Lab Report HL Design IA: inclined planes

[brastu]

Hey,

I have a Design due next week and I really want to make it a good one so that this can be an option for me to send in next May! I did an experiment in class where I used an Energy Track (which is basically an inclined plane with marks at different heights). I released a ball A from different heights and placed a ball B at a marked spot at the end of the track. I then used a light gate to find the velocity of the ball B. In the end I had the following information:

- I had 6 different sets of initial velocities, u1, for ball A (having released it from 6 different heights)

- I have initial velocity for ball B, v1, which is 0 in all cases as it was at rest

- I have 6 different velocities for ball B (as recorded by the photogate)

From this I was planning to investigate the law of conservation of momentum. However, it has been way too long since I carried out this experiment and to be honest I forgot what I had planned to do!! Can anyone help me on what can I investigate/aim to test for this experiment? I am not sure how this could work for a design.... can anyone see it working???

**** In case this does not seem like an ideal design I was thinking about changing into something else but I am afraid it might be too simple for HL, this one, however, would work for sure:

-Record the motion of the cart using a photogate, changing the angle of inclination of the plane i.e as I change the angle, I would change the height, and thus increase the PE and in turn the energy possesed by the car, this would mean that its velocity would increase because more energy would be turning into KE .....

Is it too simple for a HL design??