Name: Jose Silva Azevedo Date: July 10th, 2024

SPH3U1 - Unit 2: Fan Cart Physics

Directions: Follow the instructions to go through the simulation. Respond to the questions and
prompts in the orange boxes.
Vocabulary: acceleration, force, friction, mass, newton, Newton’s first law, Newton’s second law, Newton’s
third law, velocity

Prior Knowledge Questions (Do these BEFORE using the Gizmo.)

1. Imagine a horse pulling a cart. What would happen to the speed of the cart if several bags of cement were
added to the cart?

If several bags of cement were added to the cart the speed of the cart would decrease.
There would be an increase of mass to the cart, according to newton's 2nd law F=ma if
there is more mass added and the force of the horse remains the same there will be less
acceleration making the speed of the cart slow down.

2. Suppose several more horses were hitched up to the same cart. How would this affect the speed of the
cart?

If more horses were hitched up to the same cart the force of all these horses is more than
of one horse meaning the force would increase. Going back to Newton's 2nd law, if it is the
same amount of mass but the force is increased it also means there is an increase in
acceleration. Making the speed of the cart faster

Although these questions may seem simple, they form the basis of Newton’s second law of motion. The Fan
Cart Physics Gizmo can be used to illustrate all three of Newton’s laws.
Gizmo Warm-up
The Fan Cart Physics Gizmo shows a common teaching tool called a
fan cart. Place fan A on the cart and turn it on by clicking the ON/OFF
button below.
1. Look at the blue lines coming from the fan. In which direction is the
air pushed?
The direction in which the air is
pushed is to the left

2. Press Play ( ) and observe the cart. In which direction does the
cart move?
The direction that the cart moves is to
the right.

By blowing to the left, the fans exert a force on the cart that pushes it to the right. This illustrates Newton’s
third law: A force in one direction results in an equal force in the opposite direction.

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3. The velocity (v) of the cart is its speed and direction. Click Reset ( ). Select the BAR CHART tab, and
click Play. Does the velocity change or stay the same? A change in velocity is called acceleration (a).

The velocity changes.

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity A:
● Click Reset.
Newton’s first law
● Remove all fans from the cart.

Question: What happens to the cart when there is no force?

1. Form hypothesis: What will the motion of the cart be like when there is no force at all? (There is no friction
in this model.)

The motion of the cart will be constant when there is no force at all. Since there is no
friction in this model, there isn’t anything able to stop the movement of the cart.

2. Predict: Suppose a cart with no fans has a starting velocity of 2 m/s. What will be the velocity of the cart
when it reaches the wall?

The velocity of the cart when it reaches the wall will be 2 m/s since there isn’t any factor
that will affect the velocity of the cart.

3. Experiment: Check that there are no fans on the cart. On the DESCRIPTION tab, set the Initial velocity of
cart to 2.0 m/s. Select the BAR CHART tab, and click Play. What do you notice about the velocity of the
cart?

I notice that the velocity of the car stays the same in this experiment.

4. Experiment: Click Reset. Place two fans on the cart, and point them in opposite directions. (Next to
DIRECTION, click the button for one fan.) Turn both fans on, and click Play.
What do you notice about the velocity of the cart?

I notice that the velocity of the cart remains the same. The fans are canceling each other
out since one is pushing air to the left and another to the right making them useless and the
same as the cart having no fans.

5. Analyze: Select the GRAPH tab.

A. What do you notice about the graph of position vs. time (x vs t)?

The graph of position is twice the amount of the time. The time (t) was 5 seconds
while the graph of position (x) was 10. This means the cart covered 2 meters every
one second

B. What does the velocity vs. time (v vs t) graph show?

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 The velocity vs time graph shows a straight line indicating no change in velocity
throughout the 5 seconds.

C. What do you notice about the graph of acceleration vs. time (a vs t)?

I noticed about the graph of acceleration vs time that there was no acceleration in
this experiment. The straight line through the time tells me there was an
acceleration of 0.

6. Draw conclusions: Newton’s first law states that an object in motion will travel at a constant velocity
unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. How do these experiments show this?

These experiments showed this because the object in motion, which in this case was the
cart, had a balanced force meaning it traveled at a constant velocity. As explained above
there is one fan pushing air left another pushing air right, one positive and a negative
cancel each other making a neutral which is balanced and according to Newton's first law if
it is balanced the object in motion will travel at a constant velocity which is what has
occurred in this experiment.

Get the Gizmo ready:

Activity B:
● Click Reset.
Newton’s second
● Set the Initial velocity of cart to 0.0 m/s.
law
● Place three fans on the cart, all blowing to the left.

Question: How do mass and force affect acceleration?

