Magnet experiment performed by a math major (yikes)

[tennesseewiz]

Let me first explain my situation here...

I'm a math major and out of all the sciences, physics is my least favorite, but I have to take this science class that forces you to design your own experiments. Math is used in physics all the time, but I have a really hard time connecting math to other areas of study, and I am horrible at physics. My final project has to be a physics project. So, I'm doing it on magnets.

I know Iron, Nickel, and Cobalt are the three metals attracted to magnets. Originally I was designing an experiment with three pieces of each of those three metals and seeing how far away each metal would become attracted to a magnet and then measure how much more Iron is attracted to magnets than the other metals. This was to happen on a flat surface with different masses of the metals (50g, 250g, 500g for each metal), but my teacher said we don't have the resources. So, he having me use a ramp and put a metal on a car and use different degrees for the ramp. He said that would be the same as using different weights on a flat surface. Personally, I think he's just trying to make my life more difficult. I knew that if I kept everything flat, I wouldn't have to worry about extra variables like degrees and stuff like that... But no, he wants to make sure I use as much math with this as possible. I know that because I'm a math major, using a bunch of math should be easy, but I'm not good at applying math at all, I'm a pure math kind of person and have been trying to escape applied mathematics for years.

Anyways, what I wanted to know was, what equations am I going to have to use with this kind of experiment? I have searched the internet to find simple equations, but when I do, the letters in the formulas aren't explained. Also, do you have any suggestions on how to make this easier on myself? Will I have to worry about friction at all? How much is gravity going to play a roll in this?

 

[Redbelly98]

The force component along the ramp, due to the object's weight, is

m g sinθ​

where

m is the mass of the object (metal + car?)
g is the acceleration due to gravity
θ is the angle of the ramp w.r.t. horizontal
​

So vary the angle in order to effectively vary the weight between 0 and the actual weight.

Since the car would be on wheels, free to roll, you can probably neglect any friction.

Hope that helps.

 

[tennesseewiz]

That was fantastic. Thanks you!

So,
F=mg sin(angle of the ramp)

It's safe to assume that g is always the same, right?

 

[Redbelly98]

Yes, definitely. Good luck!