PHYSICS I – Uniform Rectilinear Motion

UNIFORM LINE MOVEMENT

SUMMARY

With this research work, we seek to determine that the speed of a bubble of negligible
mass when performing a uniform rectilinear movement has a constant speed. To do
this, we have taken into account a series of theories and formulas that allow us to
develop and generate an idea to base the practice of this project.

In mechanics , motion is a change in the position of a body over time with respect to a
reference system. The study of movement can be done through kinematics or through
dynamics. Depending on the choice of the reference system, the equations of motion
will be defined, equations that will determine the position and speed of the body at
each instant of time using the displacement equation.

For this project, the time that the bubble travels in the glass tube in sections was
analyzed and compared, obtaining a series of data that helped us determine the speed
at which it travels, using the least squares method we have determined the empirical
equation of the line:
t = (-0.015 ± 27.255 X)
We can also determine the speed of movement:
V OX = (0.036± 3.23 X 10 -5 ) m/s
Obtaining in this way a percentage error of E P = 0.089%

From this experiment we have concluded that the speed is constant, traveling equal
times over equal distances.

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I. GOALS:

1.1 Experimentally determine the speed of a bubble in a glass tube containing

water.

1.2 Determine the empirical equation that relates time as a function of distance.

II. THEORETICAL FOUNDATION:

II.1. Movement description:

In order to determine the laws that govern the various changes that bodies
experience as time passes, we must be able to describe those changes and
have some way of recording them. Without a doubt, the simplest change
that we observe in a body is the apparent change in its position with time
which we call movement. An example of movement can be the translation of
a bubble in a time and distance determined by the observer.

In mechanics , motion is a change in the position of a body over time with

respect to a reference system.

The study of movement can be done through kinematics or through

dynamics. Depending on the choice of the reference system, the equations
of motion will be defined, equations that will determine the position, speed
and acceleration of the body at each instant of time. All movement can be
represented and studied using graphs. The most common are those that
represent space, speed or acceleration as a function of time.

There are various ways to describe movement, we can describe it using a

graph. If we write down the time horizontally and the distance vertically we
obtain a curve similar to the image:

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Figure 1: Graph of time versus distance

Another way of representing this curve is by tabulating the distance and

time measurements, in the case of the MRU being a constant time and
distance:

Table 1: Distance and time data for tabulation and representation of the curve

X(m) T(s)
x1 T1
x2 T2
x3 T3
… …
x 10 T 10

II.2. Uniform rectilinear motion (MRU):

II.2.1. Speed: The movement of a body when the path is a straight line. Let
us consider that the OX axis of the figure coincides with the
trajectory. The position of the object is defined by its displacement
measured from an arbitrary point O, or origin. In principle,
displacement can be related to time by a functional relationship x =
f(t). Obviously x can be positive or negative, suppose that at time t
the object is in position A, with OA = x. Later at time t' he is at B,
where OB = x'. The average speed between A and B is defined by:

∆x
T b
x
E x x
t t
v v

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Figure 2: Graph of average speed over a certain time interval

'
x −x ∆ x
v= = (1)
'
t −t ∆t

Therefore the average speed in a certain time interval is equal to the

average displacement per unit of time.

To determine the instantaneous velocity at a point such as A we must

make the time interval∆ t as small as possible so that essentially no
changes in motion state occur during that small interval.

In mathematical language this is equivalent to calculating the limit

value of the fraction v .

lim ∆ x
v =∆lim
t →0
v= ∆t→0 (2)
∆t

But we know that this limit is the definition of the derivative of x with
respect to time, that is:

dx
v= (3)
dy

So we obtain the instantaneous velocity by calculating the derivative

of the displacement with respect to time.

