Prescribed practical: personal power
Purpose
A guide to carrying out a practical to investigate personal power
To plan and carry out experiments to measure personal power, by measuring the time taken to climb a staircase or performing a number of step-ups to a platform.
Apparatus
1 short flight of stairs, a 50 cm rule, a stop clock, bathroom scales marked in kg.
Method
- Measure the persons mass in kg using bathroom scales.
- Convert it to weight using W = mg. This equals the upward force that will move up the stairs.
- Measure the height of 1 step using the 50 cm rule. Record in m in a suitable table. Repeat for two more steps and calculate the average height in m.
- Count the number of steps and record.
- Calculate the vertical height = number of steps x average height of 1 step.
- Calculate the work done = force x vertical height.
- Time the person running the stairs. Record in the table. After a rest repeat the experiment and calculate average time.
- Calculate the persons average power using: power = \(\frac{work~done}{time~taken}\)
Safety
| Hazard | Consequence | Control measures |
| Steps | Fall | The flight of stairs should be short. Do not run up the steps too quickly. Go one step at a time. |
| Steps | Collision | Only one person at a time should carry out the experiment |
| Steps | Fall/Collision | Walk back down the steps and make sure nobody is running up |
| Hazard | Steps |
|---|---|
| Consequence | Fall |
| Control measures | The flight of stairs should be short. Do not run up the steps too quickly. Go one step at a time. |
| Hazard | Steps |
|---|---|
| Consequence | Collision |
| Control measures | Only one person at a time should carry out the experiment |
| Hazard | Steps |
|---|---|
| Consequence | Fall/Collision |
| Control measures | Walk back down the steps and make sure nobody is running up |