Rolling a cart down a hill

1. Set the ramp with a height of 10cm at the higher end. Place the cart on the ramp with the back wheels near the top. Mark where the back wheels are so you can repeat the experiment several times.

2. Connect the SmartWheel to your handheld computer. Refer to Technical Hints to see how to connect the SmartWheel.

3. Start the software to read a velocity versus time graph.

4. Let the cart roll down the ramp and continue along the floor or desk. If you have room, let it coast to a stop.

5. Stop the software immediately after a good roll and save your data.

6. When the cart is rolling, it has what's called kinetic energy, or energy of motion. Yet when the cart started, it had no kinetic energy because it was not moving. So where did the energy come from? What is the greatest velocity of the cart? Where does this occur? Explain your reasoning in Notes on your handheld computer.