experiment and explain how Newton's Laws of Motion apply to the physical world.
Problem: What impact does the surface have on how fast a car can travel?
I think that the toy car would travel faster down the flat slope other than the bumpy one because, The wheels could get caught in between the bumps and slow it down.
CV:The same car, the person pushing the car, and the size of the ramp
IV:The speed the car travels down the slope
DV:The surface of the ramp
Materials: Lego platform, smooth lego pieces, small toy car, a timer, ruler, a person, and two small books
Procedure: First of all you need to gather all of the materials you need for the experiment. Then you need to set up the ramp. Place the books on the surface you are using. Then place the lego platform on the books so it creates a downward slope. send the car down the slope you created and time how long it took for the car to reach the ground and how far the car travels when it reaches the ground. then you record that data. Repeat that until you have tested it five times. Then you add the smooth pieces to the lego platform. Roll the car down that and time it until it hits the ground and see how far it rolls from the ramp. Repeat that five times recording the data each time. Finally find the speed of the car by dividing the distance it traveled by how long it took it to reach the bottom of the ramp.
There were a couple of external variables. One was what if the car falls off of the ramp and we fixed that with a wall. But then the wall was causing trouble. what if the car hits the wall? That would slow down the car so we made the ramp bigger. That was all of the external variables.
It applies to the real world through a lot of things like cars, toys, and people. So if a person is standing still and another guy comes and pushes you that's an unbalance and the person standing still is going to fall over. Many toys need an unbalanced force to get it to work like a bouncy ball it needs an unbalanced force to make it bounce.
PROFICIENCY #2
how friction and gravity apply to Newtons Laws.
Problem: Does the size of the ball affect the force going down a slope.?
I think that the bigger the ball the more force it well have. The bigger the ball the more gravity has to take to the ground. So the bigger ball well go down the slope faster.
IV:The speed the ball falls
DV:The size of the ball
CV:The angle of the slope, the size of slope, and the amount of balls falling.
Materials: bouncy ball, lego platform, two small books, a ruler, a person, and legos
Procedure: First you need to build the ramp. You place the books down on the ground. Place the lego platform partly on the books so it makes a ramp going down. Then build a wall out of legos and place it 10 centimeters away from the ramp. Roll the ball down the ramp and see if it moves the ramp do this step five more times moving the wall back five centimeters every time. Record if it knocks the wall over. Repeat those steps with each different size ball.
The external variables were pretty hard to get out of the Rube Goldberg. One was to try to keep the force pushing the ball the same. it was hard because we couldn't push the balls. The second external variable was trying to keep the angles the same. Most of the angles are but some have to much stuff to go down. Finally the third external variable was getting the ramps the same length. The legos helped a little bit with that it was getting the right size legos.
The surface of the legos are bumpy which is more friction that the ball has to go down. the ball is going to take longer time to travel down the slope because it wants to stop on the legos. It well slow down the ball but it well keep moving. The gravitational pull well make the ball continue going down the ramp.
PROFICIENCY #3
How speed and acceleration apply to Newtons Laws?
Problem: What speed do you need to have a ball turn a corner?
I think that the slower the ball falls the better chance it has of turning the corner because if the ball continues to go down the slope fast then in well bounce off of the wall and slow down to much. It well stop before it could turn the corner.
CV:The size of the ramp, the size of the ball, the person pushing ball on to slope.
IV:The amount of times the ball turns the corner
DV:The speed the ball falls down a ramp.
Materials: lego platform, legos, marble, a person, two small books
Procedure:First you take the small books and set them down on the surface you are using. Then you use the lego platform so that it makes a downward slope. You then build a corner that the ball can successfully turn sometimes. Not all the time because then the speed may not work for it. Next you roll the marble down the slope and see if the marble turns the corner. Record if the marble turned the corner or not. You repeat this but starting the marble at different speeds. Record if the marble turned the corner or not. Finally look at your results and determine if the faster the marble travels down the ramp well it turn the corner more, or if the slower the marble goes the more it turned the corner.
The external variables were the wall stopping the ball. So we built a ramp for the ball so it wouldn't lose most of its speed. another was that it could go all over the place. So we built a platform where the ball sits and just follows that path.
STILL NEED TO TEST IT!!!!!
This experiment shows how speed and acceleration does apply to Newton's Laws. The speed of the ball accelerates down the ramp and as it picks up speed it well go down the ramp faster. The different the speed is supposed to interact weather the ball well turn a corner or not.
PROFICIENCY #4
How simple machines utilize mechanical advantage to transfer energy?
How does the energy transfer throughout the Rube Goldberg?
I think that the energy transfers many times between multiple objects. I think that the energy well diminish slowly and it well eventually stop its forward progress.
CV-How long the rube Goldberg is, the amount of times the energy transfers, how fast the energy travels
IV-The amount of energy transferred
DV-The type of energy transferred
Materials: Legos, a person, marbles
Procedure:First you need to build the Rube Goldberg using the legos that you have. Make it so that different forms of energy are used. Then place the marbles were needed. Count how many times the energy transfers between objects. Watch and see of the energy decreases or increases during the Rube Goldberg. if the energy increases or decreases the make a not of where it changes and how much it changes.
External variables: the thing doesn't work completely was a big thing that I had trouble with. the marble would get caught on something or just stop. Another external variable that I had trouble fixing was Getting the thing to stay the way it was when I left. Next time I came back the thing was destroyed. That happened three times.
STILL NEED TO TEST!!!!!
This shows how it affects mechanical advantage to the transfer of energy. By how it affects the energy transferring between the mechanisms. The mechanisms well either keep the same amount of energy transferring between them, or some energy well be diminished to something else it needs to do.
PROFICIENCY #5
Try to convince a government official to use an alternate energy force instead of burning coal!!!
Dear Scott Walker,
I would like to state how important it is that we improve and produce more windmills. There are so many ways that we could use it. You could put some on the coast of Lake Michigan. There is a lot of wind there coming ff of the lake. They are very expensive to setup but are the cheapest to keep running. This year only one percent of the energy that was generated was wind energy. That could have been a lot more because you could help to put up more and create more energy with the wind. Denmark actually uses 20 percent wind energy which is a large amount.
To begin with, there are many places you could place windmills. Some places are off of Lake Winnebago (there are already some there), on the coast of Lake Michigan, and on some prairies. Lake Winnebago is the biggest lake in Wisconsin and has almost constant wind. Lake Michigan would be a great place to put up some windmills because over the lake the wind has nothing to stop it from moving. The prairies are good because the wind can pick up over the woods and through the woods.
Equally important, is how we need to use more wind energy and that we can learn from other countries. Denmark produces a good amount of energy from the wind. Germany is the leader in producing wind energy. they produce a lot of energy because the are smart enough to now that renewable energies are very important in the society that we have now. The world is slowly but surely warming and renewable energy is probably what we are looking for to solve that problem.
Another thing, is that the design of the windmills are getting better. Less cost to build and to keep them running. They are lighter and easier to transport. Getting smaller and can generate more power to use. The windmill has been made much easier to build and to buy. They are still very expensive but help the economy and to make more energy that we need.
Finally, so that is why you should get more windmills for energy. Most are smaller but they are still really big. One blade is 49 meters long and that is the best and smallest of windmills. We need to look at other countries and learn and copy how they use wind energy. That's why you should pull the state and nations attention to this and what we can do with it.
From,
Casey Anderson
