Lab Partners: Holt Heldebrand and Tanvi Kiran

Date: 9/28/21

Objective: To find out if drivers speed more in the parking lot or by the side of the Upper School, and to
see if the speed bump by the side of the school makes a difference.

Method: To collect our data, we used drone footage, recorded by Mr. McConnell, of the lane in the back
parking lot between the TAFCAT sign and the other post, which we measured to be 29.00 meters. We also
used drone footage of the north to south stretch of road on the west side of the Upper school building. The
footage was recorded from 3:10-3:30pm on Wednesday, September 29th. We originally planned on taking
data in the morning, but it rained heavily that morning so we had to adjust our plan. The independent
variable was the location, and the dependent variable was the maximum velocity of the car. The constants
were the day of data collection, the time of day (afternoon), and the cars being observed. Using
LoggerPro’s video analysis tool, Tanvi plotted position vs. time graphs of the same 10 cars for each
stretch, and then found the maximum velocity for each car in each location, as well as their velocity near
the speed bump. Even though the parking lot stretch goes from east to west (x position) and the stretch by
the side of the school goes north to south (y position), we rotated the graph axes on LoggerPro so that the
graphs of position vs. time for cars by the side of the school were measuring the x direction instead of the
y direction, so that we could make a direct comparison with the other set of graphs. We then compared the
data of the two stretches to determine in which location cars go faster, as well as whether or not the speed
bump affects the speed of the cars. We considered a car to be speeding if the absolute value of its velocity
with respect to x position was greater than 14.5 mph.

Diagram:
 Data and Analysis

Position vs. Time graphs for each car in the parking lot and by the side of the school.

Maximum velocities in m/s

Car # 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Parking Lot 6.886 -5.827 5.825 6.791 5.077 6.626 6.746 6.265 -6.380 7.706

Side of 8.257 -9.115 8.068 8.103 6.364 7.647 6.162 6.212 -9.278 8.035
School

Near Speed 6.496 -8.793 5.537 5.537 5.681 5.516 5.411 2.950 -7.146 4.581
Bump

Calculation to convert m/s to mph:

6.886𝑚 1 𝑚𝑖 3600 𝑠
( 1𝑠
)( 1609.344 𝑚 )( 1 ℎ𝑟
) = 15. 40 𝑚𝑝ℎ
 Maximum velocities in mph

Car 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Parking Lot 15.40 -13.03 13.03 15.19 11.36 14.82 15.09 14.01 -14.27 17.24

Side of 18.47 -20.39 18.05 18.13 14.24 17.11 13.78 13.90 -20.75 17.97
School

Near Speed 14.53 -19.67 12.39 12.39 12.71 12.34 12.10 6.60 -15.99 10.25
Bump
*velocities that exceed ±14.5 mph are highlighted

Conclusion
Based on the data we have gathered from the 10 cars, we can predict that drivers in the afternoon
would speed more by the side of the school than in the parking lot. The speed bump by the side of the
school was effective at making less people speed; only 3 people sped over the speed bump, compared to 7
people speeding over the rest of the stretch. And as we can see in the table above, even the 3 people who
sped slowed down at the speed bump. However, there was definitely room for error in our calculations.
First of all, we only measured x velocity, but the cars were actually in 2D motion. If we had also taken y
velocity into account and used the Pythagorean theorem (x2+y2=h2) to find the actual velocities of the
cars, the velocities would have been slightly higher. Second, our scale was probably off. We found that
the stretch between the TAFCAT pole to the other light post was 29.00m, and then used this as our scale
when analysing our drone footage in LoggerPro. But, the drone was slightly tilted toward the southeast,
which makes the north-to-south stretch by the west side of the school farther away than the east-to-west
stretch in the parking lot. Because of this, it looked smaller compared to the parking lot stretch than it
really was. LoggerPro didn’t recognize that when applying the scale; LoggerPro analyses video as if it
was taken from straight above. So, the measurement that LoggerPro assigned to that stretch was at least a
few meters less than the actual length. As a result, the recorded velocities of cars on that stretch were less
than the actual velocities of those cars. Even after considering experimental error, though, the data allows
us to reasonably infer that in the afternoon, drivers tend to speed more on the road west of the school than
in the parking lot south of the school, but the speed bump does make a difference.