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Lesson 4: How Does Acceleration Affect Carbon Dioxide Emissions?

Some scientists believe that changing carbon dioxide levels can affect the global annual temperature. Does speeding up your vehicle affect how much carbon dioxide is produced?

Doing the science

  1. Select the Sim tab to open the Acceleration simulation.
  2. Select the red car on the right side of the screen by clicking on the car.
  3. Select a speed of 20 m/s. Make sure to record your selected speed value.
  4. Allow a couple of seconds for the car to reach a constant speed. The acceleration dialog box appears when the car reaches a constant speed.
  5. Choose an acceleration value of 2 m/s2. Allow the simulation to run.
  6. Select the “Display Data” option. Click on the “CO2 Emission” graph tab. Enter the maximum value in table 1.
  7. Select the "Restart" option.
  8. Repeat steps 9–12 with an acceleration of 6 m/s2.

Table 1.

Trial

Speed (m/s)

Acceleration (m/s2)

Average CO2 Emission (g/sec)

1

10

2

2

10

4

3

10

6

Do You Understand?

  1. On a piece of graph paper, make a graph of the vehicle acceleration versus the amount of carbon dioxide emissions during each test. What generalization can you make about how carbon dioxide emissions and acceleration are related?