Will A Slinky Travel Faster Down Stairs After Adding Mass?
Joseph Evans
Intro to Physics
ABSTRACT
The purpose of the experiment was to see if adding mass to a slinky affected how fast it traveled down the stairs. From the background research, it was hypothesized that adding mass to the slinky would make it travel down the stairs slower. This was hypothesized because adding mass to each side of a slinky would cause more force to be needed to pull the slinky over. To perform the experiment the following steps were performed. First, the materials needed for the experiment was collected. Next, the books were stacked on top of one another to create stairs.
After that, the slinky was placed at the top of the books and pushed over the front of the
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The results of the experiment were that when mass was added to the slinky, the slinky took longer to travel down the stairs. On average, the slinky with mass added to it took an extra 0.095 seconds to travel down the course.
INTRODUCTION
The Purpose of the experiment was to find out if a slinky would roll down the stairs faster when mass was added to both ends of the slinky.
When observations were being made, it was found that when one end of a slinky fell down the stairs the other end of the slinky was pulled with it. Then since there is enough force, when the slinky contracts the other back end of the slinky is hurled down the stairs. This is then repeated continually until the slinky reaches the bottom of the stairs. In addition, it was observed that the slinky is an extension spring. This was concluded because there are three main different types of springs. An extension spring is a spring that when pulled apart, then tries to contract and keep it’s shape. When the slinky traveled through the course the same thing was observed. The same thing was observed with the slinky. When the front end of the slinky was dropped down the stairs, the slinky was extended and the back end of the slinky tries to compress with the
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In the fourth experiment, tests were created to see which size of slinky would travel down the course the most consistently. What was changed in the experiment was the size of the slinky. A large and a medium sized slinky were tested. It was found that the large slinky was able to travel down the stairs an average of 8.33 times out of 10, and the medium slinky was only able to complete the course an average 5.33 times out of 10. It was found that the larger the slinky more consistent it is able to travel down the stairs. While experimenting it was observed that when the smaller slinky was able to make it down the course it was much closer to hitting to stairs than the larger slinky. In addition, it was also observed that the smaller slinky seemed to travel faster down the stairs than the larger slinky. Figure 4: Results for testing to see which slinky could travel down the course the most consistently. CONCLUSIONS
In the first experiment it was hypothesized that the more mass added onto to slinky the more mass added to the slinky the slower it would move down the stairs. From the data, the
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In agreement with preliminary question 3, Figure 1 demonstrates that the force necessary to keep the block sliding is significantly less than the force that is necessary to initiate the slide.
After the groups were separated into groups of three or four, we were instructed to perform three trials. In each group each person got to be an experimenter and a subject at least once. First we placed ten pennies into each cup, and let the blindfolded subject feel the cups at equal weight. We then placed a penny into the experiment cup (A) and told the subject to guess which was the heavier cup. If the subject guessed correctly, we would continue to give them the same two cups, in different hands and order, until they had guessed correctly five times. If the subject guessed incorrectly, another penny was added until they could guess right five times in a row. The purpose of the first weight was to get the subject and experimenter accustomed to the nature of the experiment. After the first trial of ten starting pennies, fifteen pennies were used as a starter. After that sixty pennies were used.
Suppose a ball is released from a distance and rolls down an inclined plane, as shown in figure 1. At the bottom of the inclined plane, the ball strikes a level tabletop and bounces away. The inclined plane may be rotated to give a steeper angle, which will affect the time of travel across the tabletop.
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I will use arithmetic and algebra to investigate the relationships between the grid and the stair further. The variables used will be: Position of stair on grid = X Sum of all the numbers within the stair = S Step Size= n Grid size= g 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 11
affects the speed of a roller coaster car at the bottom of a slope. In
For centuries, human beings have unknowingly used the very physics principles seen in the roller coasters of today in pursuit of not only thrills, but also survival. As early as 30000 years ago, our ancestors were using some of the most basic laws of physics seen in roller coasters today to their advantage. Although they didn’t quite understand why, when they threw a wooden spear high into the air at a woolly mammoth the spear would fall to the ground accelerating at every second. Of course, they were demonstrating gravitation. Physicists of the 16th century knew how to harness the law of gravity as well, using it to construct the first roller coaster- consisting of simple ice slides accelerating down 70-feet slopes before crashing into giant piles of sand (the latter part demonstrating another important physics principle: inertia.) As the centuries prog...
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Fig. 6 © HowStuffWorks 2002. How Seatbelts Work [online]. Available at: http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/seatbelt-spring.gif [Accessed 17th November 2012
Sufficient length of string was attached to the hanger so that the free end wraps once round the axle of the flywheel. 5. The mass was winded up to an appropriate height. 6. Verified that the string fell off the axle when the mass hit the ground.