GIZMOS - Student Exploration: Sled Wars

Name: Mason Mathis Date:




Student Exploration: Sled Wars

Vocabulary: acceleration, energy, friction, kinetic energy, momentum, potential energy, speed

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the
Gizmo.)

1. A firefighter is trying to break through a door. Is he more likely
to break through if he runs at the door very slowly or if he runs
at the door very fast? Explain your answer.

Runs very fast because he will generate more force and
have more inertia.




2. Two firefighters are trying to break through a door. One firefighter is heavy, and the other is
light. If they run at the same speed, which one is more likely to break through? Explain.

The heavy one because his total force will be higher due to his mass.



Gizmo Warm-up
The ability to crash through doors and cause other changes
depends on an object’s energy. With the Sled Wars Gizmo, you
will explore the factors that affect the energy of a sled.

The Gizmo shows a Yeti named Burt riding his sled down a
steep hill. Burt plays a game where he tries to wreck as many
snowmen as he can.

1. Use the slider to set the Snowmen to 5. Check that the height of the sled is 25.0 m. Click

Play ( ). How many snowmen does the sled destroy? 1.23 Snowman


2. Click Reset ( ). Set the Red sled mass to 200 kg. Click Play. How many snowmen does

the sled destroy this time? 2.45 Snowman




2019
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, 3. Click Reset. Drag the sled to the top of the hill so the starting height is 50.0 m. Click Play.

A. How many snowmen are destroyed now? ___4.9 Snowman

B. Why do you think this is so? Because he has more mass and a longer distance to build
up speed
Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:
• Click Reset. Check that One sled is selected.
• Set the Red sled mass to 100 kg.
Acceleration and
• Set the Number of snowmen to 0.
speed
• Check that the height of the sled is 50.0 m.

Introduction: Speed is a measure of how fast an object is moving. It is defined as distance
moved per unit of time. In this Gizmo, the units of speed are meters per second, or m/s.

Question: What factors affect the speed of the sled?

1. Observe: With the sled at 50.0 m, click Play. Observe the Red sled speed speedometer.

A. What happens to the sled’s speed as it moves down the slope? It speeds up
until it hits max speed

B. Acceleration is a change in speed or direction over time. In what two ways does the

sled accelerate as it descends? It accelerated downwards and the velocity changed


C. Click Reset. This time, focus on the speed of the sled after it reaches the bottom of

the hill. Click Play. What do you notice? Once it hit the bottom it no longer
accelerated

D. Does the sled accelerate after reaching the bottom? no Explain.

It kept a constant velocity at the bottom of the hill




2. Experiment: Click Reset. Set the Red sled mass to 10 kg. Click Play and then Pause ( )
after the sled reaches the bottom.

A. Look at the speedometer. What is the speed of the sled? 31.3 m/s




This study source was downloaded by 100000809669238 from CourseHero.com on 03-10-2022 09:01:51 GMT -06:00
2019

https://www.coursehero.com/file/54956948/SledWarsSEpdf/