ARBOR SCIENTIFIC P4-1980 Acceleration Car Installation Guide

: June 11, 2024
: ARBOR SCIENTIFIC

Table of Contents

Contents
Background
Adding Lightness
Activities
Related Products
References
Read User Manual Online (PDF format)
Download This Manual (PDF format)

P4-1980 Acceleration Car
Installation Guide

Background

An object experiences an acceleration when its velocity changes. Since velocity entails both speed and direction, an acceleration occurs when an object’s speed, direction of motion, or both changes. This means that an object moving in a straight line with increasing or decreasing speed or moving in a circle with constant or variable speed is accelerating.
You would never pay good money to visit an amusement park that only offers rides that move with constant velocity. If you have your eyes closed while moving at a constant velocity, you can’t even tell that you’re moving. Unlike constant velocity, acceleration is something you can feel. Roller coasters, swings, and cars provide a change in speed, direction, or both. For many of us, the more abrupt these changes are the more fun we’re having!
Acceleration results when an unbalanced force acts on an object. According to Newton’s 2 nd Law, the acceleration is directly proportional to the unbalanced (or net) force and inversely proportional to the mass. This is consistent with everyday experience. Two cars with the same mass will have different accelerations if one car has a more powerful engine. Likewise, a massive semi will take much longer to get up to the speed limit than a sports car, even though they both have big engines.

Adding Lightness

Legendary race car designer Colin Chapman said, “To add speed, add lightness.” We have discovered that all of our cars can deliver even better acceleration when run without their bodies. To do this, just remove the screws found beneath the car. The top should now lift off easily. Minimizing the mass of an accelerating car is old-school wisdom to hotrodders and this real-world application will captivate your students with a terrific extension to this acceleration activity. Some additional mass may be needed to obtain traction without the body.

Activities

The Acceleration Car lends itself to a number of experiments in mechanics. The net force is supplied by a spring. The spring is wound by dragging the car backward across a floor or other surface.
The inertia of the car may be increased by placing small masses in the vehicles back end, thus enabling students to see how acceleration and mass are related. The car accelerates predictably during the first 1.5 meters of its motion. After that, the acceleration decreases and the car may veer to the side.
The following suggestions for activities have been tested in the classroom. But be assured, you and your students will think of many more ways the Acceleration Car can be used in the study of physics.

You may wish to have your students explore with the cars prior to formal laboratory work. This can best be accomplished by simply placing a few cars on your desk prior to class. Upon entering the room, students will instinctively pick them up and start racing them. Student observations can later be used as a basis for a discussion of uniform and accelerated motion.
Have students devise an experiment to determine their car’s top speed. Students may be asked whether the speed they measured represents an average or instantaneous speed. This usually prompts a lively discussion regarding the determination of the speed of an object at a given instant. You may wish to use this opportunity to introduce the concepts of limits and the derivative.
The Acceleration Car is a wonderful device for introducing the concept of acceleration. After discussing the definition of acceleration, students may work in groups to devise a procedure for measuring the acceleration of their Acceleration Car. Once they have determined the acceleration of their car, they should be asked to compare it with the acceleration of other group’s cars.
If available, a ticker tape timer may be used to study the details of the car’s acceleration. Students can use the tapes to determine if the car’s acceleration is constant throughout the motion or just during a portion of it.
As a library or Internet assignment, students may be asked to see how their car’s acceleration stacks up against the acceleration of real cars. Automobile magazines generally provide amazingly detailed data on the cars they review.
Have students gradually add mass to their car. They will observe that the car will accelerate, regardless of its mass, but that the acceleration decreases with increased mass. You may wish to have students do a quantitative investigation by measuring the acceleration of their car as a function of mass. This may be done using ticker tape timers or photo gates.

Constant Velocity Car (44-1090) This simple but powerful toy provides a visible source of uniform speed. Students can easily quantify and graph their results, starting them on the road to a conceptual understanding of motion.
Exploring Newton’s First Law: Inertia Kit (P6-7900) Students investigate inertia by observing a marble’s motion around a specially designed circular track.
Fan Cart (P4-1986) Even Sir Isaac Newton would have been a fan of the Fan Cart! The Fan Cart is perfect for exploring Newton’s laws of motion, inertia, acceleration, and action-reaction.

Acknowledgement
Conceptual Physics: The High School Physics Program. Paul G. Hewitt. Pearson Education, Inc.

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