Testing The Forces Affecting The Distance A

Testing The Forces Affecting The Distance A Margarine Tub Essay, Research Paper Testing The Forces Affecting The Distance A Margarine Tub Travels. Introduction: We are testing for actions or influence that accelerates, or changes the velocity of, an object. An object experiences a force when it is pushed or pulled by another object. For example, shoving a stationary ball applies a force that causes the shopping ball to accelerate. Also a dropped ball accelerates towards the ground because of the presence of the gravitational force; electrical charges attract or repel each other because of the presence of an electric force. Usually, several forces act on an object at once. If multiple forces combine to give a net force that is zero, then the object will not gain speed or lose

speed; the object will either remain motionless or continue moving at a constant speed. Plan: In this experiment I will be testing to see if different forces being added to a margarine tub, affects the distanced the tub is propelled. Possible variables to test; 1) Adding weight to the margarine tub. 2) Changing the tension of the elastic band. 3) Changing the distance the band is pulled back. 4) Adding elastic bands. 5) Change the surface (e.g. concrete) Basic apparatus: ? Margarine tub ? Elastic bands ? Metre rule ? Weights (100g-1kg) ? 2x stands Method V1: In this test I tested to see if adding more elastic band affects the distance that the marg tub travelled. I set the apparatus up shown in the diagram above. I pulled the band s back 10 cm every time. I also added a fixed

weight in the tub of 500g; this helped to give more accurate results. First I put one band on between the stands and pulled the marg tub back 10cm and released it, and took down the distance it travelled. Then I added another elastic band and did the same thing. I added 10 elastic bands in total, and repeated the whole test over three times. Prediction V1: If you add more elastic bands to the stand and pull the marg tub back 10cm every time, the tub will travel further. Because there will be a much larger force being added to the marg tub, this will cause the tub to accelerate and thus travelling a further distance. If you have one band and you add another, the force will be doubled etc. Results: Number of bands added 1) distanced travelled(cm) 2) distanced travelled(cm) 3)

distanced travelled(cm) Average distance(cm) 1 14 15 14 14 2 26 22 25 24 3 32 33 32 32 4 40 42 48 43 5 49 48 50 49 6 54 65 59 59 7 60 61 79 66 8 80 79 88 82 9 102 87 92 93 10 115 121 108 114 V1 Conclusion My results and graph show that my predictions are correct. I predicted that if you add more elastic bands to the stand and pull the marg tub back 10cm every time, the tub will travel further. Because there will be a much larger force being added to the marg tub, this will cause the tub to accelerate and thus travelling a further distance. If you have one band and you add another, the force will be doubled etc My graph has a straight trend line, this tells me, when the force is increased (adding an elastic band) the distanced travelled by the tub increases. So every time an

elastic band is added the force on the marg tub increases to a point where it starts to decrease slightly. Method V2: In this test I tested to see if adding more weight affects the distance that the marg tub travelled. I set the apparatus up shown in the diagram above. First I put one band between the stands, added 100g and pulled the marg tub back 10cm and release it, and took down the distance it travelled. Then I added another 100g weight and did the same thing. I then added 100g after every result taken down and repeated the whole test over three times. Prediction V2: If you add more weight to the marg tub and pull it back 10cm every time, the tub will travel a smaller distance every time you add another weight. Because there will be more friction being created on the marg