9L2-1 Investigating acceleration 1

Your teacher may watch to see if you can:

● carry out an investigation carefully and safely.

Aim
To find out how the mass of a trolley affects its acceleration.

Method
Apparatus Catch the trolley before it hits
● ramp the pulley at the end of the
ramp. Put the box of
● blocks crumpled newspaper beneath
● trolley the weights so they do not fall
● string on your feet.
● 50 g hanging mass
● 100 g masses
● pulley
● stopclock
● sticky tape
● box of crumpled newspaper

A Fasten the pulley to one end of your ramp

and place it near the end of the bench.
B Put some blocks under the other end of
the ramp.
C Push the trolley gently down the ramp. If it
slows down and stops, add another block
under the end of the ramp. If it speeds up,
take a block away. You need to adjust the
slope of the ramp so that the trolley just
keeps moving.
D Fasten the string to the trolley, run it over the pulley and fasten the 50 g hanging mass to the
other end.
E Put 500 g of masses on the trolley. You may need to use sticky tape to hold them on.
F Let the mass on the string accelerate the trolley along the ramp. Time how long it takes to
move along the ramp and write the time in the results table.
G Repeat step F twice more.
H Add another 500 g to the trolley and repeat steps F and G. Carry on adding masses and timing
the trolley until you have completed the table on worksheet 9K2-2. Find the mean of each set of
results.

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 9 L2-2
Investigating acceleration 2

Name Class Date

Prediction
1 I think that a trolley with a large mass will accelerate (faster/slower) than
a trolley with a small mass.

Recording your results

Mass on Time to run along ramp (s) Mean time to run
trolley (g) along ramp (s)
1st run 2nd run 3rd run
500
1000
1500
2000
2500

Considering your results/conclusions

2 I set up the ramp with a slope so that the force of cancelled out the

effect of on the trolley.

3 My results show that it takes (more/less) time for a trolley with a large

mass to travel along the ramp. This means that a trolley with a large mass is accelerating

(faster/slower) than a trolley with a small mass.

Evaluation
4 a Describe a way in which you could improve your experiment.

b Why would this be an improvement?

I can…
● draw a conclusion
● evaluate my investigation.

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 9 L2-3
Investigating acceleration 3
9 L2-3
Investigating acceleration 3

Prediction Prediction
1 Predict what you think you will find when you carry out 1 Predict what you think you will find when you carry out
the investigation. the investigation.

Recording your results Recording your results

2 Record your results in a table. 2 Record your results in a table.

3 Draw a scatter graph to present your results, with mass on the x- 3 Draw a scatter graph to present your results, with mass on the x-
axis. Draw a line of best fit through the points. axis. Draw a line of best fit through the points.

Considering your results/conclusion Considering your results/conclusion

4 Write a conclusion based on the results you have obtained. 4 Write a conclusion based on the results you have obtained.
Refer to your graph if you can. Refer to your graph if you can.

Evaluation Evaluation
5 Explain if your data is good enough to give you confidence in 5 Explain if your data is good enough to give you confidence in
your conclusion. your conclusion.

6 Explain how you could improve your investigation if you had time 6 Explain how you could improve your investigation if you had time
to do it again. to do it again.

I can… I can…
● draw a conclusion based on results ● draw a conclusion based on results
● evaluate my method and data. ● evaluate my method and data.

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 9L2-4 Investigating acceleration 4

Aim
To find out how the mass of a trolley or the force on it affects its acceleration.

Prediction
1 Decide which variable you are going to investigate, and explain how you think changing this
variable will affect the acceleration of a trolley.

