Name: __________________________________________ Date: __________________ Period: ______

Toy Car Lab

Purpose: The purpose of this lab is to calculate speed and acceleration of 3 different cars.
Note: This lab works best if you have one person to push the car, a second and third person to take the time,
and a fourth person to record the data in the data table. Try to use the same force for all of the cars in each
trial.

Materials:

 3 different toy cars

 Meter stick
 Tape to mark the floor
 Stopwatch or timer
 Data chart to record findings

Procedure:
1. Put a piece of tape on a flat surface, preferably the floor, at the starting point and at 0.5 meters (50
cm), 1 meter (100 cm), 1.5 meters (150 cm), and 2 meters (200cm).
2. Push the car and start the timer - recording the time it passes 0.5 meters, 1 meter, 1.5 meters, and 2
meters.
3. Repeat the test 3 times with the same car recording the time for each trial.
4. Do steps 2 & 3 for the second and third cars, make sure you are recording the times in your data table.
5. Calculate the speed for each trial using the formula s= d/t this is the total distance of 2 meters and the
amount of time it took to get there.
6. To find the average speed for each car take the three speeds, add them together and divide by 3
(because you did 3 trials).
7. Using the third trial for each car, calculate the speed at 0.5 m and 1.5 m. **You will need this
information to calculate the acceleration of the car.**
8. Calculate the acceleration of the car between the 0.5 meters point and the 1.5 meter point using the
information from 7. Remember to use the formula of Vf - Vi/time.( Vf is Final Velocity and Vi is Initial
Velocity.)
Data Chart: Toy Car 1

Toy Car 1 Time at 0.5 m Time at 1 m Time at 1.5 m Time at 2 m Speed

Trial 1 0.19s 0.4s 0.65s 1s 2m/s

Trial 2 0.2s 0.7s 0.83s 0.9s 2.22m/s

Trial 3 0.23 0.42 0.73 0.97 2.06m/s

Average Speed of Car 1: 2.09m/s

Acceleration of Car 1: -0.16m/s^2

Data Chart: Toy Car 2

Toy Car 2 Time at 0.5 m Time at 1 m Time at 1.5 m Time at 2 m Speed

Trial 1 0.24s 0.5s 0.75s 1.2s 1.66m/s

Trial 2 0.2s 0.32s 0.52s 0.73s 2.74m/s

Trial 3 0.2s 0.42s 0.65s 0.72s 2.77m/s

Average Speed of Car 2: _2.39___________________

Acceleration of Car 2: _-0.13m/s^2_____________________

Data Chart: Toy Car 3

Toy Car 3 Time at 0.5 m Time at 1 m Time at 1.5 m Time at 2 m Speed

Trial 1 0.2s 0.4s 0.7s 0.94s 2.13m/s

Trial 2 0.2s 0.4s 0.7s 0.85s 2.35m/s

Trial 3 0.15s 0.28s 0.5s 0.94s 2.13m/s

Average Speed of Car 3: _2.20m/s___________________

Acceleration of Car 3: _-0.66m/s^2_____________________
Reflection Questions:
1. Which car had the fastest speed? ________________________________________________________

2. Which car had the fastest acceleration? ___________________________________________________

3. What do you think affected your speed? ___________________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

4. What do you think affected your acceleration? _____________________________________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

5. What was our independent variable in this experiment? ______________________________________

6. What was our dependent variable in this experiment? _______________________________________

7. What was our constant in this experiment? ________________________________________________

8. Were there any irregularities or problems that occurred during this experiment? _The car not being
straight on the track made the speed slow down. _________________

____________________________________________________________________________________

9. How could you have improved this experiment to make your results more valid? __________________

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