Phy 201
Your 'ball down ramp' report has been received. Scroll down through the document to see any comments I might have inserted, and my final comment at the end.
** #$&* Your general comment **
** #$&* Will a steeper ramp give greater or lesser time? **
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A ball is timed as it rolls from rest to the end of a ramp. The slope of the ramp is varied. Preliminary conclusions are drawn about the motion and the effect of ramp slope. A subsequent lab exercise uses the data from this lab to reach additional conclusions.
Most students report completion times between 30 minutes and 1 hour, with a few reporting times as short as 15 minutes or as long as 2 hours. Median time of completion is around 45 minutes.
Timing Ball down Ramp
The picture below shows a ball near the end of a grooved steel track (this steel track is a piece of 'shelf standard'); the shelf standard is supported by a stack of two dominoes. Your lab materials package contains two pieces of shelf standard; the shelf standard shown in the figure is white, but the one in your kit might be colored black, gold, silver or any of a variety of other colors.
If a ball rolls from an initial state of rest down three ramps with different slopes, the same distance along the ramp each time, do you think the time required to roll the length of the ramp will be greatest or least for the steepest ramp, or will the interval on the steepest ramp be neither the greatest nor the least? Explain why you think you have correctly predicted the behavior of the system.
The steeper the ramp the shorter the time required for the ball to reach the end of the ramp. The steeper the ramp the faster the ball will travel therefore requiring less time to roll down the ramp.
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If we write down the slopes from least to greatest, next to the time intervals observed for those slopes, would you expect the time intervals to be increasing or decreasing, or do you think there would be no clear pattern? Explain why you think you have correctly described the behavior of the numbers in the table.
The times would be decreasing. As I stated in the previous question, the steeper the slope the less time will be needed to travel the distance. So as the first column of slopes increase the second column of times will decrease.
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Set up the shelf standard ramp on a reasonably level table, using a piece of 30-cm shelf standard and a single domino under the high end of the ramp. Position the dominoes so that the last .5 cm of the ramp extends beyond the point where the ramp contacts the domino,.and do the same in all subsequent setups.
Set the bracket on the table, touching the lower end of the ramp so that a ball rolling down the ramp will strike the bracket..
Mark a point about 3 cm below the top end of the ramp. Place a domino on the ramp to its high end is at this point, and place the ball just above the domino, so the domino is holding it back. Quickly pull the domino away from the ball so the ball begins to roll freely down the ramp. Allow the ball to roll until it strikes the bracket.
The bracket will probably move a little bit. Reset it at the end of the ramp.
Determine how far the ball rolled from release until it struck the bracket.
Now repeat, but this time use the TIMER. The first click will occur at the instant you release the ball, the second at the instant the ball strikes the bracket. Practice until you are as sure as you can be that you are clicking and pulling back the domino at the same instant, and that your second click is simultaneous with the ball striking the bracket.
When you are ready, do 5 trials 'for real' and record your time intervals.
Then reverse the system--without otherwise changing the position of the ramp, place the domino under the left end and position the bracket at the right end.
Time 5 trials with the ramp in this position.
In the space below, give the time interval for each trial, rounded to the nearest .001 second. Give 1 trial on each line, so that you will have a total of 10 lines, the first 5 lines for the first system, then 5 lines for the second system.
Beginning in 11th line give a short narrative description of what your data means and how it was collected.
Also describe what you were thinking, relevant to physics and the experiment, during the process of setting up the system and performing the trials.
1.492
1.484
1.508
1.516
1.555
1.438
1.406
1.430
1.422
1.455
This data represents the amount of time it took for the ball to roll from the top of the ramp to the bottom of the ramp. The ball travelled a total of 27cm.
I was thinking about how fast the ball was travelling and how if the table was not level, as clearly it wasn’t, how the times would be different from one trial to the other.
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Now place two dominoes under the right end and repeat the process, obtaining the time interval for each of 5 trials.
Then place the two dominoes under the left end and repeat once more.
Enter your 10 time intervals using the same format as before.
1.125
.961
1.062
1.039
1.109
.992
1.09
.938
1.016
1.031
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Repeat the preceding using 3 dominoes instead of 2. Enter your 10 time intervals using the same format as before.
.797
.848
.848
.875
.820
.906
.828
.797
.789
.890
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Do your results support fail to support the hypotheses you stated in the first two questions, regarding the relationship between time intervals and slopes? Explain.
Yes, we can see that every time we added a domino our times decreased confirming that as the slope increased the time decreased.
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How do you think the average velocity of the ball is related to the slope of the ramp? Explain in as much detail as possible.
Average velocity is calculated by final velocity + initial velocity divided by 2. If we are traveling faster the steeper the slope then our average velocity will also increase because initial velocity is always going to be zero, but our final velocity will be increasing causing our average velocity to increase.
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Speculate on what it is that causes the average velocity on these ramps to change with slope.
I would guess that friction is the main contributing factor for this. As the slope increases I would guess that we would have less friction on the ball as it rolls down so that gravity can push it faster. If the ball is moving faster than the average velocity is going to increase.
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How might you verify whether your speculations are indeed valid explanations?
We could do more experiments with different types of ramps and balls to try to gauge how much friction effects the movement of the ball. Without an increase in speed from the ball during a certain time period then we will not have an increase in average velocity.
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Your instructor is trying to gauge the typical time spent by students on these experiments. Please answer the following question as accurately as you can, understanding that your answer will be used only for the stated purpose and has no bearing on your grades:
• Approximately how long did it take you to complete this experiment?
45 Minutes
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