Challenge While Driving
GOAL: to determine the distance a car would travel in the amount of time it takes to text LOL to a friend
REQUIRED INFORMATION:
- predicted distance of travel
- justification of predicted distance using a model that displays constant velocity
PROCESS: for this experiment, my partner was Serenity. We began by choosing 65 mph for the average velocity of the car, the value we would later use in the equation to solve for distance. We then performed 10 trial runs with the person texting holding the phone with one hand, and the person recording the time stopping the clock after the other person pressed send. After collecting the data, we averaged it together to get a time of about .78 seconds to type and send “LOL.” Our data table can be seen below.
Because our time trials were in seconds, we converted 65 mph to mps (miles per second), which ended up being .018 mps.
EQUATION: position=(velocity)(time) + starting position
position= .018(.78)+0= .01404 miles or 74.13 feet
Because .01404 miles is a little hard to picture, we converted the value to feet to get more of an understanding of how far the car really traveled.
VELOCITY-TIME GRAPH
This velocity time graph shows how the car was going at an average velocity of .018 miles for .78 seconds, which was the time it took to text “LOL.” We then calculated the area which wasL x W, and in our case, .018 x .78, to find the displacement, which should have, and did equal our predicted distance of .01404 miles.
(Because the graph is a little hard to read, it shows an average velocity of .018, represented by the horizontal line coming from the y axis right beneath .02 seconds. The line stops at .78 seconds, the amount of time it took to text LOL. The shaded area represents the area/displacement calculated which equaled .01404.)
