Speed cameras

Eltham-Yarra Glen Road out the front of the school is a notorious speed trap. It is a 60km/h zone and a long straight downhill.

We will be recording the speed of traffic as it passes the front of the school. To work out the speed of a car we need to know how long it takes to travel a given distance. The speed can be calculated from these figures using a spreadsheet.

Grade 5/6 Advanced

As a whole group, design a spreadsheet that will calculate the speed of a car in km/h given the time (in seconds) it takes to travel a given distance (in metres).

Grade 3/4

Record the time it takes cars to travel a given section of road out the front of the school.

Use the spreadsheet generated by the Grade 5/6 Advanced group to calculate the speed of each car.
Results
Distance
(metres)		 Time
(seconds)		 Speed
(km per hour)
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300
300		 13.95
13.37
15.24
13.96
16.47
15.29
16.00
13.06
16.42
11.10
10.32
11.30
13.91
9.57
15.61
12.40
8.50
11.81
9.20
9.28		 77
81
71
77
66
71
68
83
66
97
105
96
78
113
69
87
127
91
117
116
We worked out that money raised in fines by a police speed camera would have been over $2000 in the time we were there.