Linear Track Lab

1648 Words4 Pages

Maitrey Patel
Lab partners: Mike Erezuma, Kristen Marks 02/11/15
College Physics 1: Laboratory 3
Experiment 3: Uniformly accelerated motion

1. INTRODUCTION

In this experiment we learned about equations which will give us an answer to the following situations such as; object is free falling and a car which is moving on a linear track. We also learned that these equations will give us the distance traveled, the time it took to travel, the initial velocity where it started from, and the instantaneous velocity of the object. We have also learned that acceleration is referred to gravity (g) which is 9.8m/s^2 when dealing with free falling object. The purpose of this experiment is to calculate average acceleration and gravitational …show more content…

When graphed the results shows a straight line such as;

∆v_i ∆v_i

the slope of this graph would be g. When you calculate the slope of g you then compare it to the accepted value 9.80m/s^2.

2. Linear Track On a linear track we have a car running with the help of gravity. The track is elevated causing the car to be on the top. Because the linear track is elevated which causes the gravitational force to be split into components causing a=g×sinθ

Looking at the figure above we get to see that the car has a force which is acting F=mg. According to the figure gravitational force is written in terms on which is perpendicular and the other is parallel. Now the normal reaction N cancels out the perpendicular component leaving the parallel force which can accelerate the car which is given by a=g×sinθ.

3. EXPERIMENTAL …show more content…

Set up and level the linear track.
b. Elevate one end of the track until the inclination angle is 5°.
c. On the computer, open the file titled: P06bisGravity.ds. The same one you used in the first part of the experiment.
d. Hold the cart on the elevated end of the track no closer than 15 em (about 6 inches) from the
Motion Sensor.
e. Start recording data: click 'Start'. Release the cart. Stop the cart before it bounces at the end of track and stop recording data.
f. Analyze the data to fmd the acceleration of the cart following the same procedure used in the first part of the experiment.
g. Record your results in your lab notebook.
h. Delete the data and repeat the measurement two more times.
i. Find the average value of the cart's acceleration; calculate the value of the gravitational acceleration using equation 3.8, and the percent error.
j. Elevate the end of the track until the inclination angle is 10°.
k. Repeat steps d to g. Always start the car from rest at the elevated end of the linear track.

a. Data of angle 5^°: 0.991m/s^2, 0.983m/s^2, 0.977m/s^2, 1.000m/s^2 average slope= (0.991m/s^2+0.983m/s^2+ 0.977m/s^2+1.000m/s^2)/4= 0.988m/s^2
g=gx/sinθ

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