Pyramid Lab

Big Question: Is the product of force and distance universally conserved (a constant in systems other than pulleys?)

This week, our new table completed a lab using metal ramps, plastic carts with weighted masses, and a device that measured and graphed force electronically(force probe). In a series of trials, we measured the height of the ramp and the mass of the car ( both variables remained constant throughout the duration of the lab. For our table, the height was .11m and the mass was .75kg) as well as the force and distance which varied for every trial. We used the force probe to find and graph the force as we pulled the cart up the ramp. Using the force and distance, we calculated the work for each trial. Work is defined differently for physicists than the work that our parents do every day or the work that we as students must complete at home every night. Work is the product of force and distance, or W=F(N)d(m). This kind of work is measured in Joules (J) which is a type of energy. After measuring and graphing the data, we compared the work in each of the 3 trials. In class we learned that the work in each trial was within a 10% range of each other. Because our calculations were a tad off, the work was not exactly the same, but a 10% range is fairly close. This answers the main question for this lab. YES WORK IS CONSERVED.

                                                                              
                                                    
                                                              

Real World Connection: When handicapped people in wheelchairs need to move about more convieniently and accesibly, they use ramps. For example, a handicapped man needs to get into his car. Instead of having others lift the entire weight of the wheelchair plus himself up the sum odd two feet that it takes to get the chair into the car, he can use a ramp and although it covers more distance, the ramp requires less force for the man and makes his life easier due to the fact that force and distance are inversly proportional, which we learned last week. In fact, both methods for lifting the wheelchair require about the SAME AMOUNT of WORK because work is universally conserved.