If we know v = f(t) we can obtain the position x by integrating dx =

vdt into equation 1 where x o is the value of x at time t o ; we obtain:
x t

∫ dx=∫ v dt
xo ¿

x - x o = v (tt o )

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x = x o + v (tt o ) (4)
This is how the equation of uniform rectilinear motion looks like. [1]

II.3. empirical equation:

A: intercept
B: slope

y = A + Bx (5)
[2]

II.4. Least Squares:

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Figure 3: Graph of a fitting curve

Least squares is a numerical analysis technique framed within mathematical

optimization , in which, given a set of ordered pairs: independent variable,
dependent variable, and a family of functions, an attempt is made to find the
continuous function , within said family, that best approximates the data (a
"best fit"), according to the least squared error criterion.

In its simplest form, it attempts to minimize the sum of squares of the

differences in the ordinates (called residuals ) between the points generated by
the chosen function and the corresponding values in the data. Specifically, it is
called least mean squares (LMS) when the number of measured data is 1 and
the gradient descent method is used to minimize the squared residual. It can
be shown that LMS minimizes the expected squared residual, with the
minimum number of operations (per iteration), but requires a large number of
iterations to converge.

From a statistical point of view, an implicit requirement for the least squares
method to work is that the errors of each measurement be randomly
distributed. It is also important that the data to be processed be well chosen, so
that they allow visibility in the variables that have to be resolved (to give more
weight to a particular data, see weighted least squares ).

The least squares technique is commonly used in curve fitting .

II.4.1. Formal formulation of the two-dimensional problem

Be a set of n points in the real plane, and let

a basis of m linearly independent functions in a function

space. We want to find a function let it be a linear combination of
the base functions, so that , this is:

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(6)

Therefore, it is about finding the m coefficients that make the

approximant function give the best approximation for the given
points . The "best approximation" criterion may vary, but in
general it is based on that which minimizes an "accumulation" of the
individual error (at each point) over the total set. First of all, the error
(with positive or negative sign) of the function in a single point,
, is defined as:

(7)

But an attempt is made to measure and minimize the error throughout

the entire approximation, . In mathematics, there are
various ways to define error, especially when it refers to a set of points
(and not just one), a function, etc. Said error (the "total" error over the set
of points considered) is usually defined with one of the following
formulas:

Maximum Error: (8)

Medium Error:
(9)

Mean square error:

(10)

The least squares approximation is based on the minimization of the

mean square error or, equivalently, on the minimization of the radical of
said error, the so-called square error, defined as:

(11)

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To achieve this objective, we use the fact that the function f must be
describable as a linear combination of a basis of functions. The
coefficients of the linear combination will be the parameters that we want
to determine. For example, suppose that f is a quadratic function , which
means that it is a linear combination, , of
functions , and (m=3 in this
case), and that the aim is to determine the values of the coefficients:
, so that they minimize the sum (S) of the squares of the
residuals:

(12)

This explains the name least squares. To the functions that multiply the
desired coefficients, which in this case are: , and They are known
as base functions of the approximation, and they can be any function.
For this general case, the formula for the best discrete approximation is
derived below (ie for a finite set of points), linear and according to the
criterion of the mean square error, which is the so-called linear least
squares approximation. It is possible to generate other types of
approximations, if the maximum or average errors are taken, for
example, but the difficulty involved in operating with them, due to the
absolute value of their expression, makes them difficult to treat and they
are almost not used.

2.4.2 Application of least squares:

Suppose we are measuring the position of a mobile phone as a

function of time in a rectilinear movement. If the mobile is free of
forces, we expect the relationship between the position of the
mobile and time to be linear x=x 0 +vt. Where x 0 is the position of the
mobile at time t=0.

Figure 4: Position of a mobile phone in a time interval

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If we measure the positions of the mobile x 1 and x 2 at times t 1 and t

2 , we obtain a system of two equations with two unknowns from
which we can determine the unknown quantities x 0 and v. Now, this
statement is only true in an ideal error-free experiment.

