TO TICKET OR

NOT TO TICKET?

Case 1You and your friend are driving on a road trip to the beach, 120 miles away. You leave at 12:00 noon, and when you are 10 minutes away from the beach, you see that you’re also at mile marker 10.

At that moment, your friend gets pulled over by the police for speeding.

“Speeding?” your friend says—that can’t be. I left at noon, and I’ve driven 110 miles so far, for 110 minutes. So my velocity is just:

Since the speed limit is 65, you shouldn’t give me a ticket. v =

∆X

∆t=

110mi

110min= 1

mi

min= 60

mi

h

Case 2

You get a speeding ticket for speeding on the highway, and when you ask the officer why, he says, when I looked out my driver’s side window, I saw your car. This means you were speeding.

Case 3

In Baltimore, there is a 1.5 mile long tunnel under the Baltimore Harbor. To enter the tunnel, drivers must stop and pay a toll. The tunnel authority decides to install equipment to measure the amount of time it takes for drivers to make the trip for the tunnel. The speed limit in the tunnel is 60 mi/hr.

The tunnel authority decides to give you a ticket because you took 1.5 minutes to pass through the tunnel.

InstructionsEach group should choose 1 side of these 3 cases (ticket/no ticket).

Make your best physics case on a whiteboard for why you do/don’t deserve a ticket. Good cases include graphs, diagrams, and explanations.

If you decide your case is flawed, and you’re on the wrong side, figure out why someone would believe your case, and try to make a case from that. Push the other team to convince you that you are wrong—don’t roll over and play dead.

Hold a mini trial to argue either side of the case.