Niman Doowa

Science

Ms.Leah

The Effect of a Passenger in a Car when Collided with a Barrier at Different Speeds
Background Information: Collision is defined to be and isolated event that involves two or more moving bodies that exert forces for each other for a short time. It is where two or more objects collide. The focus for this experiment is automobile collision (Wikipedia contributors, 30 Oct 11). I have designed an experiment that will incorporate the collisions of a car with a wall. The car will have a crash test dummy inside and this will test out Newtons first law, which is inertia. The car will be released from different heights from a ramp and at the end of the ramp there will be a wall or barrier that will stop the car immediately and the dummy should spring out of the car according to the Newtons first law. His first law states, An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force (hyperphysics, 30 Oct 11). So the object is the car and the outside force is the wall or barrier. Aim: The aim of this experiment is to figure out if the how the law of inertia takes part in the collision towards the crash test dummy in the car. We also have to find out how strongly the law affects the dummy when the vehicle is released from the ramp at different heights. Hypothesis: It is predicted that the different speeds will cause different effects towards the passengers if they are not wearing seat-belts. If the car is coming at a faster speed when it crashes or hits the wall the passenger will experience a more stringer effect than if the car was coming in a slower speed. The passenger will get injured in any speed, but the faster the speed the further the dummy will fly off the car. The dummy will be not be secured in the car for this experiment, so results can be obtained a lot more easily. The reason behind my theory is that I think this will happen because according to Newtons first law, Inertia states that An object in motion tends to stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force(hyperphysics, 30 Oct 11), so the outside force which is the wall will act upon the original object which is the vehicle. If the vehicle is going at a very fast speed or if it is released from the ramp at a high height than the outside force (wall) will have a greater effect on the passenger (dummy) in the vehicle than if the vehicle was going at a slower speed. The stronger the collision, the more force is added on thus making the dummy travel further. Variables: Independent Variable: The independent variable is the height of the ramp and this is because the height is changed after each experiment has taken place Dependent Variable: The dependent variable is the distance of dummy away from the vehicle when the collision has taken place and this is because the distance is what is being measured Fixed Variables: The fixed variables are the length of the ramp, the mass of the dummy and the point of release of the car and this is because these are the things that stay the same throughout all the experiments.

Niman Doowa

Science

Ms.Leah

Materials: Meter stick Ramp Toy Car Dummy Barrier Diagram:

Quantity: 1 1 1 75 g 1

Precision +/- 1

Car

Dummy (Playdoh) Ramp

Barrier

Method: 1. First of all gather all the necessary materials and set up the diagram above 2. Make a table like this: Height of Ramp (cm) 20 40 60 80 100 4. Start off with the ramp 20cm above the ground. 5. Place the car at the start of the ramp with the dummy inside of it and then release the car 6. Once the car hits the barrier the dummy will fly out of the car and land on the other side 7. Using the measuring tape, measure how far the dummy is from the wall and record it in the table 8. Repeat the experiment 4 more times to complete the 20cm section Distance After the Crash (cm) Trial 1 Trial 2 Trial 3 Trial 4 Trial 5

Niman Doowa

Science

Ms.Leah

9. Repeat steps 4-8 but this time make sure the ramp is at 40cm above the ground 10. Repeat steps 4-8 but this time make sure the ramp is at 60cm above the ground 11.Repeat steps 4-8 but this time make sure the ramp is at 80cm above the ground 13. Now the table should be completely filled and the experiment is over. Results: Table#1 Raw Data Table of the Distance of the Dummy after each Crash Height of Ramp from the ground (cm) 20 40 60 80 100 Distance of the Dummy After the Crash (cm)

Trial 1 30 92 78 115 130

Trial 2 29 54 96 119 128

Trial 3 22 55 102 110 131

Trial 4 35 65 78 128 136

Trial 5 28 52 88 105 129

Calculations -Average: Trial 1 + Trial 2+ Trial 3 +Trial 4 + Trial 5/ number of Trials Example for 20cm: 30 + 29 + 22 + 35 + 28/ 5 = 29cm

Table #2- Average Table of the Distance of the Dummy after each Crash Height of Ramp from the ground (cm) 20 40 60 80 100 Distance of the Dummy After the Crash (cm)

Trial 1 30 92 78 115 130

Trial 2 29 54 96 119 128

Trial 3 22 55 102 110 131

Trial 4 35 65 78 128 136

Trial 5 28 52 88 105 129

Average (cm) 29 64 88 115 131

Niman Doowa

Science

Ms.Leah

Graph #1 Graph of the Distance after the Crash When the Car is released from Different Heights

Chart Title
160 Distance of Dumy After the Crash (cm) 140 120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 20 40 60 Height of the Ramp (cm) 80 100 120 R = 0.985

Observations: Every time the height of the ramp increases the distance of the dummy after it collides with the wall also increases The speed of the Car coming down the ramp is a lot greater when the height is higher thus making the car collides at a stronger force causing the dummy to fly further. The results are rising in a steadily with consistency and all the points are relatively close to the line of best fit.

