MEASURING SPEED

Average speed is the distance travelled by a moving object in each time interval. It is calculated by
dividing the distance travelled by the time taken. Speed is a scalar quantity. The units for speed
are metres per second (m s – 1).

ACTIVITY: FINDING THE SPEED OF A MOVING OBJECT

AIM: To measure the speed of an object moving down a gentle slope under the pull of gravity.

MATERIALS REQUIRED PER GROUP: Length of plastic corner angle, 3 stopwatches, marble or
ball bearing, metre rule, plasticine (the purpose of the plasticine is to balance the plastic corner
angle on its apex).

METHOD: 1. Measure the length of the piece of plastic corner angle. Record this length as the
distance the object travels.

2.Place the plastic corner angle on a desk. Raise one end of the plastic corner angle so that it rests
on a book as shown in the diagram below:

3. Place the marble or ball bearing at the raised end of the plastic corner angle.

4. Release the object and record how long it takes for the object to roll to the other end of the
plastic corner angle, timing simultaneously with the three stopwatches.

5. Find the average reading on the three stopwatches. Record it as the time. Change the slope of
the plastic corner angle by adding one, two, three and four more books. Repeat steps 3 and 4 for
the elevated corner angle and record the time taken.

RESULTS:

Number Of
Books 1 2 3 4 5
Distance (m) 0.8M 0.8M 0.8M 0.8M 0.8m
Time Time Time Time Time
6.4 Av 3 Av 1.9 Av 1.6 Av
Time (s) Av 2.18
6.5 6 6. 2. 3. 3.1 3S 2.2 2.1 2. 2.1 2 1. 1.8 2.1 1. 1.6 1.7 1.7
6. 5 8 1 S S S 2 7S S 7 S S 4 S S S
6 s S S 5 S S
s S
Av. Speed 0.215m s –1 0.27m s –1 0.37m s –1 0.42m s –1 0.5m s –1
(m s –1) =
distance (m)
time ( s )
 MEASURING SPEED

QUESTIONS:

1. Draw a line graph of average speed against number of textbooks. Plot average speed on the
vertical axis and number of textbooks along the horizontal axis.

Speed of Marbles on a slope of textbooks for a distance of 0.8m

0.6

0.5

0.4
Speed (m s –1)

0.3

0.2

0.1

0
1 2 3 4 5
Number of Textbooks

2. What happens to the time as the plastic corner angle gets steeper?
As the plastic corner gets steeper, the time for the marble to reach the end gets faster

3. What happens to the average speed as the plastic corner angle gets steeper?
The average speed gets faster as the angle gets steeper

4. How does the graph indicate what happens to the average speed as the angle gets steeper?
The graph lines show that the speed gets faster as the number of textbooks increase

5. From your graph, what would be the average speed of the marble if you had used 2.5 books
under the end of the plastic corner angle?
About 0.3 m s –1

CONCLUSION: Write a conclusion to complete this experiment (refer to aim before you write).
To conclude, the number of textbooks used as a slope for the marble increases its overall speed.

CRASH DATA
 MEASURING SPEED

Look at the following tables, which show the percentage of fatal crashes by crash type, time of
day/week, and speed limit for two different years.

6. Are crashes more likely to involve pedestrians, single vehicles or multiple vehicles? Suggest
inferences to explain your observations.
Multiple vehicles, because there is more of a chance for the other driver to make a fault.

7. Are crashes more likely to appear in the daytime or at night, during the week or at the weekend?
What reasons can you suggest explaining these figures?
Daytime during the weekday, roads are busier in the daytime and during the weekend, especially
since people are rushing to school and work at that (time of) day

8. Predict which day of the week you think crashes are more likely to occur. Give reasons for your
answer. How could you test this prediction?
 MEASURING SPEED

Friday, more people are likely to attend events as it is close to the weekends and thus more people
on roads results in more possible accidents. To test this prediction, we could record how many
known accidents occurred in a region on each day.

9. From the table, is it true to say ‘speed kills’? Why or why not?
Yes, the graph shows that the higher the speed a vehicle drives the more chances an accident is
to occur.

10. John rides his bicycle from his home in order to visit Sean. John has to travel 80 m due East,
150 m due South and then 120 m due East in order to reach Sean. He completes his ride in 65
seconds.

(a) What distance did John travel?

350m

distance
(b) Use the formula for speed (speed = ) to calculate John’s average speed.
time
3.8 m s –1

11. Complete the following table.

Distance travelled Time taken Average Speed

100 m 20 s 5m s –1
3 km 0.05 s 60 km h – 1
300m 15 s 20 m s – 1
2 km 0.08s 25 m s – 1