PROFICIENCY 1 FORMS OF ENERGY
Dear United States Congressman,
Wind power is the conversion of wind energy into a useful form of energy, such as using wind turbines to make electricity, wind mills for mechanical power, wind pumps for pumping water or drainage, or sails to propel ships. Our country needs to use more effective ways to create energy without polluting the air.
Creating a wind farm would cost a lot of money, but I believe it would be worth the investment because it would be able to bring more and more families energy. We should have more farms like the one that has over 6,000 wind turbines at Altamont Pass, in the state of California. Developed during a period of tax incentives in the 1980s, this wind farm has more turbines than any other in the United States. In our state of Wisconsin there are a total of 306 turbines, 174 of which are in Fond Du Lac. WE Energies owns 88 of these turbines and Invenegy owns 86 of them. Our Wisconsin goal for five years should be to have 500 total turbines and in ten years 1,000 turbines. These turbines can lessen the cost for own energy bills. One wind turbine on average can power over 160 homes. That would be a huge help cause if you think about it 160 homes times 4 people In a home on average is 640 people that we are providing energy for with only 1 turbine; if we have 100 turbines then we are providing energy to 64,000 people. For us that is a little over 1 tenth of Milwaukee’s population. Even though you may think that is not a lot of people compared to the world’s population, it makes a huge impact on lives of people.
Creating a wind farm would cost a lot of money, but I believe it would be worth the investment because it would be able to bring more and more families energy. We should have more farms like the one that has over 6,000 wind turbines at Altamont Pass, in the state of California. Developed during a period of tax incentives in the 1980s, this wind farm has more turbines than any other in the United States. In our state of Wisconsin there are a total of 306 turbines, 174 of which are in Fond Du Lac. WE Energies owns 88 of these turbines and Invenegy owns 86 of them. Our Wisconsin goal for five years should be to have 500 total turbines and in ten years 1,000 turbines. These turbines can lessen the cost for own energy bills. One wind turbine on average can power over 160 homes. That would be a huge help cause if you think about it 160 homes times 4 people In a home on average is 640 people that we are providing energy for with only 1 turbine; if we have 100 turbines then we are providing energy to 64,000 people. For us that is a little over 1 tenth of Milwaukee’s population. Even though you may think that is not a lot of people compared to the world’s population, it makes a huge impact on lives of people.
Thank You for Your Time,
Connor Moroder
Proficiency 2 Friction and Gravity
Problem: What impact does the type of floor have on how far the car will go?
Hypothesis: I believe that the rougher surface will have a greater impact on the car and it won’t travel as far and as long as the other cars because the friction will slow down the tires of the car.
Experiment:
Variables:
IV: The roughness of the floor
CV: The cars, The car tires, Person pushing car, Person measuring distance car went
DV: The time it takes the car to go
Control: Smooth Floor
Materials: 3 of the same car, 3 different types of surfaces, space, excel, tape, person to push car, measuring tape
Procedure:
1. Gather Materials
2. Put line of tape down
3. Start car at line of tape
4. Have person push car on flat surface
5. Measure distance traveled
6. Record results
7. Repeat steps 3 through 6 9 more times
8. Next repeat steps 3 through 6 except with medium roughness of surface
9. Repeat that step 9 more times
10. Record results
11. Once again repeat steps 3 through 6 except with roughest surface
12. Repeat that step 9 more times
13. Record results
14. Make data table and graph
15. Conclude and analyze
16. Clean up
Data Table and Graph:
Conclusion: My Problem was “What impact does the surface traveled on have to do with how far the car goes”. I thought that the rougher the surface the shorter the distance cause of maybe some bumps that would slow it down. In the end my experiment had lots of bumps in the road. One being when we went outside to do the cement part of the experiment since the car literally hit a bump and fell over a couple of times. Even though that happened we had great results. The average distances were for the carpet 152.2 Centimeters. For the hallway in the second floor it was 163.2 and for the cement it was 124.2. My hypothesis was correct since the rougher the surface the lesser the distance the car traveled. That also means that the smoother the surface the farther it would go. Some of the experiments external variables were the person pushing the car because they probably wouldn’t be pushed at the same exact speed therefore you can never have perfect results. Another one is that the wheels on the car could have worn out and not been as smooth as they were, but that didn’t happen because I did them in a certain order. That order was I did the carpet first because it would not wreck the tires, then I did the hall way because it is smooth. Lastly I did the cement because that was the one I thought would maybe wreck the tires. Overall I thought my experiment was a success. It was a success because I proved what I needed to. I needed to prove what effect friction and gravity have on Newton’s laws. I proved that because the friction is the type of flooring and gravity is what would have stopped the car if there was no friction. First law the outside force is either gravity or friction. Second law if you want an object to go the same distance with a difference in friction every time you the car will need to be pushed at different speeds. Third law the action is the car being pushed and the reaction is gravity and frictions push back at the same about of force so there is an equal reaction.
Proficiency 3 Newton's Laws of MotionProblem : What impact does the mass of an object have on the distance it travels after being pushed?
