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Changing Speed Demo

Click “Start Car” to see motion. Be sure to click “Reset Time” after the car stops or you may end up with some unwanted lines on your graph.

Pressing X in the lower right will clear the graph.

You can drag the control #1 & #2 dots to change the motion settings (be sure you have "reset time" first).

You can drag the dot labeled “t” to trace the graph.

Questions

1. Click "Reset time" then drag control #1 to a new postion then click "start car" and watch (repeat a few times). How does control #1 affect the car and the graph?

2. Click "Reset time" then drag control #2 to a new position then click "start car" and watch (repeat a few times). How does control #2 affect the car and the graph? Can you make part of the graph slope down? What is the real world meaning?

3. Why is one piece of the graph horizontal?

4. Is it possible to adjust the controls so that the graph will go farther to the right? Does this mean the car always goes the same distance?

5. Set control #1 to about 1.5 and control #2 to about 0.75. Do you get the same result if you reverse the values? Explain why or why not.  Explain.