▽▲▼△Pyramid Lab△▼▽▲

BIG QUESTION: IS THE PRODUCT OF FORCE AND DISTANCE UNIVERSALLY CONSERVED?

• As an introduction to this lab, we watched a video regarding the egyptian pyramids and how the egyptians were able to build the highest points of the pyramids. this video is featured here -->

• The idea in this video of using the simple machine of an internal ramp to lift the heavy blocks is very smart, but unproven. So WE tried to prove it ourselves!

• No we cannot prove whether the Egyptians used a ramp in our physics class, but we sure can prove that using a ramp over a shorter or longer distance will both have the same WORK because energy, or the ability to do work, is UNIVERSALLY CONSERVED. 

• We did two trials to prove this. We used toy car, a ramp that was about 8 cm tall, and an electronic force probe to do this experiment. I represented our data in the chart below:

<-- SAME WORK!!

• An awesome real-world connection I thought of is based at the facility I did my core project, Halleck Creek Ranch. Halleck Creek Ranch is a therapeutic horseback riding facility for people with all sorts of different disabilities. Most of the riders are not able to get out of their wheel chair, therefor they use a rap to wheel them to the height of the horses back! This ramp enables us to use a less amount of force, over a greater distance, but the same amount of energy.