Average Speed in a Pinewood Derby
Cindy and Santiago have just finished building model cars for their school's annual Pinewood Derby. In order to test their cars,
Santiago sets Cindy's car at the top of a 240 cm long ramp and releases it. Cindy uses a stopwatch to measure how long it takes the car
to reach the bottom of the ramp. The two decide to conduct three trials for each car and then calculate the overall average speeds.
Cindy recorded her initial results in the table below.
Trial
Time
1
12 sec
2
9 sec
3
10 sec
Formula
Filled Formula
Speed (Labeled)
Average Speed ➔
Remember to show your work for all problems!
The Race Is On!
Santiago's car has an overall average speed of 35 cm/s.
1. How long will it take Santiago’s car to finish the race?
2. How long will it take Cindy’s car to finish the race?
3. If the race were a 480cm track, how many seconds would the winning car win by?
4. How far would each car go if it could continue that speed for one minute?
Cindy =
Santiago =
5. Create a time, distance graph the average speed of both cars on the
graph shown for the entire 240cm race, don’t forget to include a key to
tell which line is which.
6. Find the slope of each car.
Cindy =
Santiago =