Mad Scientists and Inclined Planes

The mad scientists have been at work again! This time we experimented with incline planes. Each team took a cardboard ramp that rested against a stack of 4 books. A toy car was tied to twine and placed at the bottom of the ramp. The twine went up the ramp and over the edge to hang below the table. Tied to the other end of the twine was an empty plastic cup. We began filling the cup with pennies and recorded how many pennies it took to move the car up and over the ramp. After this, we added 4 more books to the stack and did the same experiment again. We learned that the steeper the incline, the more force was needed to move an object.