If we make “n” measurements of the position of the mobile, the

appearance of the graphical representation of our measurements
may be similar to that of the figure below, the blue points represent
the experimental data. The relationship between the y ordinates and
the x abscissa of said points is only approximate, due to the errors of
each of the measurements.

If we take only two points to define the line, the result would have a
significant error. For a better estimate of the line and therefore of the
magnitudes sought, the “n” measurements taken should be used.

Let us assume a physical magnitude y, related to another x, through

the function y=ax+b. A straight line with slope “a” whose ordinate at
the origin is “b”. The deviations “e” from the values of “y” will be

 e 1 =y 1 -(ax 1 +b)
 e 2 =y 2 -(ax 2 +b)
 ...................
 e i =y i -(ax i +b)
 .................. e n =y n -(ax n +b)

Figure 5: Graph of the linearization of the curve

Let E(a,b) be the sum of the squares of all these deviations.[3]

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E(a,b)=(y 1 -ax 1 -b) 2 +(y 2 -ax 2 -b) 2 +...(y i -ax i -b) 2 +...+(y n -ax n -b) 2

(13)

The values that minimize E(a,b) are those for which

Yes, a system of two equations with two unknowns a and b whose

solution is

(14)

(15)
More elaborate expressions allow us to
determine the error of “a”
(Derivative of “a”) and the error of b (Derivative of “b”). [4]

(16)

(17)

(18)

[4]

III. MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT:

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III.1. A transparent tube 1.25m long with a diameter of approximately 0.029m.

III.2. A cork that allows one free end of the tube to be covered.

III.3. A Cassio brand chronometer to measure time, with a precision of 10 -2 s.

III.4. A steel ruler graduated in mm, size 1m/10 -3 .

III.5. A wooden support to generate the slope.

IV. PROCEDURE:
4.1 We acquired some of our materials and adapted it according to what our
experiment required, the missing materials and equipment were borrowed
from the physics laboratory.

4.2 We delimit the total distance of the tube with a length of one meter and
subdivide it into 10 parts with distances equal to 10 cm, then we take
extreme points of the total length A and B

4.3 We consider the initial end A as the starting point (0cm).

4.4 Our glass tube was filled with water leaving a small bubble.

4.5 We installed our experimental equipment by placing the system inclined

with a slope of 6°

4.6 We begin data collection by setting point A, from that point we measure the
time (10 times) in which the bubble takes to travel an initial section of 0.1 m;
We carry out the same procedure for the sections of 0.2 m, 0.3 m, 0.4 m, 0.5
m, 0.6 m, 0.7 m, 0.8 m, 0.9 m, 1 m.

4.7 Once the data collection has been completed, we have found the average
values of the time the bubble travels in each section.

4.8 All the data obtained were recorded in table I.

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V. ANALYSIS OF DATA

TABLE N° 1: Experimental data of the time and distance of a bubble

t 10
d t 1 (s) t 2 (s) t 3 (s) t 4 (s) t 5 (s) t 6 (s) t 7 (s) t 8 (s) t 9 (s) tP (s)
(s)
0.1 2.72 2.73 2.74 2.73 2.75 2.76 2.72 2.74 2.71 2.77 2.724
0.2 5.34 5.31 5.34 5.36 5.34 5.37 5.31 5.31 5.37 5.38 5.414
0.3 8.14 8.16 8.11 8.18 8.15 8.17 8.14 8.17 8.16 8.15 8.173
10.8 10.8 10.8 10.8
0.4 10.86 10.83 10.85 10.83 10.85 10.85 10.882
4 1 7 3
13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6
0.5 13.64 13.61 13.62 13.64 13.66 13.65 13.625
3 3 1 4
16.3 16.3 16.3 16.3
0.6 16.35 16.35 16.36 16.37 16.34 16.37 16.340
4 3 4 6
19.0 19.0 19.0 19.0
0.7 19.05 19.06 19.07 19.09 19.04 19.01 19.062
4 2 9 7
21.7 21.7 21.7 21.7
0.8 21.71 21.76 21.76 21.73 21.75 21.79 21.743
2 5 8 6
24.5 24.5 24.5 24.5
0.9 24.55 24.55 24.57 24.56 24.53 24.52 24.546
4 2 9 9
27.2 27.2 27.2 27.2
1.0 27.24 27.25 27.27 27.25 27.27 27.27 27.245
5 1 3 4

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TABLE II: Experimental data of distance and time and calculations for
Determine the speed of the bubble.

