Acceleration

Name: Date: Period:

Science Simulations, Technology Simulations, Engineering Simulations, Mathematics Simulations

Lesson 5: How Does Acceleration Affect Vehicle Wear?

Complex machines, such as vehicles, have many moving parts. The moving parts of a vehicle wear out depending on the amount of friction experienced. Can the way a person drives affect how long moving parts on a vehicle last?

Doing the science

Select the Sim tab to open the Acceleration simulation.
Select the gray truck on the left side of the screen by clicking on the truck.
Select a speed of 20 m/s.
Allow a couple of seconds for the truck to reach a constant speed. A box appears when the truck reaches a constant speed.
Choose an acceleration value of “2 m/s².” Allow the simulation to run.
Select the “Display Data” option. Click on the “Wear” graph tab.
Note and record in Table 1 the system wear of the truck.
Select the “Restart” option.
Choose the truck and the same speed as you did before.
Choose an acceleration value of 4 m/s². Allow the simulation to run.
Select the “Display Data” option. Click on the “Wear” graph tab.
Note and record in Table 1 the system wear of the truck.
Select the “Restart” option.
Repeat steps 9–13 only using an acceleration of 6 m/s².

Table 1.

Trial	Speed (m/s)	Acceleration (m/s2)	Average System Wear
1	10	2
2	10	4
3	10	6

Do You Understand?

On a piece of graph paper, make a graph of the vehicle acceleration versus the system wear during each test. What generalization can you make about how system wear and acceleration are related?