A student lifts a toy car from a bench and places the toy car at the top of a slope as shown in Figure 16 - Edexcel - GCSE Physics - Question 8 - 2020 - Paper 1

To find the speed of the toy car at the bottom of the slope, the student could follow these steps:

1. Measure the length of the slope (distance traveled by the car).
2. Use a stopwatch to record the time taken for the car to reach the bottom of the slope.
3. Calculate the speed using the formula: speed = distance / time.
4. To ensure accuracy, this experiment could be repeated several times, and the average speed calculated.

The student must measure the following:

1. The vertical height of the slope (the height difference from the starting point to the bottom).
2. The mass of the toy car.

The student could calculate the amount of energy transferred to the surroundings by using the formula:

$E_{transferred} = E_{original} - E_{final}$

where $E_{original}$ is the gravitational potential energy at the top (calculated using mass and height) and $E_{final}$ is the kinetic energy at the bottom (calculated using the mass and speed of the car).

One way to reduce the amount of thermal energy transferred to the surroundings is to lubricate or oil the wheels of the toy car. This action would decrease friction between the wheels and the slope, resulting in less energy being converted to thermal energy due to frictional forces.