Pyramid Lab

Big Question: 

Is the product of force and distance universally conserved (a constant in systems other than pulleys)?

Lab

To start off this lab, we pulled a toy car up a 12cm(vertically) ramp while adding different masses and making the distance of the ramp shorter and longer. The car it self was 250g and we kept adding masses of 250g on it throughout the lab. For our first trial we pulled just the car(250g) up to 9cm  and it took 2.5 Newtons. We then added a mass of 250g to the car so it weighed 500g together. After we pulled the car of 500g up to 166cm and we got a total of 1 Newton to pull the car that long distance. This is when my group started to question what we were doing. We were unsure on what we were "supposed" to get during the lab but we just kept recording data and eventually figured it out. Finally we came up with the conclusion that if we changed the mass of the car or how far we pulled the car on the ramp, we would always end up with the same amount of energy.

A visual drawing of what the experiment looked like
D=distance
M=Mass(the car)
F= Force need to pull/push the mass a certain distance

Real World Connection

Handicap ramps and the great pyramids of egypt use this idea of having a ramp to use less force. Handicaps need these ramps because they can't put pressure or force on their legs(less force) so they have to travel up this ramp (more distance).  These ramps are a real life save for them, it allows them to get to places where they would usually have to walk up stairs. Having a ramp saves time for handicaps and also allows them to put in less effort, making their lives easier.