How release height changes the speed of a marble
An experiment was carried out where a marble was timed how long it took to travel 1.80 m on a ramp. The height of the ramp was changed. The average of three times was used to calculate the speed using v = d/t. The average speed was plotted against the height of the ramp to see how the speed of the marble was affected.
It can bee seen from the graph that the average speed of the marble gets faster as the height of the ramp increases. This can be explained by the increase in gravitational potential energy (GPE) that the marble has when released from a higher height. The GPE is converted into kinetic energy, which must increase because of the conservation of energy. So the marble has a higher average speed when released from a higher height.