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

To find the speed of the toy car at the bottom of the slope, the student can follow these steps:

1. Measurement of Distance: Measure the length of the slope that the toy car travels down.

2. Measurement of Time: Use a stopwatch to record the time taken for the car to reach the bottom of the slope.

3. Calculate Speed: Use the formula for speed, which is given by:

   $ext{Speed} = \frac{\text{Distance}}{\text{Time}}$

   This will provide the speed of the car at the bottom. For greater accuracy, the experiment can be repeated multiple times and the average speed calculated.

The student must measure:

1. The vertical height of the slope to determine the change in potential energy.
2. The mass of the toy car to relate mass to energy calculations.

The student can calculate the energy transferred to the surroundings by determining the difference between the original gravitational potential energy (GPE) at the top of the slope and the kinetic energy (KE) of the toy car at the bottom of the slope. This can be expressed as:

$\text{Energy Transferred} = \text{Original GPE} - \text{KE}$

To reduce the thermal energy transferred to the surroundings, the student could lubricate the wheels of the toy car. This would decrease friction between the wheels and the surface of the slope, ensuring that more of the potential energy is converted into kinetic energy rather than being dissipated as thermal energy due to friction.