No. X j (m) And j (s) X j Y j (ms) X 2 j (m 2 ) (Y j - BX j - A) 2 (s)

1 0.1 2.724 0.2724 0.01 1.8225 x 10 -4

2 0.2 5.414 1.0828 0.04 4.84 x 10 -4

3 0.3 8.173 2.4519 0.09 1.3225 x 10 -4

4 0.4 10.882 4.3528 0.16 0.25 x 10 -4

5 0.5 13.625 6.8125 0.25 1.5625 x 10 -4

6 0.6 16.340 9.8040 0.36 0.04 x 10 -4

7 0.7 19.062 13.3434 0.49 0.225 x 10 -4

8 0.8 21.743 17.3944 0.64 21.16 x 10 -4

9 0.9 24.546 22.0914 0.81 9.9225 x 10 -4

10 1.0 27.245 27.2450 1.00 0.25 x 10 -4

∑ 5.5 149.754 104.8506 3.85 41.1925 x 10 -4

5.1 To determine the value of (Y j - BX j - A) 2 we must first determine the

values of A and B

5.1.1 To find A we will use the formula:

(∑❑ X j ) (∑ Y j )−(∑ X j)(∑ X j Y j )

❑
2

For A =
(∑❑ X j )−¿¿
❑
2
N

( 3.85 m2) ( 149.754 s )−(5.5 m)(104. 8506 m s)

A=
10 ( 3.85 m2 )−(5.5 m)2

∴A = -0.015 s

5.1.2 To find B we will use the formula:

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N ( ∑ X j Y j )−(∑ X j) ( ∑Y j )
B=
(∑❑ X j )−(∑❑ X j )
❑ ❑
2 2
N

(10) ( 104.8506 m s )−(5.5 m)(149.754 s)

B=
10 ( 3.85 m2 )−¿ ¿

∴B = 27.255 s/m

5.2 We find the dispersion of the points around the regression line, which is
given by:

s
( )
( δ Y j ) =Y j ( s )−B m X j ( m) −A ( s)

5.3 Once the dispersion of the points around the line has been obtained, we
proceed to find the standard deviation of these differences:

S y =❑
√ N −2
=
√
δY 2 j ❑ ∑ (Y j−BX j− A)2
N −2

Sy=
√
❑ (41.1925 x 10−4 s2 )
8

S y = 0.0226 s

5.4 Let's calculate the uncertainties in the slope and the intercept:

√(
N
❑

) (∑❑ X j )
∆B = S and ❑
2
❑
2
N ∑ Xj −
❑

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∆B = 0.022 sx ❑
√ 10
10 ( 3.85 m )−¿ ¿
∴ ∆B = 0.024 s/m
2
¿

√
❑
2
∑ Xj
∆A = S and❑ ❑

( ) (∑ X )
❑ ❑
2 2
N ∑ Xj −
❑ ❑
j

∆A = 0.022 sx ❑
√ 3.85 m2
10 ( 3.85 m2 )−(5.5 m)2
∴ ∆A = 0.015 s

5.5 Uncertainty of speed:

√
2
S Vox =❑ ( ∂ Vox ) . S2B . . . . . . . . . . (1)
∂B

❑ 1
We know that: S B =∆ B = 0.024 and as: B =
Vox

∂ Vox −1
So: = = 1.346 x 10 -3 m 2 /s 2
∂ B B2
Substituting into (1) we have:

