Introduction
John has crashed his Volvo. John claimed to not be speeding during the incident, and used off-brand tires. The road was also slightly wet due to the rain. This lab was used to determine why John crashed his car and to determine whether or not he was at fault for this accident.
Materials
To simulate the incident, we used a battery operated toy car in place of John’s Volvo, a wet paper towel to dampen the table in place of the rain, and a spring scale to measure the force of the car exerted.
Results/Data
To start our testing, we attached the spring scale to the “Volvo” with
high-traction tires and then low-traction tires to see how much force they exert. Both types of tires caused the car to exert the same amount of force. Then we tested John’s situation by “driving” the car over the damp table area with each type of tires. We noticed no increase in force or speed with either type of tires on the damp area. There were also no noticeable swerves or turns made by the toy car. This pattern continued for the remainder of the tests.
Discussion (Hypothesis)
Our hypothesis was that the type of tires John was using combined with the slightly slick road was affecting his driving. However, there were no distinct changes in the toy car's speed or direction.
Conclusion
Our results are inconclusive, which leads us to believe that either John was lying about not speeding, or something had gone wrong with our test.
John has crashed his Volvo. John claimed to not be speeding during the incident, and used off-brand tires. The road was also slightly wet due to the rain. This lab was used to determine why John crashed his car and to determine whether or not he was at fault for this accident.
Materials
To simulate the incident, we used a battery operated toy car in place of John’s Volvo, a wet paper towel to dampen the table in place of the rain, and a spring scale to measure the force of the car exerted.
Results/Data
To start our testing, we attached the spring scale to the “Volvo” with
high-traction tires and then low-traction tires to see how much force they exert. Both types of tires caused the car to exert the same amount of force. Then we tested John’s situation by “driving” the car over the damp table area with each type of tires. We noticed no increase in force or speed with either type of tires on the damp area. There were also no noticeable swerves or turns made by the toy car. This pattern continued for the remainder of the tests.
Discussion (Hypothesis)
Our hypothesis was that the type of tires John was using combined with the slightly slick road was affecting his driving. However, there were no distinct changes in the toy car's speed or direction.
Conclusion
Our results are inconclusive, which leads us to believe that either John was lying about not speeding, or something had gone wrong with our test.