Emily Claps 1-27-12 Mrs.

Fermoyle/8th hour

Acceleration Lab
Purpose: Analyze the motion of a cart moving at a constant acceleration. Procedure: 1.) Four textbooks were stacked on top of each other at one end of a table and one text book on the other end. 2.) A 1.22 meter ramp was retrieved and placed so that one end was on top of the 4 books and the other was in front of, not on top of, the single book. A car for the ramp was retrieved and placed at the end of the ramp on top of the 4 books. 3.) A flip video camera was set up on a chair or other object to keep it steady. It was made sure that the camera was far enough away from the track in order to capture the entire trip of the cart on video. 4.) The 'record' button was pressed on the video camera, and then the car was released to let it accelerate and then hit the single book at the end of the ramp. The 'record' button was pressed again to stop the video. This process was repeated until the cart successfully moved down the ramp without going off the track. 5.) Steps 1-4 were repeated 2 more times, except the second time with 3 books stacked and the third time with 2 books stacked. C C

6.) The 3 videos were imported onto the computers by plugging the flip video into a USB port on each group member's computer and then going to "My Computer" and FlipVideo/DCIM/100video. The video files were dragged onto the desktop of each member's computer. 7.) Logger Pro was opened (start button/programs/vernier). 'Insert movie' was clicked, and each group member's video was selected from the desktop. 8.) The button with three red dots and a triangle was selected to start the analysis. First, 'Set Scale' was clicked, and 1.22 was typed in with 'meters' for the units. To the right of the video, the third button down was clicked to set the origin and tilt the x-axis. The angle of the x-axis was matched to the angle of the ramp. 9.) The button with a dot and crosshairs was clicked to start marking the cart. A spot on the cart able to be identified each time was clicked. The frame advanced automatically, and the same spot was clicked again. This process continued until the cart reached the bottom of the ramp in order to find the x-vs.-t graph.

10.) The 'analysis' toolbar was clicked, and 'curve fit' was selected. The quadratic format was selected and 'try fit' and 'finish' were clicked to find the best fit curve. 11.) The Logger Pro file was saved to our p: drives. 12.) While on the x vs. t graph, the slope tool was used at different points on the curve. This found the slopes of the tangent lines to these points, or the velocity(m/s) of the cart at that position. These slope values were then used to generate a v vs. t graph. Data:

Velocity(m/s)=1.2329(m/s/s) x time(s) - .8013(m/s) Graphs:

Change in Velocity over Time

y = 1.2329x - 0.8013 1.8 Velocity (meters/second) 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 Tim e (seconds) Analysis Questions: 1. With perfect data, what should your y-intercepts be for each graph? Explain your reasoning for each answer. With perfect data, my y-intercept for the x vs. t graph would be zero (or the length to the point on the cart that is consistent with this reference spot in the rest of the data). Realistically, its nearly impossible to line up the end of the car precisely at 0 m and have this reference spot be exactly accurate with each measurement collected throughout the data. Also, with perfect data, my y-intercept for the v vs. t graph would be zero. This would mean that our car began moving at the exact time when we started recording the video; however, we have to account for human error and know that it would be nearly impossible to start the video and let go of the cart simultaneously. 2. Use either the drawing tools to create a motion map for your cart as it rolled down the ramp OR describe what the motion map would look like. The motion map would start with arrows at 0 meters pointing in the positive direction. As the cart moves in the positive direction, the arrows on the motion map would continuously get longer and longer until reaching the 1.22 meters position. 3. Use either the drawing tools to create a qualitative (no numbers) acceleration vs time

graph for your cart as it rolled down the ramp OR describe what the acceleration vs time graph would look like. The acceleration would be a horizontal line with the y value of 1.2329(m/s/s). The equation for the line would be a(m/s/s)=1.2329(m/s/s) 4. What was the acceleration of your cart? Include the correct units. How did you find this value? The acceleration of our cart was 1.2329 m/s/s. We found this value by finding the slope of the velocity vs. time graph. 5. Explain what the numerical acceleration of your cart tells you about the how the velocity of your cart changed each second. Use your numbers from this lab to answer this question. This numerical value for acceleration of our cart shows us that for each second that went by once the cart was released, its velocity increased by 1.2329 m/s. 6. Who in your group had the biggest acceleration? Why was their acceleration the greatest? I had the biggest acceleration because I had the cart begin on the ramp with the greatest number of stacked books (4). The cart's acceleration was the greatest with the most stacked books because the slope was the greatest. The steeper the slope, the greater the effective acceleration due to the pull of gravity towards the earth. Conclusion: To move with a constant acceleration means to increase velocity at a constant pace per unit of time. To move with a constant acceleration means that position is changing exponentially per unit of time, velocity is changing at a constant rate per unit of time, and acceleration is not changing. With a constant acceleration, the velocity of the cart increases or decreases the same amount (m/s) per unit of time (s). If an object is undergoing constant acceleration, the x vs. t graph looks like half of a parabola, curving upward or downward (where as time increases, the x is changing at a much more rapid pace). Likewise, if an object is undergoing constant acceleration, the v vs. t graph is a straight line (that could be positive or negative). If an object is undergoing constant acceleration, the a vs. t graph consists of a single horizontal line (with a constant a value).