SPH3U Kinematics/Dynamics Lab: Coefficient of Friction

Materials:

• An object that will slide down the ramp for which you know, or can measure, the mass (a water bottle, a mug, deck of cards, etc.). Use a kitchen scale if you have one. 500mL of water weighs 500g.
• A ramp. This can be a book, a large cutting board, even a laptop. The longer the better.
• A ruler
• Something to lift the ramp up - erasers, notebooks, etc.
• Stopwatch (on your phone or other device)

Procedure

1. Set up the ramp, no need to measure the height yet.
2. Place the object at the top of the ramp. If it slides down right away - reduce the slope of the ramp.
3. When the slope isjust steep enough for the object to slide, record the ramp height, horizontal length and the distance the objects slides down (the hypotenuse) Ramp height:_____________ Horizontal length:__________ Distance along the ramp(hypotenuse): ___________ Angle between the ramp and the horizontal surface:__________
4. To find the component of force of gravity that acts along the ramp, use the following diagram, show your calculations: