Welcome to the Interactive Collision Laboratory!

Have you ever seen two cars crash in a movie, or dropped something on the floor and watched it bounce? Collisions happen all around us — in sports, traffic, and even at home! When two objects crash into each other, they push with a force. But what makes that force stronger or weaker?

In this activity, you’ll become a scientist and explore what happens during a collision using a digital simulation. You’ll create your own experiments, test your ideas, and discover how different factors can change the outcome of a crash.

Let's get started by creating our research questions!

Today's Roadmap

  1. First, you will be asked to write one or more testable research questions and form a hypothesis for each.
  2. Next, you will design an experiment for each question, identifying your variables and procedure.
  3. Then, you will familiarize yourself with the simulation to understand how it works.
  4. You will then collect data using the simulation according to your experimental design.
  5. In the final step, you will analyze the data you collected to draw a conclusion.

Step 1: Research Questions & Hypotheses

For each research question you create, also write a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a testable prediction about what you think will happen. Click "Save" for each entry.

Step 2: Experiment Design

Based on your research questions, design an experiment for each one below. Click "Save" for each variable entry.

Step 3: Simulation Intro

Before collecting data, take some time to get familiar with the simulation. Try different settings and run a few trials to see how it works. This is just an exploration phase.

Step 4: Data Collection

Now you are ready to conduct your experiment! Use the simulation according to your design, run the trials, and record the results in the table below. When you are finished, proceed to the Data Analysis step.

Step 5: Data Analysis

Great work. Now it's time to make sense of the data you've collected. Below is a copy of the data table you generated.

Analysis Questions

1. How does the peak force change when the mass (m) increases?

2. How does the peak force change when the speed (v) increases?

3. Based on your data, do you accept or reject the hypotheses you made? Explain why for each hypothesis.

4. As the carts’ mass or speed changes, what happens to the amount of kinetic energy and spring compression involved in the collision, and how might that affect peak force?