Question

HotWheels Launch Angle

 

Introduction

In this lab you are going to use the HotWheels Launcher and a ramp. The orange Hotwheels car launcher is a variable speed launch system with four settings.  This makes it ideal for experiments to see the effects of velocity on projectile motion.  You are going to launch a car with two different initial velocities at an angle and measure how far it lands. From the input data you can determine the initial velocity.

 

Items needed:

            Measuring Tape

            Hotwheels Orange Car launcher

            One toy car

            One ramp

           

Setup

1.      Find an area on the floor with plenty of open space straight ahead

2.      Attach the launcher to the ramp

3.      Then extend the tape measure along the ground 

4.      Pull back the spring loaded launcher to the desired position

5.      Place the car in the launcher (make sure it is centered).

6.      Push the button to release the car and measure distance traveled at first impact.

Drawing

                                               

Figure 1 Unit vectors

Experiment

Connect the launcher to the ramp and secure both down with tape.  The angle of the ramp can be determined measuring the ramp height and the projected ramp length as shown in Figure 1.

 

 

Figure 2. Measuring launch angle

 

Table 1 Calculating launch angle at the end of the ramp

Ramp height (in)	Projected ramp length	Angle (degrees)
2	4.875	23.96°

 

The total height is the height of the table plus the height of the ramp = 29 in +2 in= 31 in.

Total height =31 in.

 

Now, launch the car five times at the first and last position of the launcher and measure the distance travelled by the car till it reached the ground. Then calculate the average for each launch position.  You can lay down a long strip of masking tape and mark each landing position, then average the distances for each of the velocity settings.

Table 2 Distance traveled from launching ramp

Launch Position	Distance 1 (in)	Distance 2 (in)	Distance 3 (in)	Distance 4 (in)	Distance 5 (in)	Average Distance (in)
1	25	29	27	28	27
2	51	50	53	52	52

 

 

 

Equations velocity at launch point (50%).

Show the derivation of the equations to solve for the initial velocity at the launch point.

CLEARLY WRITE THE EQUATION IN PARAMETRIC FORM BEFORE YOU USE VALUES FOR THE ANGLE, GRAVITY, DISTANCE, HEIGHT, ETC.

Start with the equation for acceleration and integrate to determine the equations for velocity and position taking into account that the constants of integrations are equal to the initial conditions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial velocity sample calculation (25%)                                       

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table 3. Initial velocity (15%)

Launch Position	Initial velocity (in/s)
1
2

 

 

 

 

Comments and conclusions (10%)