Exercise 2 Phys213 Fall 2020 Revision.

Pre-Lab Exercise for Lab 2:

Measuring and Modeling of 1-D Motion
One of the important tools that is used in Physics is Mathematical Modeling, the idea that
equations can be used to describe and predict phenomena. One of the important tasks is
determining the equations that describe things such as motion. The first segment of the
course deals with Kinematics, the study of motion independent of its causes. The rules we
develop will be empirical, that is based on observation.

Predictions:
Sketch what you think position-time, velocity-time and acceleration time graphs for the
following situations. Include estimates of the magnitudes on the axis, a proper set of
units, and the general shape you are predicting.
1. A student walking at constant acceleration.
2. A rock falling from a high shelf.
3. A ping-pong ball falling from a high shelf.
4. A ball being thrown straight up, then stopping and falling back down.
Exercise 2 Phys213 Fall 2020 Revision.
Lab 2: Modeling of 1-D Motion
In this exercise you are going to study basic motion, the tools that you use
today are going to be critical to the rest of the semester so it is crucial that
you work through the procedures carefully so that you come to understand
the equipment, process and procedure. Take good notes in your lab
notebook, which you should have for today!

A Note on Using Modeling versus Automatic Linear and Curve Fitting

As you will soon find out if you didn’t already know, Logger Pro has an
excellent automatic curve fitting function. We will use this extensively in
later labs and in class as well. However, Physics Education Research has
shown that you will learn much better if you start out using modeling to
force you to understand what changing the constants does to the function
and to relate those concepts to real quantities.

Part I: Logger Pro and Lab Pro Tutorials

Our primary tools for measurement and analysis will be Logger Pro and the Lab Pro
interface. Throughout the semester will use a variety of sensors including a Sonic Motion
Detector, which we will use today. The ability of Logger Pro to analyze, change and
present data is far better than Excel or other business based software that is often used in
science classes. First you will do some of the tutorials to learn the basics of using the
program and equipment.

1. This step is necessary if you are using a Physics Lab Computer. If you are using
your own lap to or tablet, you should know where you are storing files, but can
put them wherever you like. Using whatever file management tool you wish,
create a folder on the D: drive to store Data. The name of the folder should
include your last name. (You should do this every week.)
2. Start the Logger Pro software.
3. Read and close the Tip of the Day.
4. From the Menu Bar choose File and then Open.
5. The Open dialog box should open a directory called Experiments.
6. From the list of folders choose Tutorials.
7. You should do the tutorials with numbers 01, 04, 05, 06, 07.

Part II: Photo Gate with Picket Fence – Acceleration of Gravity

The computer records each successive time that the infrared beam of light across the gate
is blocked, the markings on the fence are a standard distance apart. This enables the
computer to make a distance – time graph of the motion.
This first exercise will be about the freefall properties of the picket
fence. It will give results that are limited by the number of points
that are available.
The real output is position and time, the computer calculates speed
and acceleration, it is important to keep this in mind for any
experiment that uses a photo gate. The acceleration is assumed to be
Exercise 2 Phys213 Fall 2020 Revision.
constant over collection of sets of data points. Even if that statement is not true it may
still give a reasonable result if the points are close together in time or if the change is
small. The velocity of the middle point (t2,x2 in the diagram) is assumed to be the
average of the first and last point in each set of three. This means that there are two fewer
velocity points than position points, since there is no point before the first or after the last

point. For the example in the diagram the velocity at point 2 would be . The
acceleration is found using a similar mean value method for velocity. This means there
are two fewer points in the acceleration than in the velocity data and four fewer points
than in the position data. In other words, on our seven-section standard picket fence,
velocity has 5 data points and acceleration has 3 data points. This makes an acceleration
versus time graph useless for all practical purposes with a photogate-picket fence setup.
The acceleration, for this model is the slope of the velocity versus time graph.

This is especially important when analyzing your results and writing your report.
Remember that this is here.

