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A student lifts a toy car from a bench and places the toy car at the top of a slope as shown in Figure 16 - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 8 - 2020 - Paper 1
Question 8
A student lifts a toy car from a bench and places the toy car at the top of a slope as shown in Figure 16. (a) Describe an energy transfer that occurs when the stud... show full transcript
Worked Solution & Example Answer:A student lifts a toy car from a bench and places the toy car at the top of a slope as shown in Figure 16 - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 8 - 2020 - Paper 1
Step 1
Describe an energy transfer that occurs when the student lifts the toy car from the bench and places the toy car at the top of the slope.
Answer
When the student lifts the toy car from the bench, they perform work against the force of gravity, leading to an increase in gravitational potential energy (GPE). The energy transfer involves converting chemical energy from food into mechanical energy used to lift the car, resulting in gravitational potential energy at the top of the slope.
Step 2
Describe how the student could find, by experiment, the speed of the toy car at the bottom of the slope.
Answer
To determine the speed of the toy car at the bottom of the slope, the student can measure the distance the car travels down the slope and the time taken to cover that distance. The speed can then be calculated using the formula:
The student should use a stopwatch to record the time and a ruler or measuring tape to measure the distance. It would be beneficial to repeat the experiment multiple times to get an average speed for better accuracy.
Step 3
Step 4
State how the student could calculate the amount of energy transferred to the surroundings as the toy car rolls down the slope.
Answer
The student could calculate the energy transferred to the surroundings as thermal energy by using the formula:
This means they would need to measure the initial gravitational potential energy when the toy car is at the top and the kinetic energy when it reaches the bottom.
Step 5
Explain one way the student could reduce the amount of thermal energy transferred to the surroundings as the toy car rolls down the slope.
Answer
One way to reduce the thermal energy transferred to the surroundings is by lubricating the wheels of the toy car. This would minimize friction between the wheels and the slope, thus conserving more energy in the form of kinetic energy and reducing the amount lost as thermal energy.