Downhill Racer

Prepare students to scale their graphs using DPP items O and Q. Students skip count by 0.1s. 0.01s, and 0.25s. Refer students to Question 10 while you distribute copies of the Centimeter Graph Paper Master. Question 10A asks students to graph their data. Help the class determine the scale on the axis. Deciding how much room to leave for extrapolation is not easy. No exact rule can be given, only that some room should be allowed. Questions later in the lab ask about ramp heights up to 16 cm. Numbering the horizontal axis to 30 cm should suffice. Numbering the vertical axis will depend on the longest distance available for the car to roll. Students may need help scaling the vertical axis using decimals. See Figure 6.

Once students have plotted their data, students should draw a best-fit line (Question 10B).