Physics 10 Science: Cart Motion Revision Practice

Vocabulary and key experimental data from the Physics 10 Cart Motion investigation involving displacement, time, and numerical modeling.

Research Question

The central inquiry of the experiment: What is the relationship between the time and displacement for a cart moving down a ramp when the angle of the ramp is $15^\text{o}$ and the cart has a mass of $250\,g$?

Mass of the cart

The specific mass used in the experiment, which was $250\,g$.

Angle of the ramp

The inclination of the apparatus used in Figure 1, which was set to $15^\text{o}$.

Uncertainty of Time ($t$)

The measurement precision for the time values recorded in Table 1, which is $\pm 0.005\,s$.

Uncertainty of Displacement ($s$)

The measurement precision for the displacement values recorded in Table 1, which is $\pm 0.005\,m$.

Mean Average Displacement at $t = 1.50\,s$

Calculated by averaging the three trials: $\frac{0.76 + 0.77 + 0.73}{3} = 0.75\,m$.

Velocity

Calculated as the gradient of the displacement-time graph ($\frac{\text{change in Y}}{\text{Change in x}}$), which was determined to be $0.5\,m/s$.

Numerical Model

The mathematical representation of the cart's motion in the form $y = mx + c$, specifically: $\text{Displacement} = 0.5 \times \text{Time}$.

Interpolated Displacement for $t = 1.8\,s$

The value read from the displacement-time graph for a specific time, which is $0.9\,m$.

Interpolated Time for Displacement $0.4\,m$

The value read from the displacement-time graph for a specific distance, which is $0.8\,sec$.

Motion Description ($t = 0\,s$ to $t = 1.5\,s$)

The cart moved from a starting point to a distance of $0.75\,m$ at a constant velocity.