Francisca Moreira

Lab Report
How the height of a ramp affects the energy required to pull a toy car up it

Aim
The aim of this investigation is to calculate and identify how the amount of energy varies
depending on the different heights of the ramp (in other words, as mentioned in the title just
above, how the height of the ramp affects the energy needed to pull up the toy car). This aim
will be achieved by pulling up the car at various ramp heights (in this case, heights of 10cm,
20cm, 30cm, 40cm and 50cm), using a pulley system. The energy required will be obtained by
applying just the right number of masses for the car to move.

Variables
Independent:
In this investigation, the independent variable would be the height of the ramp.
(heights of 10cm, 20cm, 30cm, 40cm and 50cm)
Dependent:
The dependent variable is the mass needed to pull the toy car up the ramp, which we will be
calculating.
Control:
There are some factors that will take part in this investigation but remain constant. These are:
The length of the ramp (93.5cm). If the length were to be altered, for example, to a
longer ramp, the amount of energy needed to pull up the toy car would increase as
well. This is due to the fact that: energy (J) = force (N) x distance (m).
The mass of the toy car, which is of 10g. If this mass were to be increased, more
energy would be necessary to pull the car up the ramp.

Background information
This investigation is very useful as an example of calculating energy. Since energy is used all
around us in our day-to-day life, it is extremely important that we know how to calculate the
usage of this energy. The law of conservation of energy states that energy cannot be destroyed
or created only transferred from one form of energy to another. Keeping this in mind, it is vital
to be able to calculate the use of energy. In real life, there are various situations in which these
calculations are needed, especially, for example, in construction sites. This energy is measured
in Joules.
Francisca Moreira


Hypothesis
The amount of energy needed to pull a toy car up the ramp will differ according to the height
of the ramp.
Prediction: As the height of the ramp increases, so does the weight required to pull the toy car
up it. This way, when the calculations are completed, we will be able to observe that the
energy required has also increased. The reason for this is that the car is gaining Gravitational
Potential Energy (GPE) as it is pulled up the ramp, and for a higher ramp this GPE would
increase.

Equipment
The equipment used for this investigation is:
Stand
Clamp
Ramp
Toy car
Weight-holder and weights
String
Pulley
Ruler

Method
1. Set up the equipment
2. Set the ramp at a height of 10cm (this height should be measured with the ruler from
the top of the table to the underside of the ramps very top point)
3. Cut an appropriate length of the string, tie it to the toy car and pass it through on the
pulleys wheel
4. Attach the string to the weight-holder.
5. Apply enough weights (masses) until the car just starts moving.
6. Set the ramp at other heights, in this case all in equal intervals of 10cm (10cm, 20cm,
30cm, 40cm and 50cm)
7. Repeat step 5 with each new ramp height



Francisca Moreira


Results
Energy required to pull a toy car up a ramp, according to its different heights

Height of the
ramp
(cm)
Mass required to pull toy car up the ramp
(g)
Mean of the
3 trials
(g)
Energy required
(J)
1
st
Trial 2
nd
Trial 3
rd
Trial
10 11.1 10.7 10.9 10.9 0.1
20 19.4 17.8 18.3 18.5 0.17
30 24.5 24.7 24.6 24.6 0.23
40 33.9 31.3 32.2 32.5 0.3
50 41.9 40.7 41.3 41.3 0.38

Graph


Analysis
As we can observe in the graph, the correlation between the x-axis (height of the ramp) and y-
axis (amount of energy) is positive. At the first ramp height (10cm), the amount of energy
required to pull up the car was 0.1 Joules. As different heights were set, more masses were
needed to make the car move. Finally, the last value for the energy required was 0.38, which
corresponded to the height of 50cm. The graph observed is non-linear. However, the
difference between the results is very similar (for example, between 10cm and 20cm, there is a
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
0.4
10cm 20cm 30cm 40cm 50cm
E
n
e
r
g
y

R
e
q
u
i
r
e
d

(
J
)

Ramp height
Energy required to pull a toy car up a ramp
Francisca Moreira
difference of 0.07 Joules. Other differences between the different heights were of 0.06J, 0.07J
and 0.08J). There is an increase in the amount of energy required, according to the height, just
as was predicted.


Conclusion
The final results for this investigation proved my hypothesis correct, as we can observe in
Graph 1. I had predicted that the amount of energy needed to pull the toy car up the ramp
would differ according to the height of the ramp. The results and the graph confirm that,
seeing as for the first height, 0.1 Joules of energy were required and for the last one, the value
had already been raised to 0.38.

Evaluation
Looking at the table above presented, we can see that sometimes the amount of mass used to
make the car move differs greatly. For example for the 40cm height, the value retrieved for the
first trial was 33.9g and the one for the second trial was 31.3g. I think this happened due to the
fact that only 10g weights were available and we had to roughly estimate an amount of play
dough. I think this problem could be solved if smaller masses were available (if possible).
In general, this was a successful investigation. My initial hypothesis and prediction were later
confirmed in the results, as an increase in required energy was observed.