Conclusion: After looking at the results it is evident that the height and the distance of the dummy after the crash a have strong correlation. Every time the height of the ramp would go higher, the distance of the dummy would go further after the collision and this is evident in my data. This supports my hypothesis strongly because my hypothesis states that if the car is released at higher height from the ground it would be coming at a much faster speed than if the car was released close to the ground. The speed of the car will affect the distance of the dummy after the crash, so the faster the speed of the car the more distance travelled for the dummy in the car when the collision has taken place. In the first graph it is evident that height of the ramp and the distance of the dummy after the crash are very proportional and there is a steady rise in the graph. Evaluation: The controls of the variables are very limited. This was evident while the procedure was conducted. Sometimes when the car is released from the start of the ramp it may get a little push or it may not go down the ramp in a straight way. When the car would hit the barrier, the barrier would sometimes come off and affect the collision of the car. The dummy would sometimes change its shape because it is in a form of playdoh, so after many collisions it could have more bumps in playdoh enabling to role further when a collision has taken place thus making the results vary and invalid. In order to solve these problems practice many times realising the car to get the feel of it so

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Ms.Leah

that it can be done right every time, make sure that the barrier is secure and tight so that the collision executed properly and that the barrier would not affect the results and Make sure to mould the dummy back to the same shape after each trial to make sure that it stays the same throughout the procedure and that the results become valid. The Uncertainties of the instruments that were used are +/-1 and this is because I used a meter stick to measure both the height of the ramp from the ground and the distance of the dummy after the crash. This uncertainty is relatively low but how ever sometimes the dummy exceeded the 1 meter mark which meant that it could not be all measured at once. The meter stick would be placed at one meter and a marker would be added in order to measure the rest of distance. This could affect the results because the measuring is not accurate and precise. So an improvement for that could be to place down to meter sticks or even use a measuring tape to get better accuracy. There was a clear pattern and trend that was evident in the results that were obtained. The graph was rising up steadily and the line of best fit was really close to each point. The increase in the height of the ramp corresponds equally to the increase in the distance of the dummy after the crash. The range was high in some of the experiments and low in some of them. This displays that there is less consistency in the results. The experiments which wide ranges shows less reliability and one way that this could be improved is to possibly conduct more trials just to make sure that the right results were obtained and that solid averages could be made thus making the results more valid The Procedure that was conducted was reliable and this is because at least 5 trials were conducted and that is very important. The more the trials the better results are obtained. The fact that the pattern could have been affected by the point of release, the steadiness of barrier and the shape of the dummy could also have affected the reliability and the validity of the results. These errors and limitations could have made the results possibly invalid because they may not be the results that should have been obtained. The uncertainty of the instruments though was relatively low meaning that the results were not recorded incorrectly and they are more precise. The range was high for some experiments and low for some. This shows inconsistency in the results which affects the validity of the results. There was a consistent pattern in the results but it could have been more consistent if the errors and limitation did not occur. Data: The r2 value on the graph is 0.985 and this displays that there is a very strong correlation the data and that is evident because all of the points on the graph are really close to the line of best fit. In each trial most of the data were really similar which indicated the averages would be valid. The results are really close to the bulls eye which means that there is consistency in most of the trials which shows that there is precision thus making the results also really reliable. The pattern is very clear and the graph is rising steadily making it very valid and there are 5 experiments and 5 trials for each thus making it reliable. This concludes that the data has both reliability and validity. Final Conclusion: Based on the results that were obtained and the procedure that was conducted I would conclude that the entire experiment had somewhat reliability and validity. It is reliable because 5 trials for each of the five different experiments, there most of the trials have consistency in the results and the graph rises steadily showing that the results are also valid. Some of the aspects in the experiment also make it unreliable and invalid because there are some limitations and errors. When the car would hit the barrier, the barrier would sometimes come off and affect the collision of the car. The dummy would sometimes change its shape because it is in a form of playdoh, so after many collisions it could have more bumps in playdoh enabling to role further when a collision has taken place thus making the results vary and invalid

Niman Doowa Work Cited:

Science

Ms.Leah

"Collision." Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 05 Nov. 2011. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collision>. "Newton's Laws." Web. 05 Nov. 2011. <http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/newt.html>.