Student Exploration: Sled Wars
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: acceleration, energy, friction, kinetic energy, momentum, potential energy, speed
Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE usi...
Student Exploration: Sled Wars
Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
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.
Very fast because he has more force
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.
Heavy because he has more force
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 1, 1/3
sled is
25.0 m. Click Play ( ). How many snowmen does the sled
destroy?
2. Click Reset ( ). Set the Red sled mass to 200 kg. Click Play. How 2, 2/3
many snowmen does the sled destroy this time?
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? 5
B. Why do you think this is so? it had the most velocity
, Get the Gizmo ready:
Activity A:
● Click Reset. Check that One sled is selected.
Acceleration and ● Set the Red sled mass to 100 kg.
speed ● Set the Number of snowmen to 0.
● 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 It does not slow down
moves down the slope?
B. Acceleration is a change in speed or Mass
direction over time. In what two ways does Velocit
the sled accelerate as it descends? y
C. Click Reset. This time, focus on the speed of Nothing
the sled after it reaches the bottom of the
hill. Click Play. What do you notice?
D. Does the sled accelerate after reaching the No, the speed is constant
bottom? Explain.
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 31.30 m/s
sled?
B. Click Reset, and change the Red sled mass to 200 31.30 m/s
kg. Click Play. What is the speed of the sled at the
bottom now?
C. Try other sled masses. Does the mass of the sled No
affect its final speed?
In this Gizmo, there is no friction, so there is no force slowing the sled down. As long as
there is no friction, the sled’s final speed only depends on the starting height. In the
real world, friction will affect the sled’s final speed.
3. Explore: Click Reset. Use the Gizmo to measure the sled’s final speed when it starts at a
height of 10 meters and when it starts at a height of 40 meters. Record these speeds
below.
Speed when starting from 10 14 m/s Speed when starting from 40 28 m/s
m: m:
How does increasing the starting height affect the final speed?
height affects velocity
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