1. Experiment: Turn on the fans. Click Play and watch the cart, then select the TABLE tab.

A. Scroll to the bottom of the table. What is the final velocity of the cart?

The final velocity of the cart is 4.90 m/s.

B. How long did it take the cart to reach the end of the track?

It took the cart 4.1 seconds to reach the end of the track.

2. Calculate: Acceleration is a measure of how much the velocity of the cart changes each second. To

of acceleration are meters per second per second, or m/s2. ✏️

calculate acceleration, divide the final velocity by the amount of time it took to reach that velocity. The units
Show your work using GRASP.

A. What is the acceleration of the cart? (Include units.)

Given: Solution:
Vf = 4.90 m/s a = 4.90 m/s / 4.1 seconds
t = 4.1 seconds a = 1.195 m/s2
a = 1.20 m/s2
Required:
a=? Statement:
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 Analysis: The acceleration of the cart is 1.20 m/s2

a = Vf / t

B. Check your answer on the TABLE tab. Were you correct?

Yes, my answers were correct.

3. Form hypothesis:

A. How do you think changing the mass of the cart will affect its acceleration?

I think changing the mass of the cart will slow down its acceleration. Mass and
acceleration are on par with each other. If mass is tripled the acceleration will be
three times less than what it was if the mass is halved the acceleration will be
doubled if the force of the cart remains the same throughout an experiment.
Changing the mass of the cart can either decrease the acceleration if mass is added
or increase the acceleration if mass is removed.

B. How do you think the number of fans will affect the cart’s acceleration?

I think the number of fans will affect the cart’s acceleration by increasing the cart’s
acceleration. The more fans there are the greater the acceleration ], the less fans
the lower the acceleration.

4. Experiment: Select the BAR CHART tab and turn on Show numerical values. For each of the situations
below, record the acceleration of the cart.

Load Number of fans turned on Acceleration

3 fans, 0 blocks 1 0.40 m/s2

3 fans, 0 blocks 2 0.80 m/s2

3 fans, 0 blocks 3 1.20 m/s2

3 fans, 2 blocks 1 0.20 m/s2

3 fans, 2 blocks 2 0.40 m/s2

3 fans, 2 blocks 3 0.60 m/s2

5. Analyze: Look at the acceleration values.

A. How did doubling the force affect the acceleration of the cart?

Doubling the force affected the acceleration of the cart since it doubled the

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 acceleration, even if there was block or no block. 3 fans, 0 blocks, 1 fan turned on
has an acceleration of 0.40 m/s2 , doubling the force in this case which is number of
fans turned on resulted in an acceleration of 0.80 m/s2

B. A cart with two blocks and three fans has twice the mass as a cart with just three fans. How did
doubling the mass affect the acceleration of the cart?

Doubling the mass affected the acceleration of the cart since it decreased the
acceleration. The acceleration of just three fans was 1.20 m/s2 while the
acceleration of the cart with two blocks and three fans was 0.60m/s2 . In this
experiment doubling the mass halved the acceleration.

6. Collect data: Select the DESCRIPTION tab. On the SIMULATION pane, turn on Show mass. This lists the
total mass of the cart. Each fan exerts a force of 4.0 newtons (N). One newton is the force required to
accelerate a 1-kg object at a rate of 1 m/s2.

For each combination, record the total force, total mass, and acceleration. On the last column, multiply the
mass (m) and acceleration (a).

Load # fans on Force Mass Acceleration m·a

7.5 kg x 1.07
2 fans, 0 blocks 2 8 (N) 7.5 kg 1.07 m/s 2 m/s2
= 8.03

15 kg x 0.27
1 fan, 2 blocks 1 4 (N) 15 kg 0.27 m/s 2 m/s2
= 4.05

15kg x 0.80
3 fans, 1 block 3 12 (N) 15 kg 0.80 m/s 2 m/s2
= 12

What do you notice about the force and the product of mass and acceleration, ma?

What I notice about the force and the product of mass and acceleration is that the amount
of force is the same amount of the product of mass and acceleration. In every experiment
done in the table above the force was the same as m x a.

7. Draw conclusions: Newton’s second law states that force is equal to mass times acceleration: F = ma. This
law can be rearranged as a = F / m, or a = F ÷ m.

How does this experiment demonstrate Newton’s second law?

This experiment demonstrates Newton’s second law since it is seen with the results that
force is equal to mass times acceleration. Even if his law are rearranged the results are still

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 correct, that shows Newton’s second law.

The End 😊
Download a copy of your completed Lab as a .pdf and submit it to the
Unit 2 Lab Dropbox in D2L

*Remember to complete the 5 Assessment Questions found below the

simulations on the Gizmo page*

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