Acceleration Lab Report

Xuan Ho

November 9, 2015

Force on an Incline/Newton’s Third Law Lab

Introduction

Acceleration is defined as the rate of change in velocity of an object. When combined with a ramp, patterns can be concluded. The angle of an incline is a very influential factor when determining acceleration. For example, if the incline was of a small angle, an object being rolled down will be slower and could be easily timed. However, if the incline is increased the acceleration will increase as well. The acceleration is directly proportional to the sine of the incline’s angle.

Isaac Newton was an English physicist and mathematician. He is one of the most notable scientists in history. His biggest contribution to the field of physics was his three laws of motion. The focus of this lab will be the third law of motion. This law states that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. This can be interpreted as that for every interaction between objects, there is a pair of forces acting on it. The forces are equal and work to balance each other out.

The third law of motion from Isaac Newton and the observations from Galileo about inclined planes and acceleration will be examined in this lab. A relationship between incline and acceleration g values are being tested and extrapolated.

Materials

• TI-84 graphing calculator
• Easy Data Application on calculators
• Vernier Logger Pro software and compatible computer
• Vernier Motion Detector
• Force Detector
• 5 Holt Physics Textbooks
• ramp
• dynamics cart
• meter stick

Methods

1. (Part A) Connect motion detector to graphing calculator and set of EasyData application.
2. Place one book under one end of a 3 meter long track so that there is a small angle formed with the ground. Move the point that makes contact with the book so that the distance from the start to the end (x) is 2 meters.
3. Place motion detector at the top of the track, facing towards the bottom.  Place it so the cart will never be closer than 0.4 meters to the detector.
4. Hold cart at just over 0.4 meters from the detector.
5. Release the cart immediately after pressing “start” to collect data. Keep hands and anything that is not the cart out of the detector’s path.
6. View the velocity graph on EasyData. Step 5 may have to be repeated in order to a get a fairly constant slope for the velocity versus time graph.
7. Fit a straight line to the velocity of the cart to find acceleration graph. It is possible to do this using logger pro.
8. Calculate the force of the cart using the equation:

F=m * 9.81sinθ

1. (Part B) Repeat steps 1-8 with an added block of weight on the cart
2. Repeat step 9 but with two extra blocks of weight or twice the weight of the block in step 9.
3. (Part C)  Connect force detector to computer using the interface cable, connect to logger pro, pull on detector to test how it measures. It may be necessary to adjust setting depending on the forces applied.
4. Measure the amount of force it takes to keep the cart in place on the center of the ramp with one book underneath one end.
5. Repeat with 2-5 books.
6. Repeat steps 11-13 with 1 and 2 weights on the cart.
7. At 5 books, pull the cart up the ramp at a constant rate. Record the graph of force versus time.
8. Create a table showing for readings and calculations from parts A and B.

Raw Data

table 1.1 .5103 kg cart with no weights

Table 1.2 .5103 kg Cart with .5 kg weight