STEMLeads – April 6, 2018 Physics - Car Experiment Name:______________

Today we will be learning about the equation: F=ma

Force = Mass x Acceleration

Important Definitions:
Force (F): something that causes a change in the motion of an object.
Mass (m): a measurement of how much matter is in an object
Acceleration (a): the measurement of change in an object's velocity
Experiment:
1. People will be in the car and the car will be in neutral
2. Every one second, someone will drop a cone outside of the car
3. Someone will push this car with a constant force!!
4. We will measure the distance between the cones and will calculate the average
acceleration of the car
5. Using the average acceleration and the force we will find the mass of the car.

d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 etc

Data Table 1:

Do calculations here:
Time (s) Distance (m)
𝟐𝒅
𝒂= 𝟐
1 𝒕

Average acceleration: ______________m/s2

𝑭
𝑴 =
𝒂
1 lb = 4.45 Newtons

Total Total Mass of the car: __________________ kg

Time: Distance:
Question: What will happen to the acceleration if we add more mass to the car (more people)
and push with the same force as before? Will the acceleration be higher? Lower? The same?
Why do you think that?

Write your guess here:

Data Table 2:

Do calculations
Avg. here: 2 x
Acceleration=
Time (s) Distance (m)
𝟐𝒅
distance/ (total time) 2
𝒂= 𝟐
1 𝒕
Force=Mass x Acceleration
1 lb = 4.45 newtons
2
Do calculations here:

Average acceleration: ______________m/s2

𝑭
𝑴 =
𝒂
1 lb = 4.45 Newtons

Average Acceleration:

Total Total
Mass of the car + people: _______________ kg
Time: Distance:

How did the second acceleration compare to your prediction? Did it change more than you
expected? Less?

What do you think would happen to the acceleration if we pushed with twice as much force?
Why?