Names in Your Group

Marisa, Kara, Kevin, Derick

You and your group must plan an investigation using the penny launcher to explore
(a) if/how the magnitude of force affects the change in motion for a specific object OR
(b) if/how the amount of mass affects the change in motion for a specific object.

Question

How does the magnitude of force affect the change in motion for a specific object?

Materials that comprise a penny launcher

○ Clipboard
○ Graph Paper
○ Durable Rubber Band
○ Pennies (3)
○ Small Binder Clip
○ Ruler
○ Tape

Independent Variable {What are you going to change in your investigation?}

Amount of force applied

Dependent Variable {What will depend (respond) to the independent variable?}

Motion of the 2 pennies (distance traveled in cm)

Constants {What in the investigation CAN NOT change}

Unit of measurement (centimeters)

mass
Starting point
Derec pulling back the force
Paper set up
Clipboard

Procedure {How will you carry out the investigation}

Establish a starting point

Place mass at starting position
Pull back clip 2 cm, release
Measure distance traveled, record
Repeat steps 2-4 for 3cm, and 4cm

Data Table:
 Dependent Variable: distance traveled

Independent Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Average

Variable
Amount of applied
force

-2 cm 3 cm 2.5 cm 2.5 cm 2.67

-3cm 5cm 6 cm 6 cm 5.67

-4.5 cm 16.5 cm 13.5 cm 18 cm 16

Class discussion and analysis of the 2 Investigations.

(a) if/how the magnitude of force affects the change in motion for a specific
object OR
(b) if/how the amount of mass affects the change in motion for a specific object.

1. Is there a relationship between force and change in motion? What is it?

As force increases, there is a change in motion, which in this case is the distance traveled.

2. What happens to an object’s motion when a larger force is applied?

A smaller produces a smaller change in motion.

3. What happens to an object’s motion when a smaller force is applied?

More mass yields less change in motion

 4. If the force on an object stays constant, is there a relationship between mass and
change in motion? What is it?

Yes, there is a relationship between mass and change in motion, and that is that force is
what sends objects into motion, so how much force is exerted on an object adds up to how
much the object moves.
If a more massive force is constant, it will result in a less massive change of motion

5. For a given amount of force (force is always the same) how would a more massive
object’s motion change compared to a less massive object?

The more massive object would need more force in order to move than a less massive one.
If the applied force was enough to move the massive object, it would most certainly
change the direction of the less massive one.

6. Which object would experience a bigger change in motion; a heavy object with a big
push (force applied) or a light object with a little push (force applied)?

You can’t compare them because it tells you that the bigger object experiences a bigger
change in motion and the lighter object experiences a lighter push. These are not only
changing two variables, they’re completely different questions entirely. Ergo, this
experiment is invalid.