Rolling Cans down an Inclined Plane Experiment
with
Mrs. Field's 2nd Grade Class
Talbot Elementary School
October 18-19, 2001
Mark W. Meisel (meisel@phys.ufl.edu)

Special Thanks to Mr. Ray Thomas (for making the triple beam balances and the rulers available) and to Mr. John Mocko (for making the demostration equipment available).

Thanks to Mrs. Field and the students!  I had a great time!

The 50 cans of various foods were donated to the school's food drive.

Here is my description of the experiment and the data from the students' data sheets.

Please draw your own conclusions!  All of these items are Word documents (*.doc).
A site for roller coaster fun and thought, plus a good physics glossary: http://www.learner.org/exhibits/parkphysics/

The Experiment, Page 1

The Experiment, Page 2 (we modified it on the fly!)

Student Data Sheet

The Data

Mass vs. Rolling Distance

Diameter vs. Rolling Distance

Length vs. Rolling Distance

Contents vs. Rolling Distance

Student Interpretation Sheet

Interpretations and Comments from some of the Students

Student 1, Student 2 , Student 3, Student 4
Studnet 5, Student 6, Student 7, Student 8

Some photos of the action! (as *.jpg files)
Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3
Photo 4 Photo 5 Photo 6
Photo 7 Photo 8 Photo 9
Photo 10 Photo 11