Method
Apparatus Catch the trolley before
● ramp ● 0.5 kg masses it hits the pulley at the
end of the ramp. Put
● blocks ● pulley the box of crumpled
● trolley ● stopclock newspaper beneath the
● string ● sticky tape weights so they do not
fall on your feet.
● 50 g hanging mass ● box of crumpled newspaper

2 Describe how you are going to carry out your

investigation. Consider the following things:
● What are your dependent and independent
variables?
● What values will your independent variable
have?
● What are your control variables? If you
are going to change the force by adding
masses to the end of a string, start with a
stack of masses on the trolley and transfer
them to the end of the string one at a time,
measuring the acceleration each time.
That way you will keep the total mass
the same.
● How will you compensate for the effects of friction on the trolley? (Hint: look at the angle of
the ramp in the diagram.)
● How will you apply a force to the trolley?
● How will you measure the acceleration of the trolley? (Hint: You may need to measure the
speed at more than one place.)
● How many times will you need to take each measurement?
● Do you need to do any preliminary experiments?
● How will you make sure your test is safe?
● Is the apparatus listed above sufficient, or do you need other apparatus?

3 Show your plan to your teacher before you carry out your investigation.

I can…
● plan and carry out a safe and fair investigation.

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 9 L3-1
Speed limit leaflet

A road safety organisation wants leaflets to be given out with new cars, to encourage drivers
to stick to the speed limits.
Design and write a suitable leaflet, using information from the page in the Student Book and
from further research.

A road safety leaflet should:

● present relevant facts concisely
● be well organised, with subheadings
● be written in short paragraphs or use tables or bullet points.
Some snappy slogans may help drivers to remember some of
the facts in the leaflet.

Finding the information

1 Start by thinking about the kind of information you need to include. Some of the things that
could go in your leaflet are:
● why there are speed limits and what can happen when drivers exceed them
● what the speed limits are on different kinds of road, such as highways or dual carriageways
● why the speed limits are different on different types of road (this is connected with how
far the driver can see and whether or not people or other cars are likely to be crossing the
road or turning)
● why some roads have a lower speed limit than other roads of the same type
● when drivers should stick to speeds below the speed limits.

2 Now see how much of the information you need is given in the Student Book.

3 Use the Internet or reference books to find any other information you need.

Organising the information

4 Now you have found the information, you need to think of the best way of presenting it.
● Who is the audience for the information?
● What kind of language should you use? Should you use scientific words? Do you need to
explain what any scientific words mean?
● How much of the information can be presented as tables, diagrams or bullet points?
● In what order will you present the information?

I can…
● carry out research and find relevant information
● present information in a suitable format.

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 9 L3-2
Reaction times

The thinking distance depends on the driver’s reaction time. Find out how reaction times are
measured and what typical reaction times are. You could also find out how much longer reaction
times are when people are tired.

A reaction time is the time between something happening (called a ‘stimulus’) and the person
reacting to the stimulus. One way of measuring this is to use a computer to measure the time
between something appearing on the screen and the person clicking a mouse button.
Some of our bodies’ reactions happen automatically, without us having to think about them.
These are called reflexes. They include things like blinking if an object comes towards your
eyes, or quickly moving your hand if you touch something hot or very sharp. Not having to think
means the reactions can happen very quickly – this is useful because it helps to avoid damage
to the body.
The kind of reaction involved in driving is
very different, as it does involve the brain.
Think about someone driving through a town,
when a child runs out into the road in front of
the car.
● First of all, the driver must be looking at
the road, not using a mobile phone or
looking at someone else inside the car.
● Then they need to notice that someone is
in the road.
● The child could just be crossing the road and may not be in danger, so the driver needs to work
out if this is the case or if they need to stop.
● Then they need to press the brakes.
The time while all these things are happening is called the thinking time. The thinking time does
not depend on the speed of the car. Drivers’ thinking times are usually a little longer than their
fastest reaction times because they need to make a decision when driving.

1 Find out how the thinking time is affected if the driver is tired.

2 Find out what typical reaction times are for humans.

3 The thinking distances shown in charts assume that drivers have a certain
thinking time. distance
time =
speed
a Use the information in the box and the thinking distances in the
Student Book to work out what this thinking time is. 40 km/h = 11.1
m/s
b Suggest why this time is different from the reaction time you found
in question 3. 100 km/h = 27.8
m/s

I can…
● carry out research and find relevant information.

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