experiment to show factors affecting movement of objects on ramps?

Question

Hi i cant say am much of a physics person, can you suggest one question i could plan to investigate about the move of objects on ramps?
I have to also give one factor i could change as i carry out investigation
One factor to measure, what i would use to measure and one factor to keep same to keep it fair...

I was thinking "does the shape of an obj effect its movement on ramp", could change obj shape, would measure time taken to travel down ramp, eqpt would be stopwatch and factor to keep same angle of ramp...

does this seem right?

Answer 1

You could indeed investigate shape, but changing the shape would probably change the mass as well.
Keep the object (trolley) the same. The ones you use in physics labs have attachments so you can add mass and make it heavier. If you went this way, you would be investigating how weight affects the speed. The factor to keep the same is the steepness of your ramp.
OR
You use the same trolley, do not change the mass, but alter the gradient of the slope.
The factors you can change are the mass or the slope. Only change one at a time.
Fair test- repeat at least three times and make sure the trolley is released from the same place on the slope - and you do not change the material of the slope as that will affect friction.

The shape changing can be investigated using plasticine and water or wallpaper paste in a measuring cylinder.
Good luck.

Answer 2

Simple. Take a solid block of wood. Place it at the top of the ramp. Vary the angle of the slope from quite steep to not very, and time how long it take to slide down.

Best to plot a graph then, see if there is some sort of relationship, direct or exponential..that sort of thing.

Then try the same with a plastic object that weighs the same. Imprortant that it does weigh exactly the same, and ideally should be the same shape exactly as the block of wood. Repeat the experiment above, and plot the results on the same graph.
Any difference between the two will show you the effect that friction has on the speed relative to the angle.

Just one option of many,,,

You could use the same block of wood, but add weights to it, to see if that made it faster...or even repeat the same with the plastic block....the possibilities are endless!!

Answer 3

Another thing you can do is coefficient of fraction experiment. by varying the number of degrees the ramp is sloped with all other factors being equal except have much slope the ramp has. The steeper the ramp the less coefficient of fraction and object is going to have. You can keep increasing the degrees the ramp is sloped until it overcomes the fraction completely and the object slides down the ramp
Can also correlate with a practical application such as the amount of snow on a roof and the snow loading effect on the roof.
i.e. a the flatter the roof the more snow you have accumulate on it. The steeper the roof, the faster snow will slide off it.
In construction trades it is called raise to run. The more raise to run you have the less snow build up (snow loading) you will have. Meaning the less amount of weight your roof is going to have to be capable of holding up with collapsing.
You can then correlate that to the number of roofs on shopping malls and large stores with flat roofs that have been collapsing in the last few years due to snow accumulation on them.
Maybe that will help for what it's worth.