Station 8: Lego Racer

In this activity we were asked to find the velocity of a lego car going down a ramp. We had to do 4 different trials. We had two different cars, one weighted and one not, and two different ramp heights. We released each car down each ramp. This activity shows examples of friction and gravitational acceleration.

Trial 1
Trial 1 low ramp: This was done with a basic car with no added weight. This was simply done with the wheels and green lego sheet. The car was released to roll down a ramp that was placed at about 35 degrees.
Trial 1 high ramp: This was also done with a basic car, using no added weight. With only the wheels and sheet the car has less friction. This trial was released at about a 45 dgree angle.


Trial 2
Trial 2 low ramp: This was done using the full version of the car as seen in the image of the Lego car below. The car was dropped from a low angle in "Trial 2 low ramp" which was estimated at 35 degrees.
Trial 2 high ramp: This was another experiment in which the full version of the car was dropped down a ramp, however this ramp was set at a 45 degree angle.



Below you can see the results of the four trials.

Below is a picture of the successful weighted car.

These four trials were different because or friction. The weighted of the car changed the amount of downward force causing more friction. The ramp also changed the amount of friction on the car. With the low ramp more gravitation force is being put on the ramp than there would be if the ramp were at the high stage.