Procedure for Part II:

Attach a Photo gate to a lab stand so that there is room for a picket fence
to fall through the gate.
Connect the wires to the computer and start Logger Pro. The photo gate
should be automatically detected.
Place a piece of foam on the table or floor under the gate to cushion the
fall of the fence to prevent damage.
With the picket fence held in place, so that the beam is going through the
Plexiglas, click the collect button, then drop the gate. You should not try
to coordinate the drop and the click, the fence will trigger the gate.
Click stop.
Use the curve fitting tool to find the equations for position and velocity.
Be sure to record units for each of the constants.
Save your data file for later analysis in the post lab.

Repeat 5 times, save your file between trials. Between trials you should use the pull
down Experiment Menu and click Store Latest Run, so that all of your data will be in
the same file to make detailed comparison of the trials easier. This will also allow for
multiple trials to be displayed on the same graph. Save your work often.
Exercise 2 Phys213 Fall 2020 Revision.
Part III: Photo Gate with Super Pulley Adapter

One way around the limitation of the photo gate and picket fence is the use of a pulley
where the beam is blocked by the spokes of the wheel. This allows for a much larger
number of points that are spaced closer in both space and time. The tradeoff is that the
pulley must be driven and will affect the results due to friction and physical limits, so the
use of a Smart Pulley requires consideration of how the pulley interacts with the system
being measured. If friction, string mass and other limitations are small compared to the
system being studied this can be a good measurement technique. This
experiment will look at free fall and give us a comparison to the picket fence
results.
1) Connect the Super Pulley Adapter as shown on the demonstration
apparatus.
2) Before you can take data, you must tell the computer that it is using a
pulley adapter rather than a picket fence. To do this using the menus:
click on Experiment, Setup Sensors, Show All Sensors, Photo Gate
and finally Set Distance or Length. In the box that appears choose
Ultra Pulley (10 Spoke) In Groove. OK your way back to the main
screen.
3) Connect one end of the string to a small weight (5-10 gm), run the string over the
pulley and connect the other end to a larger weight. Collect data for the larger
(50–150 grams) weight falling. (Note: Try catch it at
the end and pad the landing area (in case you miss) to
protect the pulley from damage.) The purpose of the
small mass is to keep the string in contact with the
pulley so that the pulley will move with the string.
Write down a prediction for the size of the effect of
the second mass on the results.
4) Repeat for 5 different heavy masses (between 50 and
150 grams). Save your work often.

Analysis and Write Up

1) Describe what you learned in each of the Tutorials you did.

a. 01
b. 04
c. 05
d. 06
e. 07

Part II: Picket Fence

1. Determine the position versus time equations for all of your trials. Write your
equations here with proper units in each term.
2. Describe the physical meaning of each of the constants in your equations.
3. Compare the results from the all of the trials.
Exercise 2 Phys213 Fall 2020 Revision.
a. In what way are all the trials similar?
b. In what way do they differ?
c. What is the range of values for the accelerations? Describe the methods
you used for determining them.
d. What is the average of the values?
e. If the system were ideal the acceleration would be about 9.81 m/s2, are
your values higher or lower than the ideal values? Calculate the percent
error for your values.
f. What physical factors might account for the difference?
g. Are the results consistent?

Part III: Smart Pulley (Note: be sure that you are only analyzing data during the
time that the mass is falling. Drag and select the appropriate range of data. Do not
select times on your graphs outside of the range where the mass is falling.)
1. Determine the position versus time equations for your trials. Write them here with
the appropriate units.
2. Describe the physical meaning of each of the constants in your equations.
3. Compare the results from the all of the trials.
a. In what way are all the trials similar?
b. In what way do they differ?
c. What is the effect of increasing the heavy mass?
4. Find the average acceleration for each set of trials, graph them versus the heavy
mass. Describe the method used for calculating them.
a. Graph the acceleration versus hanging mass.
b. What effect does increasing the mass have?
c. Is the variation random or systematic?
5. Ideally the result for this experiment would also be 9.81 m/s2 (assuming that the
small mass was zero), calculate the error for your 5 average values.
a. Does the error have a trend?
Compare the error from Parts II and III of this exercise. Which method do you have more
confidence in?