Department of Energy Argonne National Laboratory Office of Science NEWTON's Homepage NEWTON's Homepage
NEWTON, Ask A Scientist!
NEWTON Home Page NEWTON Teachers Visit Our Archives Ask A Question How To Ask A Question Question of the Week Our Expert Scientists Volunteer at NEWTON! Frequently Asked Questions Referencing NEWTON About NEWTON About Ask A Scientist Education At Argonne Mass, Friction and Distance 
Name: Nancy P.
Status: educator
Age: 40s
Location: N/A
Country: N/A
Date: Thursday, April 25, 2002
Question:
I have a fifth grade student doing a project on the relationship of the weight of an object and how far it travels. She is putting different amounts of weight on a car, sending it down a ramp and measuring the distance it travels. Can you give her any information to help her understand the results she gets.

Replies:
The exact answer depends on details of the construction. From this distance I can only give the general physics answer. If the friction is proportional to the normal force (constant coefficient of friction), the car will travel the same distance regardless of the weight added to the car. This is because the potential energy of the car when at the top of the ramp is proportional to the mass of the car and the frictional force is also proportional to the mass of the car since the normal force is proportional.

Best, Dick Plano...


Click here to return to the Physics Archives

NEWTON is an electronic community for Science, Math, and Computer Science K-12 Educators, sponsored and operated by Argonne National Laboratory's Educational Programs, Andrew Skipor, Ph.D., Head of Educational Programs.

For assistance with NEWTON contact a System Operator (help@newton.dep.anl.gov), or at Argonne's Educational Programs

NEWTON AND ASK A SCIENTIST
Educational Programs
Building 360
9700 S. Cass Ave.
Argonne, Illinois
60439-4845, USA
Update: June 2012
Weclome To Newton

Argonne National Laboratory