravity yet.    In this experiment, you will be testing a force that will be working against the force of gravity.  The force in this experiment is FRICTION.  Today, you will be testing the effects of friction on the acceleration of an object.

 

Question:  How does friction effect the acceleration of an object?

 

Hypothesis:

 

 

Materials:               1    Hot Wheels car

3        Various lengths of Hot Wheels Track

1        Stopwatch

 

Procedures:

1.     One member of your group should be the timer.

2.     Put your car at the top of the track so the rear wheels are at the very end of the track.

3.     At the same time, release the car and say, “GO”.

4.     The timer should start the watch when they hear the word “GO”.

5.     The timer should stop the watch when the rear wheels of the car leave the track.

6.     If your car does not make it all the way down the track, do not count that trial.

7.     Repeat Steps 2-5 two more times for a total of three (3) trials.

8.     Record your data on your data sheet.

9.     Calculate your Average Time by ADDING the three times and DIVIDING by 3.  Round to the nearest 1/100th of a second.

10. Measure the distance of each track.

11. Calculate the Average Speed by DIVIDING the distance by the average time.

12.  Answer the questions at the end of the data sheet.

 

 

Anti-Galileo Experiment Data Sheet      
           
Name            
            Avg. Speed
  Time for Trial 1 Time for Trial 2 Time for Trial 3 Avg. Time Distance Distance/Time
  (sec) (sec) (sec) (sec) (cm) cm/sec
Track A            
Track B            
Track C            
           
           
Questions:            
           
1.  What happened to the Average Speed of the car as the distance increased?  
           
           
           
           
           
2.  Compare the Average Speed on Track A to the Average Speed on Track C.  How do they compare?
Use your data in your answer.        
           
           
           
           
           
           
3.  Please explain what caused the Hot Wheels car to move the way that it did.  Be sure to start at the
very beginning.          
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
4.  Please state your conclusion.        
           
           
           
           
5.  Please state any possible errors.        
           

 

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