NAME: ___________________________________
Grade: _____________ Date: _________________
Investigate Speed vs Ramp Height
In this lab, you will use your toy car to record the time it took for it to travel a certain
distance (100 cm or 1 m) starting from a variety of heights. These measurements will
help you calculate and Graph the speed of your car.
Testable question: What would happen with the speed of the car if I change the height of
the ramp?
Independent Variable (What are you changing?)
______________________________________________________________________
Dependent Variable (What will change as consequence of what you are changing?)
______________________________________________________________________
HYPOTHESIS:
I predict
PROCEDURE
1. Set up ramp with 2 books
2. Measure height of ramp. – record on data table
3. Determine a starting point for the car – Keep this consistent for EVERY trial
4. Let car go down the ramp
5. Start the timer when car gets to the bottom of the ramp.
6. Stop the timer when the car travels ______m or ______ cm
7. Do this for 3 Trials and collect your data in the chart
8. Find the Velocity (speed) for each trial and average speed for each ramp height by
dividing the set distance in the time spent for the car.
𝑉𝑒𝑙𝑜𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 =
𝑑𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑐𝑒
𝑡𝑖𝑚𝑒
Use the appropriate Units: km/h ; m/s ; cm/s
9. Repeat Step 1-9 for each additional book (different ramp
heights) Calculate AVERAGE speed (add speed for each
trial then divide by # of trials).
10. Graph your average speeds.
The average value in a set of
numbers is the middle value,
calculated by dividing the total
of all the values by the number
of values
Mr. Gomez Science
DATA COLLECTION
Express your data in centimeters(cm) and seconds(s)
Ramp
Height
Trial 1
Trial 2
Trial 3
Average
speed
Time
2 Book
Distance
_______cm
Speed
Time
3 Book
Distance
_______cm
Speed
Time
4 Book
Distance
_______cm
Speed
GRAPH
Speed of the car
200
180
160
Speed cm/s
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1 Book
2 Books
3 Books
4 Books
Ramp Height
Conclusion:
Mr. Gomez Science