Hypothosis : I believe that the greater the weight of the object the faster it would stop since there would be more of gravities force on it.( Gravity would be an outside force )
Experiment :
Variables :
IV : The weights being pushed
CV : the floor, the bottom surface of the weight, person pushing weights, person measuring
DV : How far the weights go
Control : The one pound weight
Materials : 3 pound weight, 5 pound weight, 8 pound weight, Flat clean floor, Person, Measuring tape, Excel
Procedures :
1. Gather materials
2. Make line of tape
3. Get the one pound weight and push it across the floor let go of weight at line of tape
4. Measure distance traveled
5. Record results
6. Repeat steps 3 through 6 7 more times
7. Next repeat steps 3 through 6 8 times except with 2 pound weight
8. Record results
9. Then repeat steps 3 through 6 8 times except with 3 pound weight
10. Record results
11. Make data table and graph
12. Conclude and analyze
13. Clean Up
Graph
Conclusion: In my experiment I was testing to see the impact that the mass of an object have on the distance it travels after being pushed? My hypothesis was that the more mass the weight had the lesser the distance it would travel since gravity would pull it toward earth’s core and bring it to a stop. In the end my hypothesis was correct. The average distances traveled by all 3 of the weights were close but my hypothesis was still correct. For the 3 pound weight the average was 8.5313 for the 5 pound weight it was 8.3958 and lastly the 8 pound weight it was 8.2188. So my hypothesis was correct but not by that much. In my experiment there were many external variables. One being the weights had 2 flat sides so when I rolled it would be a bumpy ride. I tried my best to find some that were perfectly circular but I couldn’t. Next I had to roll the weights at the same speed and that cannot be done it isn’t possible to have 2 rolls at the same exact speed. So I tried my best to have them go the same speed. When I did the experiment I did it in the second floor hallway by Mr. Roehl’s classroom because the floor war flat and not that dirty. This experiment showed all three of Newton’s laws. It shows the first law of motion since it (the Weights) would stay in motion unless acted upon by an outside force. The outside force in this case is gravity and friction. For the third law the action is pushing the weight and the reaction is the force it pushes back so the weight doesn’t go as far. For the Second law the more mass the weight had the more force I had to use to get it started at the same speed so that would be a good experiment. The weights used are shown below.
Proficiency 4 Speed and Acceleration
Problem : What impact does the height of the start of the ramp have on the speed of the car?
Hypothisis : I believe that the higher the start the faster speed the car will have. This will happen since there would be a higher starting point so gravity would pull it down faster therefore it would move the car down the ramp at a faster rate than what it would be if the starting point was lower on the wall
Experiment
Variables
IV: Angle of ramps
DV: The difference in speed between different angled ramps
CV: Car, Ramp, Person, Place, Floor, Wheels, Person Timing
Control: Flat ground
Materials: Car, Ramp, Timer, Calculator, Person, Excel document
Procedure
1. Gather Materials
2. Set up ramp 10 inches up wall
3. Let car go
4. Measure time for first 10 Inches once hits ground
5. Then measure last 10 Inches approximately
6. Measure total distance traveled
7. Record results
8. Repeat steps 3 through 7 except 4 more times
9. Next repeat steps 3 through 7 5 times with ramp at 20 inches up wall
10. Once again repeat steps 3 through 7 5 times this time angle at 30 inches up wall
11. Find speeds of cars with data found
12. Find accelerations of cars with data found
12. Make data table and graph
13. Conclude and analyze
14. Post to blog page
15. Clean up
Graphs
Conclusion
My problem was what impact the height of a ramp has on the speed and acceleration of a car going down it. My hypothesis is that I believe that the larger the degree of angle the faster speed the car will have. This will happen since there would be a higher starting point so gravity would pull it down faster therefore it would move the car down the ramp at a faster rate than what it would be if the starting point was lower on the wall. For this experiment there were a lot of issues. One being that the r were not flat; they were curled so they started against the wall went almost straight down and then went out. When I pictured the experiment I was thinking the ramp would stay flat. I was wrong. The force of the wall and the force of the plastic ramp made the ramp fall due to gravity pulling on. For the results they were a little off literally since every once and a while the car would not want to run on wheels. It flipped over and our results were skewed. For the Acceleration part of this the averages were, for the ramp being 10 inches off the ground it was 205.144 Inches / second / second, for the ramp starting 20 inches off the ground the average was 175.266 Inches / second / second. Lastly I started the ramp 30 inches from the up from the bottom of the wall and the average was 400.49 Inches / second / second. To get the acceleration I had to measure three things. Those three things were time for the first 10 inches, the time for the last 10 inches approximately and the total distance travelled. When I got those measurements I took the final speed minus the start speed then divided by the total distance and then added my label. I found that the higher the car started the farther and the faster the car went. My hypothesis was correct.
For the speed test my hypothesis was correct also with the speeds going up as the ramp went up. At 1o inches up the wall the speed was 70.334 inches per second. When the ramp was 20 inches up the wall the speed was 136.324 inches per second and at 30 inches the speed was 161.306. To find the speed one must do total distance divided by time. Which I did to get these results. In the end my experiment worked well because it proved my theories. The speed and acceleration would have been larger if the car had more mass or if there was no such thing as friction. This would happen since a car with more of gravities mass would have more of gravities force pulling on it. And if there were no friction the car would never stop.
Proficience 5 Simple Machines
Rube Goldberg Video We explained it all
My group consisted of
Allison Samuel
Natalie Sheridan
Autumn Johnson
Morgan Patterson
Connor Moroder
My group consisted of
Allison Samuel
Natalie Sheridan
Autumn Johnson
Morgan Patterson
Connor Moroder