√
2
S Vox =❑ ( ∂ Vox ) . S2B
∂B

∴ S Vox = 3.23 x 10 -5 m/s

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5.6 So the speed with which the bubble travels is:

X = X O + ( V ox )t

1
t =( )x
V ox
V OX = (V OX + SVox ) m/s
∴ V OX = (0.036 + 3.23 X 10 -5 ) m/s

5.7 Let's calculate the percentage error:

S Vox
I%=( ) 100%
V ox

−5
3.23 x 10
I%=( ) 100%
0.036

∴I % = 0.089%

Gráfica de la relación del tiempo

en función de la distancia
30

25 f(x) = 27.2556363636364 x − 0.0152000000000019

TIEMPO (s)

20

15

10

0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 1.2
DISTANCIA (m)
Figure 6

VI. RESULTS:

6.1 Intercept A:
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A = ( - 0.15± 0.015) m

6.2 Slope B:

B = (27.255± 0.024) s/m

6.3 Empirical equation:

t = (-0.015 ± 27.255X)

6.4 The speed with which the bubble travels is:

V OX = (0.036± 3.23 X 10 -5 ) m/s

6.5 Percent error:

I% = 0.089%

VII. DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATION:

7.1 The project we have carried out has allowed us to learn to apply the
least squares method in the analysis of our data.

7.2 The work team recommends the use of a graphing machine to check the
graphic method used so that the intercept and slope have the lowest
possible error.

7.3 It is also recommended to have prior knowledge about uniform

rectilinear motion since this will allow us to have an idea of the topic
and thus we will be able to work and perform calculations more fluidly.

7.4 We recommend purchasing materials and equipment that are in good

condition to avoid major inconveniences or errors.

7.5 It is recommended that after filling the liquid inside the tube it be closed
so as to prevent the passage of air inside, otherwise the size of the
bubble will be altered, causing the variation in velocity.

7.6 To determine the veracity of our results, we have found the speed by the
theoretical method, taking a distance at a certain time from Table I, our speed
being constant and equal to the value of the statistical method.

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7.7 By theory we know that : x = x o + v (tt o ), with Xo = 0. If we take the time

and distance of any section, in this case we have taken section AB as an
example.

∆x = ∆tv
∆x
V=
∆t

1m
V=
27.245 s

V = 0.036 m/s

VIII. CONCLUSIONS:

8.1 It was experimentally determined that the speed of the bubble in a

certain interval of distance and time is constant:
V OX = (0.036± 3.23 X 10 -5 ) m/s

8.2 The empirical equation of the simple line was determined

experimentally: t = -0.015 + 27.555x, also determining the uncertainties:
∆A =0.015 s and ∆B = 0.024s/m.

8.1 The statistical or analytical method is much more reliable than the graph
since it presents the experimental data with greater accuracy and less
margin of error.

8.2 We have used graphical and statistical methods since they have allowed
us to find the intercept, the slope and the uncertainty.

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8.3 The application of the least squares method in laboratory practices and
projects is very important since it allows us to determine the fit line with
the data obtained.

8.4 Statistics and physics have a close relationship since it allows us to

analyze our statistical data.

IX. BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES:

[1]. Marcelo Alonso, Edward J. Finn. Physics 1 Volume 1, mechanics;

page 85 - 89
[2]. Physics Laboratory No. 2 1: Empirical equations; page 1-8.
[3]. Juan Américo Gonzáles. Empirical graphs and equations
[4]. Experimentation, D. c. Baird – Second Edition
[5]. Menendz VC, Miguel Nuñez Cabrera, kinetics (Ed. 1988).

x. ANNEXES

A transparent tube 1.25m long with a diameter of approximately 0.023m.

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A cork that allows one free end of the tube to be covered.

A Cassio brand chronometer to measure time, with a precision of 10 -2 s.

A steel ruler graduated in mm, size 1m/10 -3 .

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A wooden support to generate the slope.

Data collection:

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